Nebraskaâs publicly owned utilities generated more power than their customers used during this weekâs brutal cold snap in the countryâs midsection.
But energy experts say the targeted rolling blackouts criticized by Gov. Pete Ricketts prevented Nebraska and other states from catastrophic failure of a shared electricity grid.
Those cuts, dictated by the Arkansas-based Southwest Power Pool, likely prevented Nebraskans from living the nightmare facing Texas, where millions went without power for days.
The World-Herald spoke with energy experts, utility leaders and others about what happened, why it happened and what might prevent a repeat occurrence.
Why did Nebraska have rolling blackouts?
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Did renewable energy lead to local power outages?
Despite renewable energy being blamed for recent power outages, experts say that s far from the truth.
February 18, 2021 10:26 am
Some citizens believe renewable energy sources are the cause of this energy crisis.
Governor Pete Ricketts even stating, “We have become too dependent on intermittent sources of energy or sources of energy where you cannot store on site, and that’s why we’re having problems.”
In response to these accusations, Daniel Lawes with Verdis Group, which specializes in sustainable solutions, said that’s not exactly true.
“It is a true statement to say there was a decrease in wind production when we expected more, and that the cold impacted some of these wind turbines in these southern states that don’t see as much cold,” said Lawes. “It is a false statement to say that the lack of wind production was the primary reason why we had a shortage of power. The primary reason we had a shor
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