UPDATE FROM ENTERGY LOUISIANA (9:45 p.m.): Mandatory rolling outages that began at 7 p.m. have ended for now, and we have returned the system to normal operations. All customers affected by this directive were restored by 9 p.m.
Thank you for your patience and your voluntary conservation of power as we work through this difficult situation. The company took this action at the direction of our reliability coordinator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, as a last resort to prevent a more extensive, prolonged power outage that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid. All Entergy operating companies, as well as other members of MISO, participated in the outages.
We continue to face challenges related to the cold temperatures, so please be mindful of your electricity usage to help prevent the need for any additional forced outages. We’re not out of the woods yet, so please continue to conserve energy.
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Entergy has initiated additional power outages for its customers across its four-state service area. The company is taking this action as directed by our reliability coordinator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, as a last resort and in order to prevent more extensive, prolonged power outages that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid. The directive includes all of MISO's south region, spanning from Arkansas to Texas to the Gulf South.
Due to extremely cold temperatures over the last several days, the demand for electricity has reached an all-time high. Additionally, these weather conditions have forced off generation resources across the system. The implementation of this load shed across the Entergy region will help ensure an adequate reserve margin, which helps ensure Entergy is better positioned to manage through additional extreme weather this week.
"Broadening the geographic area in which outages will occur, allows us to better manage the way in which we shed load." said Willie Wilson, vice president in operations and system storm incident commander, Entergy. "We know this is an inconvenience and we apologize. The loss of generation in the entire region, combined with a high level of demand for electricity has caused a strain on the system."
Entergy will work to limit the duration of each outage, but due to significant demand on the system and generation outages, options may be limited.
MISO is directing actions to be taken to restore the system to normal operations as quickly as possible and will direct Entergy to stop these outages as soon as the power shortfall no longer threatens the integrity of the rest of the electrical power system.
If customers decide to use a portable generator, use it safely and DO NOT run it in an enclosed space. If connecting to the whole house, do so only if the connection has been installed by a licensed electrician to prevent back feed on to the distribution system.
We continuously keep our communities informed throughout a storm. Customers are encouraged to download our free app for their smartphone at entergy.com/app and sign up for text alerts. Customers can also stay up to date by visiting the Entergy Storm Center website. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or check for updates with your local news media like radio, television and newspapers.
MISO comprises a pool of electricity generators and users that stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and as reliability coordinator is responsible for monitoring the portion of the electric grid it oversees and providing instructions to its members regarding actions needed to maintain reliability in that portion of the grid. In extreme and unusual circumstances, such actions may include these types outages occurring today.
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