SHREVEPORT, La. -- Power was turned off to approximately 24,000 SWEPCO customers in Louisiana and Texarkana, Texas, as storms moved into parts of the ArkLaTex.
SWEPCO issued a news release Wednesday evening saying it was required to "implement emergency outages" to prevent potential longer outages and widespread damage to the electric grid.
"We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused our customers and appreciate your patience. Our team worked closely with Southwest Power Pool, our Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), to address this issue as quickly and safely as possible," the release states.
Power was restored to customers by 5 p.m.
The power company said even though the SWEPCO system was not directly impacted by severe weather, neighboring areas that feed the SWEPCO area were.
SWEPCO said during a regional power grid emergency, the company and other utilities may have to reduce electricity demand on their systems through controlled outages.
"This is an emergency action of last resort, taken only to avoid widespread power loss and to prevent long-term damage to the regional electric system," the company said.