Burgum says improved warnings are needed for rolling blackouts, wants ‘national discussion’

BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR) – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is urging the Western Area Power Administration to give utilities and their customers as much advance warning as possible before temporarily shutting off their electricity.

The Southwest Power Pool is using rolling blackouts to balance the power load across its 14-state region, including North Dakota, as demand for electricity is skyrocketing due to extreme cold weather and winter storms in the South.

Burgum urged WAPA Administrator Mark Gabriel to consider the secondary effects of rolling blackouts on critical infrastructure such as natural gas processing plants in western North Dakota.

“While we understand WAPA has received short notice from SPP to reduce load, North Dakotans deserve as much lead time as possible to prepare for rolling blackouts before their service areas are affected,” Burgum said. “These agencies also must ensure that rolling blackouts don’t have a negative domino effect by sidelining other energy sources from the grid, such as gas processing plants in western North Dakota.”

“This situation is a wake-up call, one that should trigger a national discussion about the importance of policies that support the absolutely essential baseload generation such as coal-fired power plants as part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy.”

Burgum says an estimated 4.5 million people were without power Tuesday.  He says the supply of electricity is dropping due to production issues with intermittent sources.

WAPA says the emergency may last through Thursday and that utility customers should be prepared for unexpected outages, which WAPA is trying to limit to 45 minutes.