Northwest Iowa — Backup generators are running in the area to help with the large electric needs, people are being asked to conserve both electricity and natural gas, and some electric customers are having to endure rolling blackouts in the wake of the widespread cold.
But two of the major electric companies in the area are saying they don’t anticipate having to subject their customers to the rolling blackouts.
Tina Hoffman, a spokesperson for MidAmerican Energy, says while they always reccomend conservation, no blackouts are planned.
She says they aren’t asking people to conserve energy at this time, but that’s never a bad idea as it helps keep bills lower.
In our area, MidAmerican’s electricity department serves Sheldon and some of the smaller towns and rural areas of O’Brien County; Rock Valley, Hull, Boyden, and some of the smaller towns and rural areas of Sioux County, a smaller area in Lyon County and a very small part of Osceola County.
Meanwhile, MidAmerican Energy IS asking its customers to conserve their natural gas. For more information, click here. Many of the same areas served by their electric department are also served by their natural gas department.
Another major provider of gas and electricity in northwest Iowa is Alliant Energy.
Alliant Spokesperson Morgan Hawk says that while demand is high, they are projecting sufficient supply to meet the needs of their natural gas and electric customers in Iowa. She says they did initiate a gas interruption event in Iowa Monday and Tuesday for customers who had voluntarily signed up for their interruptible rate. She says they provided advanced notice to these customers so they could prepare for reduced natural gas.
Alliant’s electricity department covers far eastern O’Brien County, much of Osceola County, and smaller portions of Lyon County. They are the electricity provider in Lester, Harris, Melvin, Ocheyedan, and Matlock. They are the gas provider for the city of Sibley. And they provide both gas and electricity in George, Little Rock, and Ashton.
Alliant suggests clicking here for tips to conserve electricity.
Meanwhile, rural electric cooperatives are sending a different message to their customers. Lyon Rural Electric in Rock Rapids has released a statement that says:
“Our transmission provider, Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) has issued an energy emergency alert. We may experience an interruption of electric service on a rolling basis. Thank you for your patience and check back here or our website for updates.
We urge electric cooperative members to conserve energy to help reduce the power demands during this time. The effects of widespread and extreme cold conditions have led to tightening conditions across a large portion of the country.”
But not all rural electric coops are sending the same message. NorthWest REC, which serves much of Sioux and O’Brien counties says they are NOT currently implementing rolling outages but will alert their members if that were to become a possibility.
Osceola Electric Coop says rolling blackouts are possible. They say their regional power supplier could request rolling blackouts. They anticipate if there are blackouts they should only last for an hour at a time.
West Lyon School lost power on Tuesday morning. And we’ve been told that the city of Sibley has generators should power become an issue.
