UPDATE: The news is now much better as rolling blackouts are being suspended since pressure has now eased on the transmission grid. No more blackouts are expected today.

UPDATE: SLEMCO representative Mary Laurent says that they have been notified they can stop the rolling blackouts of their customers. Her statement follows:

SLEMCO has been notified that we can discontinue the rolling blackouts. Demand on the regional grid has eased.  If conditions change, we will update customers through local and social media.  All current outages are NOT related to rolling blackouts. If SLEMCO customers are out of power they should call 1-888-275-3626 or login to SmartHub to report the outage. We appreciate everyone's patience.

UPDATE: According to Mary Laurent with SLEMCO Acadiana and Louisiana are part of a fifteen state power grid. The power grid is overloaded because, in addition to the cold temperatures across the state of Louisiana, the cold has inundated other states too.

Officials are asking people to put their thermostats on 65 to 68 degrees. They are asking you to do anything you can to conserve energy as this is a serious issue. If you can unplug an appliances you aren't using, please unplug them. Bundle up and stay safe.

UPDATE: Ted Johnson with Entergy says that they are also going to have conduct rolling blackouts today in order to help relieve the burden on the power grid.

Officials with all of the Acadiana power companies will be taking part in rolling blackouts as the grid is overloaded. Most blackouts will last around twenty minutes and a small percentage may experience longer outages.

UPDATE: Slemco will also be doing rolling blackouts of electricity today. This has already started.

Here's the Slemco statement:

We have been instructed by MISO to begin rolling blackouts immediately. We have complied with their order and have begun rotating temporary power interruptions in 20 minute intervals for SLEMCO customers in western Lafayette Parish and North Vermillion Parish where excessive demand has overloaded the regional power grid. We will update you as soon as we know more.

LUS electricity has announced that they will be doing rolling blackouts today.

Officials with Lafayette Government have informed us that LUS will do fifteen minutes rolling blackouts for residential customers.

The electricity will go out for ten percent of customers at a time, for a period of twenty minutes, and then the power will come back on.

All of this is being done to conserve energy on the grid as the extreme cold has people cranking up the heat.

According to a press release from LUS, there has been a demand in power, so the regional directors of the Acadiana power grid has asked for the rolling blackouts. They are trying to alleviate some of the demand on the grid.

Officials say that as soon as they can stop this process, they will.

Tired of the cold? See below:

 

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Things That Remind Us Of Summer

 

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