KNOXVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority welcomed 2018 with a request to about 9 million customers to reduce their power consumption amid cold weather and high power demand.

News outlets across the authority's 80,000-square-mile coverage area report that the power utility had asked customers to conserve energy use, predicting record high demand on Tuesday.

The authority posted on social media Tuesday that the average temperature across the Tennessee Valley at 8:30 a.m. EST was 9 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 Celsius), around 20 degrees below the average for the time of year. During Tuesday morning's peak demand, power demand reached its highest level since 2015, at nearly 32,000 megawatts.

The utility canceled its conservation request after 1 p.m., as demands lowered, and said it managed to meet energy needs.

TVA services Tennessee and parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.