Report Finds More Planning Needed to Deal with Weather-Related Outages

In a report released on August 16, 2011, staff members from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corporation concluded that last February’s power outages in the Southwest may be related to a lack of preparation for bad weather.  The power disruptions that occurred last February affected 4.4 million electricity consumers and 50,000 natural gas customers in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.  The report found that two-thirds of the Southwest’s outages, as measured by megawatt-hours, were weather-related, stemming from such causes as frozen sensing lines, water lines and valves, blade icing, and low temperature cutoff limits.  Electric Coop Today has the full story and you can read the report here.

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