Power Restored to More Than 90% of Customers; All-In Response Continues

By Editor | June 22, 2023 |

Power Restored to More Than 90% of Customers; All-In Response Continues

Following the massive restoration effort, more than 225,000 Ark-La-Tex residents have had their power restored. The work in three states has been described as historic with more than 3,978 utility professionals from across the U.S., offering support.

Reports show approximately 21,800 Ark-La-Tex residents remain without power and work continues.

As a result of the super cell storm that battered the region Friday, June 16, SWEPCO activated its Incident Command Structure (ICS), a management model used successfully by the military, emergency response organizations, local and state agencies and private organizations, including other utilities. SWEPCO adopted ICS in 2015, and it’s used today as our primary scalable response strategy for all events (weather and non-weather).

Key steps in the restoration process include:

Main Line: When inclement weather interrupts power to a major part of a community, priority is given to restoring circuits that deliver electricity to essential public safety facilities such as hospitals, 9-1-1 call centers, water treatment plants, police and fire stations.
Large Areas: Next, SWEPCO performs repairs that restore electric service to the largest pockets of customers in the shortest amount of time. In some situations, a single repair can restore service to hundreds or thousands of customers.
Smaller Clusters: SWEPCO then makes repairs to portions of circuits that restore service to smaller pockets of customers. These repairs may restore service to dozens of customers when completed.
Individual Lines: In the final phase, work is done to restore power to individual properties. It may be a single home, business, or apartment complex. This phase of the restoration process can be especially time consuming after a major storm.

As of 5:00 p.m., SWEPCO reports show an estimated 21,800 customers remain without power including:

15,767 customers in Shreveport district including Bossier City and Haughton
5,440 customers in the Longview district including Marshall, Carthage, and Gladewater
622 customers in Texarkana, Arkansas district including DeQueen, Mt. Pleasant and Nashville

Note: If you get a text alert that your power is back on, but you’re still without power, report your outage by replying OUT to that text message.

Is Your Home Able to Accept Power?

As we continue to make progress to rebuild our energy delivery system, now is the time to determine if your home is ready to accept power.

After any storm passes and when it’s safe to do so, assess damage around your home. Always remember this life-saving rule: keep you and your loved ones away from standing water near wires and appliances and remember to stay away from downed power lines!

Depending on where you find damage, you may need to make several calls to be ready to get power.

SWEPCO cannot connect power to a home or business if there is damage to the service entrance, which is owned by the customer.

Customers need to have a licensed electrician repair this damage before power can be restored.

Homeowners, refer to the graphic below as a reference and assess whether any damage to customer equipment is visible.

This could include the metal box that houses SWEPCO’s meter, the “weatherhead” pipe on top of the meter box, the service entrance cables running from the weatherhead through the meter box to the inside panel box, or other related facilities. Similar responsibilities apply to underground service.