Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities — the state’s largest utility serving about 1.3 million customers — is prepared to make sure failures of its fossil fuel-fired power plants in 2022 don’t happen again, a spokesman for the utility said. (Getty Images)
An incoming blast of frigid air will test efforts by Kentucky’s largest utility to fortify its power plants and avoid a repeat of rolling blackouts the utility was forced to impose during a winter storm in 2022.
A surge of frigid air connected to the polar vortex is expected to bring significant amounts of ice and snow from Owensboro to Pikeville beginning Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service office in Louisville. Temperatures are then expected to drop as low as single digits next week.
Those cold temperatures will have a “significant impact” on those who lose power during the winter precipitation, according to the National Weather Service office in Louisville.
The polar vortex is a spinning, arctic air mass that can become displaced and reach farther south across North America. Some research has indicated human-driven climate change could be causing more frequent disruptions of the polar vortex.