Fayetteville, Ark. – February 19, 2021 On Tuesday, February 16, Black Hills Energy experienced a temporary loss of pressure on the natural gas system supplying customers in the City of Pea Ridge. As a result, service was interrupted to the customers in that community.

Black Hills Energy technicians began monitoring the Pea Ridge transmission border station at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, February 16 when natural gas transmission lines began to experience low pressure in other parts of the country affected by the storms.  Technicians were staged in numerous locations across portions of the Black Hills system throughout the weather event to monitor pressures.

The unprecedented cold weather experienced across much of the country this week resulted in significant high demand for natural gas. The loss of pressure that occurred on the system serving Pea Ridge was directly related to this increased demand. Service was safely restored to most of the affected customers by early afternoon on February 18.

In 2020, Black Hills Energy filed for, and received, state approval to upgrade a portion of the natural gas system serving the Pea Ridge area.  These upgrades will support the natural gas needs of current residents during extreme low temperatures and also provide additional capacity for the continued growth of that region.

“We forecasted that additional capacity would be needed to meet the future natural gas needs of the growing Pea Ridge area,”

“We forecasted that additional capacity would be needed to meet the future natural gas needs of the growing Pea Ridge area,” said Chad Kinsley, vice president of gas operations for Black Hills Energy in Arkansas. “What we could not forecast was the unprecedented extreme and prolonged cold weather experienced this week.”

Work on the previously scheduled project to increase system capacity in Pea Ridge will begin this spring.