Edmond City Officials Keeping An Eye On Possibility Of Rolling Blackouts

The Southwest Power Pool downgraded its energy emergency to an alert level 2. That means they have enough energy to operate, but this came after some rolling blackouts occurred earlier on Monday and more were predicted.

As things are being monitored closely with regional power officials, Edmond city officials said they could last one to two hours if rolling blackouts do occur.

“There isn’t really a way to locally exempt ourselves from this,” said Casey Moore, City of Edmond spokesman. “The way the SPP works, everyone that is a part of that generates electricity all of that electricity goes into that big pool and it is used in a 14 state region.”

Moore said since all the states in our region have been affected by this artic blast, there has been a high demand for natural gas which is a big contributor to power plants. With other power sources out of the mix, like wind turbines and solar power, it could be a recipe for disaster.

“We don’t have control is these blackouts come but we are trying to get people prepared because it is a much bigger issue than just here locally,” said Moore.

They are still asking people try to help conserve energy and natural gas by setting thermostats lower than usual, not using major electrical appliances and to turn off lights and appliances you aren’t using.