Issuing a warning is not the same as declaring a power emergency, but it constitutes a notice from the region's electric utilities that the power system is under stress. The Emergency Response Team began meeting last Wednesday, when long-range weather forecasts predicted abnormally cold and dry weather for this week. This presages an actual emergency alert status as defined by the North American Electric Reliability Council. The newly created warning system is designed to give the region time to take pre-emptive actions to avoid an emergency, and it appears to have been successful in its first test. Temperatures, while still below normal, are less extreme than predicted.
Forecasts now indicate a shorter arctic front.
By Sunday, temperatures are expected to be slightly below or near normal. The region's coordinated effort to get through the cold spell appears to be working. Governors of Oregon, Washington and Montana called on Northwest citizens to take energy conservation measures, although they did not ask citizens to turn out Christmas lights. While Idaho didn't officially issue a call for such measures, Governor Dirk Kempthorne also supported the regionwide effort. These included buying back power from industrial customers, drawing down reservoirs to increase hydropower output and deferring maintenance on power plants and transmission lines.