Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) News

Emergency assessment and response is well underway by SWEPCO crews across the service territory after powerful storms brought damaging winds and intense lightning. Parts of the Ark-La-Tex remain under a flash flood warning. As of 10:30 a.m., approximately 20,000 customers are without power.   Damage assessors have reported downed power lines and fallen trees and tree limbs throughout the area. Crews are working as safely and quickly as possible to restore service to the communit...

With assistance from multiple departments within SWEPCO, the ribbon was cut on a much-anticipated grand opening of the new Travel Centers of Americas truck stop and EV charging station near Hosston, Louisiana. “This is what we do,” expressed Jeff Thigpen, SWEPCO Alternate Energy Resource Manager while addressing a large crowd of Caddo Parish and state leaders during the Friday, April 5, 2024, grand opening. “It’s really forward thinking. They put electric charging on si...

North America is gearing up for a rare event as a total solar eclipse graces the skies. Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) is proud to announce its collaboration with the De Queen school district and American Electric Power (AEP) meteorologists to bring educational resources and activities to the local community. Working closely with Arkansas Teacher of the Year, Beau McCastlin, a communication director at De Queen school district, he and his dedicated students partnered with SWEPCO t...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has selected Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) as the 2024 ENERGY STAR Excellence in ENERGY STAR Marketing winner. From January 1 through October 2023, SWEPCO's Energy Efficiency & Consumer Programs Team captured more than 16.3 GWh of annual energy savings, preventing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 2,571 gasoline-powered vehicles from the road. This includes SWEPCO’s entire footprint that makes up more than 5...

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) is excited to partner with Volunteers of America North Louisiana to help expand their services to students in 14 Caddo Parish schools. At the request of SWEPCO, the American Electric Power (AEP) Foundation awarded a grant of $75,000 to Volunteers of America North Louisiana to expand their Communities in Schools (CIS) and LightHouse programs. Both programs currently serve approximately 7,000 students. “SWEPCO recognizes how beneficial both prog...

William C. Bradford, Jr., a lawyer from Shreveport, has been named vice president of External Affairs at SWEPCO. He begins March 11. In his new role, he will be responsible for supervising community relations, corporate communications, economic development, and public policy issues, particularly those impacting AEP SWEPCO's operations within the changing electricity industry landscape. Bradford will report directly to Brett Mattison, SWEPCO president and Chief Operations Officer. Bradford take...

A massive rebuilding effort is underway in the storm ravaged communities of Northwest Arkansas. Repairs, which include clearing hundreds of downed trees to safely access more than 500 unique work locations, replacing approximately 400 broken utility poles, restringing more than 8 miles of electrical wire; replacing more than 75 transformers, and more, continue. Restoration work in the area includes complex repairs. As a result, it could take time to get everyone’s power restored. To aid t...

Nearly 300 utility professionals, including additional tree and line crews from nearby states, are working safely and quickly to restore service to the remaining customers without power across East Texas and Louisiana.  Work is underway to replace an estimated 23 utility poles, 14 transformers, 26 cross arms and 67 miles of electrical wire. Crews made significant progress Wednesday in Fruitvale and Grand Saline, Texas, where Tuesday’s powerful storms toppled trees that took down se...

As a team, SWEPCO are united in their efforts to help rebuild the places they call home and support the customers by getting the lights back on. Rain in the Rogers, Arkansas area has delayed restoration progress. Repairs, which include clearing hundreds of downed trees to safely access more than 750+ unique work locations, replacing approximately 400 broken utility poles, restringing more than 10 miles of electrical wire; replacing more than 100 transformers, and more, continue. Power restorat...

As a result of overnight storms that brought damaging winds and intense lightning to much of the area, SWEPCO has activated an all-in response to restore electric service to impacted customers. Damage assessors report widespread damage with downed power lines and fallen trees and limbs throughout the area. Additional crews from SWEPCO’s Fayetteville district and SWEPCO’s sister operating companies, AEP Texas and Public Service of Oklahoma, have been requested to help restore servic...

Storms that swamped many areas of the Ark-La-Tex as a result of relentless rain, damaging winds and flooding conditions also damaged SWEPCO’s energy system and disrupted power to thousands across the Ark-La-Tex region.  As a result, SWEPCO joined forces with crews from its sister utilities, including Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and AEP Texas, to support the restoration effort. Extensive flooding and hard-to-reach, sometimes treacherous terrain, requires crews and contra...

As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 10 approximately 25,000 SWEPCO customers are without power following a second round of storms that moved through the Ark-La-Tex Tuesday afternoon. While SWEPCO employees and contractors are working quickly and safely to restore service, the additional lines of storms brought a second day of damaging winds and intense lightning that slowed progress and impacted transmission and distribution infrastructure. As always, SWEPCO crews will not stop until the last custom...

More than 25,000 Ark-La-Tex residents have had their power restored following back-to-back storms on the heels of the Great American Eclipse. SWEPCO mobilized a workforce of nearly 900 people to aid in restoration efforts and redeployed resources to areas in need as work was completed elsewhere. Please be assured, crews are working to get every customer who can receive power back on. The multi-day restoration effort has required crews to leverage resources on the ground, in the air, and on boa...

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) invites the community to come together for a meaningful celebration of both Earth Day and Arbor Day. Eagle Watch Nature Trail, part of SWEPCO's commitment to environmental stewardship, is a sanctuary for wildlife and a haven for nature enthusiasts. The trail features a variety of ecosystems and is particularly noted for its bald eagle sightings, making it a prime location for bird watchers and conservationists. Earth Day/Arbor Day celebration The E...

Violent spring storms left a path of destruction this weekend. The damaging outbreak of severe weather, including approximately 120 tornado watches and warnings across the nation’s heartland, also delivered a blow closer to home in the ArkLaTex region.   Across SWEPCO, the severe weather began in earnest in northeast Texas late Friday. Wind gusts downed trees, ripped through power lines, and toppled transmission towers that feed multiple communities and neighborhoods. Crews worked ti...

A damaging outbreak of severe weather across the nation’s heartland, toppled trees, snapped lines and disrupted power to SWEPCO customers across the ArkLaTex region.  Powering the response: SWEPCO is responding. Post-storm assessments are well underway and dozens of crews from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alabama have begun to arrive and join with SWEPCO’s line and tree crews.  At peak, approximately 61,000 SWEPCO customers were without power.  Powe...

A damaging outbreak of severe weather across the nation’s heartland, toppled trees, snapped lines and disrupted power to SWEPCO customers across the ArkLaTex region. Recently, the National Weather Service’s storm survey team confirmed the severe storms included six tornadoes that barreled through the Four States Region. Four tornadoes were confirmed within SWEPCO’s service territory with peak wind gusts estimated between 85 - 100 mph. With the storm impacts and recent signifi...

SWEPCO crews across the service area are working quickly and safely to restore power following last night’s severe weather. The hardest hit areas include parts of Shreveport south of Interstate 20 and southern Bossier Parish. Restoration and response is underway by SWEPCO crews across the affected service areas after powerful storms brought damaging winds, hail and severe flooding to parts of the ArkLaTex. Flooding creates a unique and dangerous restoration environment. Flooding can make...

SWEPCO will pick up and dispose of old refrigerators for Arkansas customers and pay them $75 for their participation. Refrigerators must be working to be eligible for this no cost pick-up and recycling program. Additionally, if customers purchase a new refrigerator that is ENERGY STAR certified for energy efficiency, SWEPCO will give them an additional $75 as part of its energy efficiency incentive program. See below for more details on the ENERGY STAR incentive program. Improving energy effi...

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) is excited to announce the launch of its new “Pay As You Go” program, providing Louisiana customers with a convenient way to manage their electricity payments.  The Pay As You Go program, which starts today, allows customers to pay for electricity in advance, similar to adding funds to a gift card. This approach helps customers avoid surprise bills by deducting energy usage from their prepaid balance, with reminders to add funds when...

Media students in Nashville, Arkansas, flipped the script and became community teachers in a recent collaboration with SWEPCO. Students from the audio/visual Scrap Media Team embraced the challenge of spreading the word about the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), equipping their neighbors with essential info on winter heating assistance. The students and their teacher Carolanne Pinegar, known affectionately as “Ms. P” emphasized that real-world projects li...

In the aftermath of Winter Storm Cora, nearly 1,000 SWEPCO team members and utility professionals quickly assessed hundreds of repair locations across the service area. Within 24 hours, crews restored power to 67 percent of affected customers. Efforts to restore power to all customers are ongoing. At 8 a.m., Friday, the winter storm caused 36,637 outages across SWEPCO’s three-state service territory, which have since been reduced to roughly 10,000. Work continues. SWEPCO's right-of-...

In the aftermath of Winter Storm Cora, SWEPCO crews continue to rebuild, repair, and restore power. SWEPCO expects 95 percent of all customers who can receive power will be restored by 10 p.m. tonight. Crews will continue to work until power is restored to all customers.  The rise in temperatures was welcomed as crews continued their efforts since pre-dawn to clear trees and, wherever possible, repower customers. SWEPCO’s sister utilities Nearly 1,000 personnel, including resources...

Before dawn SWEPCO employees continued its winter storm response and began the meticulous process to survey each damage location and identify the overall impacts from Winter Storm Cora. The storm blanketed snow across the Texas Panhandle and Northwest Arkansas on Thursday and covered much of the ArkLaTex in an overnight wintry mix. For residents of the Texarkana, Texas, and Arkansas areas, the storm delivered an icy blow. The icy impact wreaked havoc on the power distribution systems as trees g...

Winter Storm Cora continued its sweep of the South and brought a mix of winter weather throughout SWEPCO’s service territory. At peak at 3:55 a.m., 36,823 outages were reported across the three-state service territory. The majority of weather-related outages were reported in Arkansas (about 23,000) in what is SWEPCO’s service region of Texarkana and surrounding areas. Appreciation to first responders The icing event, as predicted, delivered an icy blow, and SWEPCO is committed to...

Winter Storm Cora is sweeping the South and bringing a mix of winter weather throughout SWEPCO’s service territory. Additional winter weather is expected overnight, and crews are activating winter storm response plans. From the company’s power plants to its line and utility professionals, winter weather protocols are in place, and SWEPCO is prepared to respond as quickly and as safely as possible. They encourage customers to be cautious on the roads, which pose a risk and may d...

SWEPCO continues to prepare for the arrival of winter storm Cora, expected to bring treacherous conditions, including ice and snow, to many parts of the service territory on Thursday. From the company’s power plants to its line and utility professionals, the team is reviewing winter weather protocols and is prepared to respond as quickly and as safely as possible. Outage assessment and restoration processes In addition to SWEPCO’s full-time staff, more than 1,000 tree crews and ot...

SWEPCO is actively watching the forecasted severe weather, which could bring fierce winds, thunderstorms, and possible tornadoes on Sunday in the southern territory. Later next week, snow and freezing rain are forecasted for the northern region with Arctic air coverage throughout. The extreme weather may affect parts of SWEPCO’s service territory across Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas in the coming days and customers can take time now to prepare. uninterrupted electric service SWEPCO enc...

The AEP Foundation, at the recommendation of SWEPCO, has donated $20,000 to Community Renewal’s Friendship House program, which helps strengthen families and neighborhoods of Shreveport-Bossier City. Friendship Houses serve as neighborhood hubs, offering programs like after-school tutoring, GED courses, character development activities, computer training, and family events. Goals in safety and education These homes are staffed by Community Coordinators who live on-site with their famili...

Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO), a subsidiary of American Electric Power, is excited to announce the ongoing development of new generation projects, pending regulatory approval. These initiatives are designed to enhance SWEPCO's diverse energy portfolio by adding natural gas facilities, addressing the capacity demands of the customers in a cost-effective manner. Future growth of new technologies “The future growth of new technologies and continued service to our customers are p...