Scorching temperatures that provoked "higher-than-expected" electricity demand combined with transmission and generation issues to trigger the widespread power outages that affected around 100,000 customers in the New Orleans area over Memorial Day weekend, the grid operator says.

The Sunday outage has led New Orleans officials to press for answers over why little notice was apparently given prior to the order from grid operator MISO, which said the "load-shed" was necessary as a last resort to avoid far wider problems.

Homes in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Plaquemines were affected, while the popular Greek Festival along Bayou St. John was also hit , forcing it to take cash only for a period of time and extend its hours with no entrance fee.

MISO said it aske

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