First rolling blackouts hit Nebraska after cold snap spikes power use; conserve to avoid more
Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2021, 07:36 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Omaha World Herald
By Aaron Sanderford
Get a blanket and some warm clothes, Nebraska. The first rolling blackouts because of this week's bitter cold have hit Nebraska. And more might be coming soon if people don't conserve power in the ways local utilities recommend.
The 17-state Southwest Power Pool, of which Nebraska utilities are members, announced at midday Monday that its members, stretching from North Dakota to Texas, were using more power than the combined utilities were producing and had tapped as much as they could of available reserve supplies.
“In our history as a grid operator, this is an unprecedented event and marks the first time SPP has ever had to call for controlled interruptions of service,” said Lanny Nickell, SPP’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “It’s a last resort that we understand puts a burden on our member utilities and the customers they serve, but it’s a step we’re consciously taking to prevent circumstances from getting worse."
The Lincoln Electric System was among the first Nebraska utilities to announce its participation. LES officials said the power outages had started and tweeted that any such outages will last 30 to 60 minutes but might last longer.
Read more: https://omaha.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/rolling-blackouts-headed-to-nebraska-after-power-use-spikes-during-cold-snap/article_8dada6a2-6fb5-11eb-bdba-039cd8b2d9c1.html#tracking-source=home-breaking
Our power was off just over an hour. We didn't know it was a rolling black out until after the power came back on.
EDIT to add the power company just called to apologize after the email Marta sent them. Yes an actual person to person call.
= new reply since forum marked as read
That was the first time I had ever heard (or at least recalled in my adult lifetime) of the term "rolling blackout". I thought the term was a joke. I initially I had to dig to find when it was because I knew it was quite some time ago and I did finally find this from a NYT archive --and it was related to the January 1994 ice storms (ugh) -
By Matthew L. Wald
Jan. 20, 1994
(snip)
In Washington, the Federal Government sent nonessential employees home at 3 P.M. so building thermostats could be turned down and told them to stay home today too. Essential workers were told to plan to wear their overcoats in the office. The Governor of Pennsylvania declared a state of emergency at noon yesterday and sent state employees home; a spokesman for Philadelphia Electric said that by mid-afternoon most businesses in that city were closed. In New Jersey, state workers were sent home an hour early.
And utilities in most of the Northeast cut voltage or asked customers to limit use. The problem hit most severely in a utility consortium called the PJM, or Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland, Interconnection, an electric grid serving 22 million people spread over New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia and the sliver of Virginia east of the Chesapeake Bay.
Power companies imposed blackouts neighborhood by neighborhood, from before dawn until about 1 P.M. in the district and those five states, concentrating in residential areas. The blackouts were short enough to spare residents major problems, the companies said. Officials had planned more blackouts last night, but found that voluntary conservation made that unnecessary.
First Time in Winter
At Philadelphia Electric, Bill Jones, a spokesman, said this was the first time since 1971 his company had been forced to impose rolling blackouts, and the first time in winter. Yesterday his company was trying to persuade the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to salt the roads leading to the company's Cromby Generating Station, in Phoenixville, Pa., where an oil-fired generator had run dry. "It's been icy for two weeks and everybody's out of salt," Mr. Jones said. Oil-laden barges bound for generating stations up the Delaware River were blocked by ice floes, he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/20/nyregion/frozen-out-of-fuel-utilities-impose-scattered-blackouts.html
1994 was the last time (knock on wood) that Philly recorded a below 0 temperature. That month and the next, the entire area ran out of salt - both road salt AND consumer halite products. I remember there were "truck caravans" that drove down from NY to help supply the area to do the roads. I also remember I had a work trip scheduled to Baltimore during the worst of the ice storms and I was amazingly able to cop a couple bags of halite (carried home in my suitcase) for my mom because there was absolutely nothing available anywhere in the area. Her front walk ended up being the only one on the block that was clear and dry to the pavement.
This type of thing tends to be unusal because our biggest power usage by far is during the summer for air-conditioning, but it was one of those rough winters (and we are going through a "mini" version of it right now).
So we definitely feel for you guys and have been there done that.
Not a farmer, but it stands to reason. This is nothing new, there are blackouts and brownouts all the time in rural areas. No politics here, it's all weather-related, and seasonal
