Thunder Move Forward With Game, Will Take Steps To Conserve Power

The Oklahoma City Thunder will go ahead and play Portland Tuesday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, despite there being an energy emergency in the state. However, the team told News 9 it will be taking steps to conserve power.

Hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans experienced rolling blackouts early Tuesday due to a Level 3 energy emergency issued by Southwest Power Pool.

Thunder reporter Steve McGehee reports the team is doing all they can to conserve power for the game, including turning lights off in the hallways of the arena and not lighting the outside of the arena. The Thunder communicated a full list of conservation steps to McGehee:

In partnership with ASM Global and the City of OKC, we are taking the following steps to reduce power consumption during tonight’s game:

• BOLT (outdoor video board) is turned off until further notice.

• All exterior arena signage is turned off.

• Except for minimum lighting needed for safety and security, lights at entrances will be turned off.

• Roof lighting is turned off including the LED lights around the roof.

• Inside: concourse lighting, video panels, TVs and other ground level sources will be off.

• Basically, we are shutting off virtually everything that doesn’t impact the actual game itself (or broadcast).

The Thunder (11-15) are coming off a win over Milwaukee on Sunday.

Portland is 16-10 on the season.