Blackouts Hit 13 States Beyond Texas in Deepening Power Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Southwest Power Pool, which controls a power grid spanning 14 states from North Dakota to Oklahoma, has declared an energy emergency and is ordering utilities to start rolling blackouts amid an extreme cold blast that has already taken down parts of Texas’s grid.

The power system operator said in a statement that this is the first time it has ever had to order rolling outages and that it had exhausted all other options for protecting the grid. “It’s a last resort,” the agency said. “It’s a step we’re consciously taking to prevent circumstances from getting worse, which could result in uncontrolled outages of even greater magnitude.”

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