SWEPCO ‘Ready’ as Major Ice Storm Approaches [VIDEO]

SWEPCO's Michael Corbin talks about the power grid for northwest Louisiana and beyond in the wake of the just-ended snow storm.

"The entire electrical grid across the southern US is being stressed right now," Corbin says, "SWEPCO's in great shape because we have a really diverse mix of energy sources, so we're not dependent on just wind and solar for our energy."

But Corbins does emphasize that SWEPCO customers should conserve nonetheless. "But we are asking people (to) turn their thermostat down a degree or two, not do that load of laundry, not run that dishwasher...that will certainly help."

And when it comes to the approaching second storm, Corbin says SWEPCO is getting ready. ""We're watching it right now," he says, "What could be coming in round two on Wednesday. If it does include ice, we're ready...we have over a thousand folks staged and ready to go right now.

"Please, continue to prepare and realize that if the worst happens and we get ice, there could be multi-day outages. If we get ice and lines go down, it could take days to fix them."

And Corbin stresses that the Sunday night into Monday morning storm could have been worse. "This could be six inches of ice instead of six inches of snow. Things could be worse, but we always need to be responsible with what we're doing with our power."