LINCOLN, Nebraska (KOLN) – Thousands of Nebraskans have woken up this morning without the need for electricity, as LES and NPPD are required to perform rotary cuts. It comes when the central United States experiences extreme cold and many states struggle to keep up with the demands.
The outages took place throughout the city and Nebraska between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Denton resident Rick Batten was one of those affected. He was not affected by any, but by two interruptions just 15 minutes away.
“Our house went down to 60 degrees,” Batten said. “My wife and I sat by the fire and I had managed to have a coffee, so we drank coffee and read the news and so we spent the morning.”
He is not alone. 44,000 LES customers and an unknown number of NPPD customers were without electricity for 30 to 60 minutes. The companies said the decision was out of their control.
“We still don’t know why this happened, but what we did know was that regulatory requirements forced us to do it, and if we didn’t, we would be subject to sanctions,” said Kevin Wailes, CEO of LES.
The call was made by Southwest Power Pool, which is responsible for maintaining the reliability of the power grid in most of the central U.S., including Nebraska.
“We were all producing more energy than we were using,” Wailes said. “But the rest of the footprint had problems related to fuel and cold weather.”
Tom Kent, CEO and chairman of NPPD, said if no action was taken, there could be a widespread uncontrolled cut.
Both NPPD and LES said they were working to ensure customers had the maximum possible warning, but since it was an emergency, they could only do so much.
“It was an unusual cold,” Kent said. “I know everyone would have loved to know when it would happen at home. I know my wife wanted to know when it would happen at our house, but there’s no way to know.”
Both Kent and Wailes said companies were working to keep power in places like hospitals, prisons and 911 call centers. They also said they are optimistic there will be no more outages, but there are no guarantees.
As to how this could affect LES bills, Wailes said that when customers use more energy to heat their homes, bills will increase, but said LES cannot raise rates without the LES board vote. and Lincoln City Council.
Customers like Batten said that while it’s uncomfortable to have an electrical outage, a minor outage like the one you experienced is better than what happens in Texas, where you have some loved ones.
“It’s been 36 hours without electricity and it’s 40 degrees in his house,” Batten said. “So I think all we can do to reduce and share power is what everyone should do.”
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