Rolling blackouts are actually the safest way for us to manage an energy shortage. While it can be inconvenient and frustrating, it’s a tool we use to keep the electric grid from collapsing and causing widespread outages that could take days or weeks to restore.
If the time comes when members are asking for more electricity than our grid can produce:
- REMC will start by switching our headquarters to generator power. We believe that we shouldn’t ask you to do something that we’re not willing to do ourselves.
- Next, we will ask our large commercial members if they are willing to do the same. One large company running off of generators could prevent 200 homes from going without power during an emergency.
- If we haven’t saved enough energy from our building and large commercial members, we will turn off the electricity to a small part of our territory, but only for 30 minutes. When that time is up, if the grid still needs us to cut back, we will turn the power back on for the first group, and create an outage for a second group. We will repeat that process until the emergency is over.