It now appears the worst may be over when it comes to short-term energy adjustments across Kansas, but the Southwest Power Pool is still asking customers to continue conservation practices for a few more hours.
The Power Pool says conservation is still needed until at least 10 pm Thursday, due to “continuing high loads and other implications of severe cold weather.” However, it also reduced its alert status to Level Zero, meaning the risk of short-term outages is over for the time being.
On Wednesday, Kansas energy customers avoided a third straight day of rolling power outages despite a now-ongoing combination of elevated demand and sharply curtailed supply. Local and area utilities were on standby for much of the day as the SPP stayed in a Level 2 alert, eventually reducing that to a Level 1 late Wednesday night.
Area residents had to undergo one — and in many cases two — rolling power blackouts earlier in the week after extreme cold temperatures froze up natural gas well heads in Oklahoma and Texas. Severe power issues still remain, especially in Texas, with millions of customers still offline as of lunchtime Thursday.
