Cold weather is a part of winter, without a doubt, but -33 degrees? Actual degrees? Really?
According to NOAA Weather, Monday, February 15, 2021 set a record low of -33, breaking the old record of -28 degrees set in 2007.
So stay inside and keep cozy, right? Bake cookies, pies, a nice roast...but not with a power outage!? The Southwest Power Pool which controls the Midwest from North Dakota to the very top of Texas was having rolling power outages due to the demand on power...because of the extreme cold weather.
Mark Becker of the Nebraska Public Power District put out several news releases due to the emergency coordinated interruptions of service. Tuesday, February 16, to maintain system reliability NPPD was informed by SPP that 30 minute interruptions of service occurred in real-time so there would be very little, if any, notice as to where the interruptions would take place.
The Southwest Power Pool had declared an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) Level 3 (the highest) on that Tuesday, which went into effect immediately for the entire 14-state balancing authority area. System wide generating capacity dropped below their current load of approximately 42 gigawatts due to the extremely low temperatures and inadequate supplies of natural gas. “We’ll be working with our member utilities to implement controlled interruptions of electric service throughout our region. This is done as a last resort to preserve the reliability of the electric system as a whole. Individuals in the SSP service territory should take steps to conserve energy use and follow their local utilities instructions regarding conservation, local conditions and the potential for outages to their homes and businesses.”
Throughout the week the emergency levels switched from a Level 3 back to Level 2 and finally Thursday, February 18, were at a Level 1. “The situation related to the weather is rather fluid and we expect that peak hours after 5:00 p.m. could change the status.”
Customers were encouraged to conserve energy anywhere possible, such as lowering their thermostats, not using ovens, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers which use large volumes of electricity.
As of 9:30 a.m. Central time, February 18, Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is no longer under an energy emergency alert (EEA).
This occurred during a very cold period - but could happen during the summer months when temperatures climb into the triple digits.
Meanwhile, back on Monday, February 15, which was President’s Day; City of Valentine employees don’t have to work. Unless there are two overloaded transformers. The Electric Department Josh Hanson, Tadd Buechle, and Electrical Superintendent Justin Holmes were called out at 7:00 a.m. in the sub zero temperatures to change out a transformer between Seventh and Sixth Street. The change of transformers took the trio about two hours..
Another call came at 10:30 a.m when another transformer had to be changed out. Power was back on about 2.5 hours later.
They didn’t run into any problems - other than the cold conditions which slowed down their equipment. “We had to operate our trucks cautiously so we didn’t break them down. They were in a heated shop and we were prepared to go out. Before the cold snap came, we made sure the trucks were stocked and had fuel additive because you never know,” Holmes said.
They do have several sizes of transformers on hand in their inventory and have already reordered the ones they replaced.
As of press time, it looks like it will be a mild week ahead. And nearly everyone is smiling about that!
