As the cold climate hits the state, energy companies struggle to keep up with the demand for natural gas.
OG&E is still asking its customers to conserve energy to avoid continuous interruptions.
“What is driving this is the unprecedented winter weather that is happening across the country,” said David Kimmel, of OG&E.
If the system overloads again, residents can expect planned power outages every 24 hours. Each interruption lasts no more than an hour.
“As we move forward with these planned outages, we will try to notify customers in the best possible way that something is going on, although we are not sure that we will be able to tell them exactly when and what time they can occur,” said Kimmel.
If that happens, it will be difficult to plan which parts of Oklahoma will be reached and when.
“Our capacity is approximately 6,000 megawatts and we need to eliminate around 75 megawatts, that is, about 1% of our load,” said Kimmel. “This will represent a different set of families, depending on where it is in our service territory and it also depends on whether it is commercial or residential, it will not necessarily be all residential.”
OG&E expects that by Wednesday the threat of interruptions will end. Meanwhile, residents must prepare.
“Do not switch on the devices unless absolutely necessary. All of this will make a big difference. The more we conserve and the more we are able to put some of this generation back online, the faster it will pass and we will be able to go back to normal, ”said Kimmel.
OG&E has identified companies that use more energy than their normal home and is working with them to reduce usage.