As the winter weather has moved past the Twin Lakes Area, North Arkansas Electric Cooperative (NAEC) no longer expects rolling power outages or curtailments. Regional transmission organization Midcontinent Independent System Operator had placed the cooperative on standby for curtailments last week. NAEC was never forced to shed the load, but other cooperatives in Arkansas and surrounding states had to do so.
The cooperative did experience a record system peak of 212 megawatts on Tuesday. The previous peak was 200. According to NAEC, the main reason for the high demand was the record-breaking, below-freezing weather across multiple states. The low temperatures led to an unstable natural gas market, and prevented generation facilities from operating at peak capacity or even at all.
The cooperative states it will attempt to notify affected members in the event of future curtailment mandates through its Facebook and Twitter accounts, naeci.com and local media, as soon as possible.
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