What Is A Rolling Blackout?
What Is A Rolling Blackout and When Does it Happen?
You may have experienced a power outage at one point in time, with little notice. A reason why this may have happened in your area is that your local utility was supervised by the government agency that oversees your state’s power grid, which called for a rolling blackout.
Rolling blackouts are pre-planned, temporary outages, that only happen when there are volatile weather conditions or breakdown of power in the energy grid location where you or your business are located. Utilities will use this method of stabilizing the stress on their power systems if demand is too high for electricity in certain areas. This method causes a complete power outage.
Local utilities typically do not get much advance notice about these temporary power outages, as they are only administered as a final step of emergency procedures after there has been a detection of a supply shortage in the area/market. They are still planned ahead to some degree (yet, usually still with short notice) and are controlled, Customers that are to experience a rolling blackout are given some advanced warning from their local utility and take effect for specific, shorter lengths of time. Normally the utility will relocate the area in which they apply these rolling blackouts, so it does not majorly affect or cause inconvenience for only one area in particular for too long.
Rolling Blackout vs. Brownout
A similar, yet slightly different situation can occur is when your local utility’s demand is at or above the electric production capacity. This is called a brownout. A brownout is essentially a balancing of the energy flow in areas where the demand is too high. It can be classified as an unintentional voltage drop to allow for load reduction during an emergency. The local utility may stifle the flow in certain areas until power is restored to full strength in and around those areas. Brownouts can also occur abruptly and unexpectedly, due to a breakdown in the power grid and supply due to malfunction of some sort. If you notice your lights are dimming or power is fluctuating, make sure to unplug any computers or products that contain sensitive information you may need.
Ways to prepare for a brownout or blackout:
- Invest in a backup generator to supply energy, if your typical power is ooc
- Make sure your doors and windows are sealed
- Minimize use of energy on appliances or other items that may use copious amounts of electricity or unplug them when not in use
- Use battery-powered products, which won’t need any connection to your home or business’s electric power
- Have a battery-powered NOAA Weather Radio on hand for these specific types of scenarios as well as flashlights for visibility purposes
- Make sure to have an extra drinking water supply stored nearby, in case water is unavailable during these types of outages
- Have a first aid kit available at all times and any medication supply in an easy-to-find location
- Have an evacuation plan put into in place for all emergency situations
- Check CDC guidelines for extra tips to help prepare for these types of unique outages in advance
- Call your local utility if you can, to report an outage or seek status on repairs/restoration of electricity
Though there normally is not much time to respond to these types of situations, your utility should be alerting impacted customers when they are happening or prior to the occurrences.
We hope this helps you during these unique scenarios and check out our blog here about how to save on your utility bills during wintertime, or in general. Many of our tips can be useful year-round, to help balance energy usage and save on bills at your residence or business.
If your service location is part of a deregulated energy territory, feel free to reach out to us at info@goananta.com with your invoices and we can provide you with a free energy consultation and analysis, to see if we can help you save on your energy bills!
