SWEPCO Power Outages: What Shreveport-Bossier Residents Need to Know

SHREVEPORT, LA

When power suddenly went out across large sections of Shreveport and Bossier this past Saturday, residents were left wondering if this was the start of a troubling new trend. According to SWEPCO spokesman Michael Corbin, the reality was much different, but no less disruptive for those affected.

Emergency Order from Southwest Power Pool

Corbin told KEEL News on Monday that SWEPCO was ordered without warning by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional grid operator responsible for a 14-state area, to immediately shed load. This meant SWEPCO had to quickly cut service to meet emergency requirements, protecting the larger electrical grid from instability.

This wasn't a brownout or planned event," Corbin said. "This was a sudden, necessary action caused by voltage issues elsewhere on the grid, completely outside of SWEPCO's system.

How the Outages Were Handled

More than 20,000 SWEPCO customers lost power for periods ranging from 2 to 7 hours. Engineers prioritized maintaining service to critical areas like hospitals and emergency services. However, with almost no time to plan, decisions had to be made quickly and without the usual ability to rotate outages from neighborhood to neighborhood.

If we had even a few hours' notice, we might have rotated outages and lessened the burden," Corbin noted. "But this order came down fast, and we had to act fast.

 

The Strength of SWEPCO's Grid

Some residents questioned whether SWEPCO’s infrastructure was at fault. Corbin pushed back strongly against that idea. "Our grid is strong and regularly updated. What happened was a broader regional issue, not a SWEPCO problem."

He also used a helpful analogy: comparing the electric grid to a jigsaw puzzle. "If you pull out a few pieces, the entire structure loses stability," he said. "That’s what happened here, a disturbance outside of our immediate area created ripple effects."

Will More Outages Happen?

The good news for Shreveport-Bossier residents is that SWEPCO does not expect this type of outage to become common. Corbin emphasized that Saturday's event was a rare anomaly.

"This is not something you should expect regularly," Corbin said. "We’re working with SPP to investigate the root cause and find ways to prevent it from happening again."

SWEPCO also encouraged customers to download the SWEPCO app and update their account information with a current phone number and email. This helps ensure faster notifications during emergencies.

"When you’re sitting in a dark house on a hot day, you want to know what’s happening," Corbin said. "We’re working to make sure we can get that information to people as quickly as possible."