Conservation urged as energy alert continues
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Power plant operations across the central U.S. are still hampered by limited natural gas supplies, which could lead to additional controlled outages in multiple states and in Xcel Energy’s Texas-New Mexico service area on Wednesday. As for Tuesday evening, the Southwest Power Pool notified Xcel Energy around 8 p.m. it is moving the status back up a notch for the night to an Energy Emergency Alert Level 2 - equivalent to what is often referred to as an orange alert.
Because of this continued tight supply of electricity, Xcel Energy and the electric cooperatives* in the Texas South Plains, Texas Panhandle and eastern and southeastern New Mexico regions, along with municipal systems such as Lubbock Power & Light, have extended appeals to area electric customers to reduce energy use and help avoid further disruptions.
“We understand our customers are anxious about power outages, but we don’t want to paint too rosy of a picture about tomorrow’s conditions,” said David Hudson, president, Xcel Energy – New Mexico, Texas. “We need to all be prepared for interruptions if regional power demand exceeds the available supply again and do what we can to conserve energy. After tomorrow, we are hoping for much improved conditions. But this depends on whether the natural gas fields in the Permian Basin thaw out and start producing more natural gas.”
Hudson said natural gas production is off because of the extreme cold, and supplies are freezing up in the wellfields, limiting the amount of gas that can be delivered over pipelines to power plants across the region and beyond. This is occurring across multiple states, including all of Texas.
Xcel Energy initiated a round of controlled outages this morning and stopped once conditions improved in the afternoon. Currently there are no controlled outages being initiated in the area. These outages can last at least an hour and are spread over the entire footprint of the company’s Texas-New Mexico area in order to minimize disruptions. As the controlled outage is cycled, a different group of customers will be interrupted in the subsequent set.
“We want to thank our customers for their patience as we implemented controlled outages today to protect the electric grid from widespread damage,” Hudson said. “We know it’s difficult to be without service when it is extremely cold, and we would not have taken these actions if we had other options.”
* Electric cooperatives in the Texas South Plains, Texas Panhandle and eastern and southeastern New Mexico regions include:
- Bailey County Electric Cooperative Association (Texas)
- Big Country Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Deaf Smith Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Greenbelt Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Lamb County Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Lighthouse Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Lyntegar Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- North Plains Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Rita Blanca Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- South Plains Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Swisher Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Texas)
- Central Valley Electric Cooperative (New Mexico)
- Farmers Electric Cooperative (New Mexico)
- Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative (New Mexico)
- Lea County Electric Cooperative (New Mexico)
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