Thousands of residents in Caddo and Bossier Parishes experienced a six-hour power outage on Saturday, April 26, after the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) ordered a controlled electricity reduction to prevent a wider grid collapse.
According to a statement released by SPP, the regional grid operator responsible for maintaining electric reliability across a 14-state region, instability was detected on transmission lines serving Northwest Louisiana. As a result, SPP directed Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) to immediately reduce electricity use by 140 megawatts to stabilize the system. This action left approximately 30,000 SWEPCO customers without power for most of the day.
SPP said the decision, known as “load shedding,” was made to prevent more severe cascading outages that could have affected up to 2,000 megawatts of service and left hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity for an extended period.
“We sincerely regret this action was needed and the negative impact it had on SWEPCO customers,” the SPP statement read. “Service interruptions are only ever used as a last resort.”
The grid instability was not attributed to record-breaking energy demand, SPP clarified. Instead, several generators and transmission lines in the region had been taken offline for planned maintenance in the days leading up to the incident. Although maintenance is typically scheduled well in advance and coordinated based on forecasting models, SPP acknowledged that its forecasts did not anticipate the need to restore those facilities in time to mitigate the April 26 emergency.
SWEPCO was required to comply with SPP’s directive and maintain the controlled outages until SPP determined that voltage stability had returned to safe levels. Power was fully restored later that evening.
SPP emphasized that, in its eight-decade history managing grid reliability, it has used controlled interruptions only under circumstances required by federal reliability standards, and only as a last resort to protect the integrity of the larger electric system.
Looking forward, SPP said it will work closely with SWEPCO to conduct a full analysis of the incident. The review will focus on understanding the causes of the voltage instability and developing strategies to prevent similar events in the future.
“We will consider all possible solutions to issues that threaten real-time and long-term reliability across the region we serve,” SPP said.
Local officials have urged residents impacted by the outage to follow updates from SWEPCO and SPP regarding the findings of the forthcoming investigation and any infrastructure improvements that may result.