3 minute read
The Brink of Collapse
How a record-setting stretch of frigid temperatures nearly caused widespread catastrophe
By Brianna Wall | Co-op News Editor
Millions across America lost power temporarily Feb. 15 and 16 during yet another unprecedented event. For the first time in the history of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and Oklahoma, rolling blackouts took place to prevent a much larger disaster — and potentially irreversible damage to our nation's power grid.
"This is something I truly never thought we would experience here in Oklahoma," said CEO Patrick Grace. "It's something I hope we never have to live through again."
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?
As record-setting frigid temperatures and snow settled into place from Texas to North Dakota,
consumers turned up the heat to remedy the subfreezing and below zero temperatures. This increased heating led to a spike in demand for electricity at a time when all generation sources were struggling to perform effectively.
"The SPP's 14-state area experienced a breakdown of almost all types of generation at the same time," said Nick Shumaker, electrical engineer and OEC's manager of system engineering. "You had natural gas pipes freezing, solar panels covered in snow, wind turbines frozen and coal plants that took 24 hours to get up and running.
WHY WERE THE ROLLING BLACKOUTS NECESSARY?
"We have to keep in mind the SPP helps manage the flow of electricity to 14 different states, including Oklahoma," said Shumaker. "Temporary blackouts, while inconvenient and frustrating, are necessary in this situation to avoid a much more damaging outcome."
Simply put, if the SPP had not ordered generation and transmission providers to reduce load by temporarily disconnecting electricity, all consumers in the 14-state area would've been without power for days, or even weeks.
"The power grid is not as frail as it might appear in this moment," said Shumaker. "It was simply asked to do something that hasn't been asked of it in its history. Luckily, we were able to avoid a catastrophic, extended outage situation and will use what we learned from this event to make adjustments going forward."
WHY WASN'T I NOTIFIED MY POWER WOULD BE DISCONNECTED?
"When the grid is unstable, there is only minutes to make adjustments, which leads to lack of warnings for OEC and our members," said Shumaker.
Since the storage of electricity is not currently a reliable solution to meet widespread need, demand must be met with the electricity available in that moment. When there is
not enough electricity to meet the need, extreme measures must be taken. Unfortunately, these things happen in a moment's notice.
"We sent out emails, text messages and calls as soon as we could in each instance of the rolling blackout," said Grace. "Unfortunately, some members had already lost power and didn't know why. For that, we truly apologize. We wish we could have avoided the situation altogether."
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MY ELECTRIC BILL?
We are using some cash reserves we have in place specifically for events like this to absorb some of the blow, but we will feel the effects of this event when we open our March bills. The demand for both electricity and natural gas reached all-time highs, which means the cost to provide them did too.
"We are anticipating a record bill from our wholesale power supplier and members may expect to see bills much higher than usual as well," said Grace. "No matter what happens, we want our members to know we are here to help any way we can.
Our member services team can be reached at 405-321- 2024 or by using the chat feature in your My OEC mobile app or at www.okcoop.org.
