Ordered and terminated blackouts across the network including Oklahoma as energy demand exceeds supply

Oklahoma residents may be wondering when electricity could go down or back after local utilities, including Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co., were briefly ordered on Monday to start continuous blackouts when power demand exceeds the supply across the middle of the country, where cold temperatures were far below normal.

Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional transmission operator that oversees the network serving parts or all 14 states between here and Canada, notified users on its system at 12:30 pm that it was requesting blackouts on parts of its system on a attempt to conserve available power supplies.

The order was generated because electricity use exceeded the amount of generation available and reductions were necessary, officials said, to avoid future, more widespread and uncontrolled interruptions. She asked operators to cut their service by about 1.5% from peak demand on Monday morning.

About 50 minutes later, the SPP returned its alert status to Level 2, suspending the need for continuous blackouts – at least on Monday afternoon.

“But things change. We hope our cargo will recover later tonight and we might as well be in this situation again, going in and out of the necessary reductions between now and Thursday, ”said Lanny Nickell, SPP’s chief operating officer, on Monday afternoon.

“In our history as a network operator, this is an unprecedented event and marks the first time that SPP has had to request controlled service interruptions. It is a last resort that we understand to overburden our member public services and the customers they serve, but it is a measure we are consciously taking to prevent circumstances from getting worse, which can result in uncontrolled outages of even greater magnitude. “

As for what may be ahead, climate and conservation efforts will play a central role in answering that question.

“It all depends on whether we have enough energy to meet demand,” said Nickell.