Cleco updates Northshore customers on weekend power outage

ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. (WGNO) — Officials with Cleco have released a statement regarding Sunday’s power outage.

Director of Corporate Communications Jennifer Cahill said the company was directed to take the “unprecedented step” of cutting power to St. Tammany Parish customers directed by reliability coordinator MISO.

“If the power supply cannot meet the demand, periodic power outages could be needed to protect the stability of the power grid and prevent widespread lengthy outages,” said Cahill.

At 5 p.m. on May 25, a directive was issued by MISO, to control power outages in order to prevent a prolonged outage that could impact the reliability of the power grid.

“Controlled outages are a last resort when all other options have been exhausted, and every attempt is made to notify customers before an outage occurs,” said Cahill. “However, due to the many variables that affect the overall electric power grid, these events can occur quickly and without advance notice.” 

The outage happened just as temperatures were forecasted to be in the 80s.

Cleco officials state that at the height of the outage, around 25,000 customers in Covington, Mandeville, Madisonville, Lacombe and Franklinton were without power for almost two hours.

“We apologize to our customers who experienced power loss during yesterday’s mandatory service interruption,” said Cahill. “And while we strive to give our customers advance notice of any outages, this emergency situation did not allow us the time to inform our customers ahead of time.”

An investigation into the cause of the outage is being done by Cleco officials who are working with MISO to prevent similar incidents.

As of Monday, May 26, Cleco officials say the grid is stable.

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