The Southwest Power Pool has ordered member electric utilities in 14 states to initiate controlled cuts in electricity service because demand for energy in the region, driven by intense cold, is overwhelming available generation, hampered by the storm.
“This is an unprecedented event and marks the first time that SPP has had to request controlled service interruptions,” said Lanny Nickell, chief operating officer for the power pool, in a statement. “It is the last resource we understand that overloads our member utilities and the customers they serve, but it is a step we are consciously taking to keep things from getting worse.”
Most interruptions will last for about an hour and cut the power of a few thousand customers at a time. They are needed to limit demand and “safeguard the reliability of the regional network,” said Nickell. An Oklahoma outage that began shortly after noon affected about 6,000 customers.
The energy group, based in Little Rock, Ark., Manages the power grid that connects utility utilities throughout Oklahoma and Kansas and parts of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and the South, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico. Most of that region was affected by the winter storm or the icy Arctic air mass that pushed the storm south.
The statement said the power pool was forced to start relying on backup power sources at 10:08 am (central time) on Monday, and issued a controlled shutdown order when reserves ran out a few hours later. The organization said it has been constantly stepping up alerts to conserve energy since February 9.
Each member dealership would decide for itself how, where and when to cut customers’ power to obtain the necessary reductions, the statement said.
Utilities owned by the Texas grid’s top operating authority, which connects to the Southwest Power Pool, began imposing overnight interruptions because of the storm.