Oklahoma's heat not causing problems for electric utilities like it is in Texas

The record-setting heat caused some big problems for some Texas power companies this week. Texas has been forced to start rolling blackouts. <br/><br/>As the heat hit it's afternoon peak, there was

Tuesday, April 18th 2006, 10:25 am

By: News On 6

The record-setting heat caused some big problems for some Texas power companies this week. Texas has been forced to start rolling blackouts.

As the heat hit it's afternoon peak, there was so much demand for electricity, that the power grid couldn't handle it all. Texas neighborhoods went dark. So did traffic lights, which tied up rush hour commuters.

News on 6 anchor Scott Thompson asks if Oklahoma should expect to experience the same type of blackouts?

The energy companies in Texas say it was a combination of factors that caused the outages, first and foremost, the unseasonable heat. Power companies use low-demand months like April to do routine maintenance. Monday, several plants in Texas were off-line for repairs. Also, as the high demand rolled in, four other power plants unexpectedly shut down. That forced the state to ration what power it had.

PSO's Stan Whiteford says even though we're seeing the same record heat they had in Texas, the company is not sweating it. "We've seen certainly higher than normal usage for this time of year, it's still way short of what would be considered record usage, so we're still a ways away from having that type of energy demand on our system."