LOUISIANA – As the winter weather continues to pose a threat to the area, residents now have another concern on their plates. According to Governor John Bell Edwards, “Louisiana faces the potential for rolling blackouts due to demand on electricity”.
In a Facebook post made by Edwards Monday, the governor urged Louisiana residents to not only stay home amid the storms, but to drastically “reduce usage from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m” in the evenings to prevent overloading the states power grid. Governor Edwards has urged residents to do the following to reduce usage;
– Lower your thermostat to 68 degrees
– Delay using hot water
– Avoid other non-essential uses of electricityIf the grid were to be overloaded, rolling blackouts could occur for extended periods of time as the damage is repaired. Rather than wait for an uncontrolled issue, local power companies are considering scheduling short planned blackouts to preemptively release stress on the power grid.
Local power company SWEPCO has released the following message amid the warning of another winter storm;
“SWEPCO Is preparing for a second potentially dangerous winter storm that may bring a mix of snow and more than half an inch of ice to the Ark-La-Tex tonight. More than 2,600 utility linemen, tree trimmers and support personnel from 15 states and Canada are ready to assist company resources should outages occur. Now is the time for you to prepare as well:
Sign up for Text Alerts: swepco.com/alerts
Get our mobile app: swepco.com/app
See outage updates: swepco.com/outages
Build an emergency kit with flashlights, batteries, water, medications and any other essentials you need.
If you have special medical needs, contact a relative or friend for assistance to make a temporary arrangement in the event of a prolonged outage.”
Along with SWEPCO, Entergy had the following message for their customers;
“As we continue managing restoration from the previous winter weather and low temperatures, we’re preparing for additional winter storms to threaten our service territory on Feb. 17. Extremely cold weather continues to affect operations across our territory. Low-temperature records below zero and in the teens dating back to 1903 have been met and exceeded in several locations, especially southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Mississippi hasn’t seen single digit air temperatures in more than thirty years.”
To report an issue or typo with this article – CLICK HERE
