The best time to prepare for an emergency is well before it happens—but any time is a great time to start. Americans should prepare for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time of year. Prepare for extreme weather events by assessing your family’s needs, making an emergency plan and sharing it, coordinating with your support network, and having multiple ways to receive alerts before, during and after an emergency.

Preparedness is extremely important to Victory Electric, too. Providing safe, reliable, affordable energy is our core mission, and we must stay prepared and plan ahead to accomplish that. With its network of partners, Victory Electric follows multiple plans and procedures to stay prepared for severe weather and any energy emergencies that may occur.

Victory Electric is an electric distribution cooperative; it does not generate power for cooperative members but rather distributes electricity to homes, schools and businesses in its service area. Victory Electric is a member of Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, a generation and transmission (G&T) electric cooperative based in Hays, Kansas. Sunflower Electric generates or purchases power and delivers it to Victory Electric and other cooperatives via high-voltage transmission lines. Victory Electric then reduces the voltage and transmits power directly to cooperative members like you on smaller distribution lines.

Sunflower Electric is part of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional transmission organization (RTO) based in Little Rock, Arkansas. SPP acts like an air traffic controller as it helps direct the flow of electricity for the power providers in its 14-state network. SPP’s Integrated Marketplace (IM) is a wholesale energy market designed to provide cost-effective power delivery, protect grid reliability and relieve transmission congestion.

Victory, Sunflower and SPP work together to provide safe, affordable, reliable energy, and they all have a different role to play in keeping the vast, interconnected electric grid humming. When an outage occurs because of a problem that affects a distribution line, substation or equipment, Victory Electric crews repair the problem and restore power. If a problem within the high-voltage transmission system causes an outage, Sunflower Electric’s crews are responsible for making repairs and resolving the problem.

Tasked with keeping the power flowing by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), SPP monitors grid conditions across its multi-state territory and issues advisories and alerts to its member utilities as needed. Advisories indicate when normal operations are in effect and current power generation is sufficient to meet demand and available reserves, when extreme weather or heavy load is expected and could cause significant outages, or when SPP determines that conservation operations are in order because of weather, environmental, operational or other events. Its member utilities follow appropriate procedures according to SPP’s guidance.

Victory Electric receives these advisories as well to stay informed and be prepared for emergency alerts should they occur so that we can communicate about them with members.

According to SPP, “Energy Emergency Alerts indicate all available generation has been committed to meet region-wide demand. As conditions worsen, voluntary conservation or service interruptions may be necessary to prevent uncontrolled outages.” There are three levels of energy emergency:

1. Energy Emergency Alert Level 1 (EEA-1) indicates all available resources are committed to meet load obligations and the system is at risk of not meeting required operating reserves.
2. Energy Emergency Alert Level 2 (EEA-2) signals that SPP is no longer capable of providing its expected energy requirements and is now energy deficient. SPP will implement additional procedures to maintain regional reliability, and the public is asked to conserve energy. Energy Emergency Alert
3. Level 3 (EEA-3) is triggered when SPP has to use operating reserves below the required minimum and implement controlled service interruptions, also known as rolling blackouts.

Cooperative members may remember seeing notices about EEA-3 being in effect in February 2021 during Winter Storm Uri. Because of persistent, widespread sub-freezing temperatures, problems with the natural gas supply, high electricity use across the system and other atypical winter conditions, SPP had to direct its member utilities—including Sunflower Electric—to restrict energy use and implement rolling blackouts. Some Victory Electric members and others throughout SPP’s region experienced temporary rolling blackouts.

Controlled service interruptions are used only as a last resort, and SPP initiates them only when necessary to safeguard the reliability of the regional grid and prevent damage to the system. Although rolling blackouts are inconvenient for those affected, a systemwide, catastrophic grid outage would be much worse and take longer to fix.

Thankfully, that level of energy emergency is rare. In fact, Feb. 15, 2021, was the first time in SPP’s 80-year history that the third level was reached.

During extremely high or low temperatures and other severe weather conditions, Victory Electric and other rural electric cooperatives may request that members voluntarily conserve energy. That may mean lowering the thermostat a few degrees in winter, raising the air conditioner a few degrees in the summer or postponing the use of large appliances until a peak demand situation is resolved. The widespread efforts of cooperative members working together to conserve energy makes a difference in reducing the power load when needed.

Raising awareness about energy advisories and SPP’s energy emergency alert system is just one way Victory Electric keeps you informed as a member. Make sure the email address and phone number associated with your Victory Electric account is up-to-date so you can receive notifications about power outages and emergencies. For more tips on preparedness and planning for an emergency, visit victoryelectric.net/preparing-power-outage and follow Victory Electric on social media.