Outage Misinformation is a Big Problem for Utilities

Recent emergencies in Texas and elsewhere have fostered an avalanche of outage misinformation on social media.  In many cases the information is low quality at best or flat-out wrong at worst, and it’s something the utility companies need to prepare for and manage as part of the emergency preparedness process.

Three Blatant Examples of Outage Misinformation

Try not to cringe too hard when you read these examples:

• One key narrative that emerged from the February 2021 Texas winter storm emergency is that the main problem was frozen wind turbines. Pictures of iced-up wind farms went viral, and this false narrative was perpetuated by people like George P. Bush, a Texas Land Commissioner. who used it to justify tweeting “if the last few days have proven anything, it’s that we need oil & gas.”  Obviously this is false, as the main cause was the gas infrastructure not being adequately winterized, and ERCOT even admitted as much.
• Conspiracy theorists were in full force when people started sharing photos of empty office buildings lit up like Christmas trees in areas like Dallas, Houston and Kansas City, surrounded by neighborhoods with the lights out. People asked why, especially in the Texas cities, and with little guidance from ERCOT the wave of similar questions was allowed to swell to the point where conspiracy theories started getting tossed around.
• A Ted Cruz tweet sent in Aug. 2020 blamed California (and by extension, the state’s utilities) for being “unable to perform even the basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity.” The implication of the tweet was that the issues were politically-charged.  Never mind that much of the state was literally going up in flames at the time.

There is little doubt, thanks to social media, outage misinformation will remain a huge issue for utility companies. Perception is reality, and any false narrative that takes hold can become locked in the collective consciousness.  Therefore, utility companies must be extremely proactive in their  communications in an effort to control the narratives.  And whenever outage misinformation proliferates, utilities must react with speed and precision to prevent it from spreading uncontrollably, like a virus.