(KLFY) UPDATE: 10:00 p.m. Rolling power outages announced by Cleco Power at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday have been suspended by the regional reliability coordinator, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).

In a press release late Tuesday, CLECO announced that they had been notified by the regional reliability coordinator, (MISO), that extremely cold temperatures were causing an increase in demand for power, which is resulting in an overload of the power grid.

As a result, Cleco had been instructed to reduce demand on the power grid by beginning periodic outages to customers across Louisiana.

“While our crews worked to prepare for this storm, a loss of generation combined with the peak load due to record-low temperatures have caused a strain on the power grid system. In an effort to prevent damage or lengthy power outages, Cleco was instructed by MISO to begin forced power outages,” said Terry Whitmore, vice president of transmission services.

“Depending on conditions, individual customers could experience multiple outages each lasting less than an hour until we receive notification from MISO that this is no longer necessary to protect the electric grid system.”

UPDATE: at 9:00 p.m. Entergy Louisiana announced that the mandatory rolling outages that began at 7 p.m. have ended and that the system has returned to normal operations.

The company announced that the earlier action was directed by their reliability coordinator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, (MISO) as a last resort and in order to prevent a more extensive, prolonged power outage that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid.