Major Power Outage Possible For Minnesota + Wisconsin This Winter

No, the apocalypse isn't coming but this is definitely something you want to be aware of. Minnesota and Wisconsin are both at risk of facing a major power outage at some point this winter so prepare accordingly.

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So what gives? The North American Electric Reliability Corporation released their 2023 - 2024 winter reliability assessment. Due to possible winter weather, the NAERC is predicting that nearly two-thirds of the country will lose power at some point this winter season, including Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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Power outages are nothing new in our neck of the woods so this shouldn't frighten you too much but it is definitely something to be aware of and prepared for in case it does happen! According to this assessment, our region falls within the area "at risk of insufficient electricity supplies during peak winter conditions" at this time.

The good news? We haven't really had any major winter weather events and if that continues, that should help take our risk down a notch. This assessment points to 'prolonged, wide-area cold snaps' as being one of the factors in predicting these power outages. It's been a mild winter so far and that may continue, meaning we may not have anything to worry about if things continue.

Most of the country is at risk of some sort of power outage, per the assessment, including most of the central and eastern parts of the country. If this should happen for our region due to winter conditions, that would leave somewhere around forty-five million customers without power.

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You can read the full report to learn about the plans in place should winter do a one-eighty and really come on strong at some point later this month or next. I have never read up on this kind of stuff and it is pretty interesting when you get into it!