Oxford, Mississippi Utilities announced Saturday, December 24, 2022, for customers to expect rolling blackouts every hour for fifteen minutes. The local community-owned power company is being directed by the Tennessee Valley Authority to initiate the blackouts on Christmas Eve due to the current load on the power grid caused by extreme weather in the last few days.
“Due to the extreme weather conditions, TVA can not meet the current load on the power grid and initiated ELCP Step 50, requiring all utilities reduce load by 10%, meaning we will initiate rolling blackouts of our system. The outage should last 15 minutes at a time,” Oxford Utilities tweeted.
“Our rolling blackout plan involves rotating outages for 15 minute duration each hour. As the overall TVA system weather warms and load is reduced, we expect the mandatory blackouts to cease,” they continued a few hours later. “We have not been given an exact time, as this is a fluid situation.”
UPDATE 10:47 AM 12/24/2022: “TVA has suspended the rolling blackouts that we’ve been using since 6AM to stabilize the system. Thank you all for your patience during this very challenging time. This is a fluid situation so we will report any further information we gather on the need for future blackouts.”
TVA has suspended the rolling blackouts that we've been using since 6AM to stabilize the system. Thank you all for your patience during this very challenging time. This is a fluid situation so we will report any further information we gather on the need for future blackouts.
— Oxford Utilities (@OxfordUtilities) December 24, 2022
Due to the extreme weather conditions, TVA can not meet the current load on the power grid and initiated ELCP Step 50, requiring all utilities reduce load by 10%, meaning we will initiate rolling blackouts of our system. The outage should last 15 minutes at a time.
— Oxford Utilities (@OxfordUtilities) December 24, 2022
Due to the extreme weather conditions, TVA can not meet the current load on the power grid and initiated ELCP Step 50, requiring all utilities reduce load by 10%, meaning we will initiate rolling blackouts of our system. The outage should last 15 minutes at a time.
— Oxford Utilities (@OxfordUtilities) December 24, 2022
The next circuit that will be disconnected will affect residential customers off Harris Drive and commercial along Jackson Ave to West Oxford Loop. This will be initiated at 9:55AM and last 15 minutes.
— Oxford Utilities (@OxfordUtilities) December 24, 2022
The next circuit that will be disconnected will be the area along South 18th St., from Belk Blvd north to East Jackson. The outage will begin at 10:10 and last 15 minutes.
— Oxford Utilities (@OxfordUtilities) December 24, 2022
