Why is Austin Utilities developing a plan that includes rolling blackouts in our community?
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) projected the need for increased, non-firm imports and potentially emergency resources to meet the 2022 summer peak demand with warmer-than-normal temperatures forecasted throughout the MISO footprint. The summer peak forecast is 124 GW with 119 GW of projected regularly available generation within MISO.
Austin Utilities routinely uses all the tools in their energy management plan to control city electric load, but if we are called by MISO during a NERC Energy Emergency to further reduce load, we may have no choice but to implement rotating outages in the community, called rolling blackouts. Failure to do so can result in a cascading failure of the electrical grid which potentially damages equipment and can take days or weeks to fully restore electric service.
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