Shreveport, La. — Foster Campbell, North Louisiana’s representative on the Public Service Commission, is seeking answers from the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and SWEPCO following an unplanned six-hour electrical outage that affected approximately 30,000 customers across Caddo, Bossier, and Webster parishes on Saturday.
The outage, which occurred from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., came without warning and left businesses and residents scrambling for explanations. SWEPCO described the event as an “emergency situation,” citing a directive from the Southwest Power Pool to “shed load” across several densely populated areas.
“My telephone has rung off the hook,” Campbell said. “The weather was calm and there was no obvious reason for the power to go out.”
SPP, a Little Rock-based nonprofit, oversees electricity generation and transmission for utilities across 14 states and is one of ten regional grid operators in the United States.
Campbell announced he will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. tomorrow at his office, where he has requested representatives from SPP and SWEPCO to provide public answers regarding the cause of the outage and measures being taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.
“I’m not interested in finger-pointing,” Campbell added. “I want to know why it happened and what is being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
The unexpected blackout underscores the critical importance of grid reliability and communication, particularly as demand for electricity continues to grow across the region.