OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Many of us woke up to no power on Tuesday. OPPD representatives said while customers have been assisting with reducing their usage, because of the prolonged freezing temperatures and recent unprecedented demand and usage, planned power outages are necessary.
"Everything is balanced on a real-time basis, we do not have a way to store large amounts of energy. We maintain reliability by people in control centers like Doniphan, Omaha or Lincoln, working every day, every hour to maintain that balance between load and generation," said Tom Kent, CEO/President, NPPD.
If you are a customer who finds themselves without power and no advance notice you are not alone. OPPD said they are sometimes given short notice as well that they have to implement a controlled outage.
"When we have enough notice we are trying to send automated phone messages to our customers to let them know they may be experiencing an outage, but it is not always possible unfortunately as we really have to react right when the Southwest Power Pool tells us to," said OPPD Media Specialist Jodi Baker.
Baker said they ask for everyone's patience and understanding and everyone should plan on and be prepared for an outage. They usually last about an hour. The more people conserve power, the fewer planned outages they have to do.
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