Moorhead Public Service (MPS) has been notified that the rolling blackouts will be discontinued until further notice. If rolling blackouts are to occur in the future, a press release and social media information will notify customers.
MPS apologizes for the short notice, or no notice, that was given earlier this morning. Staff was notified at 9:20 am that the blackouts would begin occurring at 9:50 am. MPS would like to thank its customers for their patience, and regrets the inconvenience this may have caused. Approximately 9,800 customers were impacted by the rolling power outages. MPS was allowed to resume normal operations after the first 30 minutes of the rolling blackouts.
Situational Information:
Due to the current widespread and extreme cold weather conditions, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) declared an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) Level 3 this morning, which means that generating capacity dropped below the demand for electricity. This resulted in the need for rolling outages across the SPP footprint―a region-wide event affecting consumers from multiple utilities.
SPP is a regional transmission organization that oversees the bulk electric grid and wholesale power market in the central United States on behalf of a diverse group of utilities and transmission companies in 17 states. Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and Missouri River Energy Services (MRES) are both transmission owners in SPP and both serve the power supply needs of MPS, which means that Moorhead is affected by this event.
MPS remains on alert for this emergency, as it is a quickly changing situation. MPS will provide more information to customers if rolling blackouts must be reinitiated upon request by SPP. While we hope this is never needed, the temporary outages help protect the grid from longer, more sustained outages.
Due to the emergency alert, SPP remains in an Emergency Alert Level 3 because they are still operating below required minimum reserves. MPS asks that its customers do whatever they can to reduce power usage, such as voluntarily reduce electric usage by delaying running the dishwasher and clothes washer, turning down the heat, and shutting off lights.
For information about Moorhead Public Service, visit mpsutility.com.
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