LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There's now a reason behind those rolling blackouts in Kentucky on Christmas Eve.
A valve iced over, which energy companies attribute to how fast the temperatures dropped between Dec. 23 and 24.
Boardwalk Pipelines spoke before the Natural Resources and Energy Committee Thursday. The storage and transportation company provides the gas to LG&E and KU. Representatives said the valve that iced over caused a pressure issue.
Without that pressure, they can't provide the service to customers.
LG&E and KU representatives also spoke before the committee, saying they were ready for this winter event. They said if the issue with Boardwalk Pipelines didn't happen, they wouldn't have had to implement the rolling blackouts.
Boardwalk Pipelines said it's taking immediate steps so something like this doesn't happen again. Shelters that are common in the north and the northeast are being installed.
"Reliability is something that is super, super important to us because the customers want the gas when they need the gas and we hang our hat on it," Jeff Sanderson, Boardwalk Pipelines operations senior VP, said. "It's something that we take very seriously and if there's something like this that pops up, we don't want to be reactionary. We want to be ahead of it."
LG&E and KU said this affected a relatively small percentage of its customers, less than 5%. None of those customers were in Jefferson County.
Boardwalk Pipelines said they've learned from this event and making those changes will ensure residents don't go without power on an extremely cold day or even a hot day come summertime.
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