Rocky Mountain Power submits updated curtailment plan
Rocky Mountain Power has submitted a plan for orderly curtailment during power supply emergencies.
A power outage in December 2013 left around 65,000 people without power for several hours on one of the coldest days of that year. The problem started at a Rocky Mountain Power substation near Firth. Now the company is working to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
The plan anticipates five stages that are used as the energy deficit increases. The first stage is to implement load shedding from customers that can be contractually interrupted or are part of the company’s existing demand side management program.
The second stage is a public appeal to voluntary load reduction by all customers.
Third is a mandatory up to two-hour curtailment during peak hours by customers who have been grouped into blocks of about 100 megawatts near selected distribution feeders.
The fourth step is a mandatory curtailment in two-hour block rotations during peak or non-peak hours.
The fifth is mandatory emergency load reduction.
The last time Rocky Mountain Power submitted a plan like this was in 1993.
