The City of Fairbury is urgently asking customers to cut down on their power and natural gas usage to mitigate the risk of potential power outages due to extreme cold weather and increased regional demand.

Customers are urged to lower their thermostats by 3 degrees, unplug unnecessary appliances, close fireplace dampers, and refrain from large appliance use as much as possible.

Our community’s wholesale power supplier, the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN) is a member of Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which oversees the power grid of an area stretching from Oklahoma to the Canadian border. SPP has declared Energy Emergency Alerts (EEA) that remain in effect until further notice. Due to widespread and extreme cold, worsening conditions are creating energy deficiencies in the region and may lead to controlled service interruptions.

Additionally, extremely high demand is causing wholesale electricity and natural gas prices to skyrocket. Conservation efforts and immediately reducing demand in our region is in everyone’s best interest. The City of Fairbury appreciates our customers’ assistance in conserving electricity and natural gas to help mitigate grid interruptions during these extremely cold conditions.

The City of Washington is asking their residents to curtail electric and natural gas usage. Officials say the current demand is higher than the supply due to the extreme cold temperatures and is driving the price up substantially.