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Update: Short Term Electricity Blackouts Possible

From Southwest Public Power District

Monday, Feb, 15

The red area is the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) of which NPPD and SWPPD are a part of. The issue is the winter storm that has developed is causing unprecedented demand extended from Texas to the Dakotas that exceeds generation and reserve capacity. SPP is asking for voluntary conservation. Please put off using electricity where you can. Washing clothes, dropping the thermostat a couple of degrees, limiting electric use within the red region is the focus over the next few days of extreme low weather temps. Without enough reduction in demand, the alternative is for SPP to call into emergency curtailment or load reduction. This results in sporadic rolling blackouts in the entire SPP footprint in a way that balances the load and spreads the impact. At this time, we are unaware of any impacts to SWPPD customers however, when and if we are shut down, they will likely be little to no warning. These power outages are expected to last between 30-45 minutes. These rolling blackouts are not ideal, but without them, we risk much longer and geographically larger outages throughout the entire red region.
The best thing we can do in the entire red (SPP) region is conserve electricity to the point that the need for rolling blackouts is eliminated. Please encourage everyone you know to help conserve over the next 48 hours.

 

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