OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency order over the weekend for 17 states, including Nebraska and Iowa, aimed at assuring the power grid can withstand elevated use during the days-long stretch of dangerous heat.
The order from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright authorizes the Southwest Power Pool, comprised of power districts throughout 17 U.S. states, to use backup power sources in order to avoid declaring an energy emergency. According to Monday’s DOE update, more than 35 gigawatts of unused backup generation is still available nationwide.
OPPD, LES, and NPPD in Nebraska are SPP members, as are the Northwest Iowa, Corn Belt, and L&O power cooperatives in Iowa; MidAmerican Energy is not. Other states included in the order: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
The order — put in place Sunday and set to expire late Monday, Aug. 3 — indicates that SPP flagged an “emergency situation” on Sunday, July 19. The order aims to prevent SPP from issuing an emergency alert.
According to the document, SPP warned of the potential for high peak usage during a time when wind energy outputs would simultaneously be low — a recipe for outages.
On July 18 and July 24, SPP posted a “resource advisory” flagging a potential risk for outages in its eastern portion, which includes Nebraska. The latest advisory is set to expire at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 30. An OPPD spokesman told First Alert 6 on Monday that this is currently the only advisory impacting its customers, noting that it doesn’t require any service interruptions or power conservation.
“OPPD maintains generation and grid assets prior to peak seasons to ensure we are ready. As a result, the grid and our generation fleet is meeting our customer energy demands, despite the high temperatures,” the OPPD spokesman said.
In December 2022, SPP declared an emergency when a long stretch of intense cold prompted high energy a Level 1 alert after setting a record for energy use that exceeded 47,000 MW.
According to SPP’s website, it has a generating capacity of 65,639 MW and an energy production max — across all forms, including wind, solar, natural gas, coal, etc. — of 300,382 GWh.
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This is a developing story. Stay with First Alert 6 for updates.
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Correction: A previous version of this story stated the wrong end date for one of SPP’s recent advisories. First Alert 6 regrets the error.
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