What is cold load shedding?

• A. Restoring power without any shedding.
• B. Rerouting load to alternate feeders.
• C. Shutting off all power to the site until repairs are done.
• D. Intentionally shedding load before re-energizing a de-energized wire to help reduce cold load pickup.

Answer: (D)

Cold load pickup is the surge in electrical demand that happens when power is restored after an outage, as devices that have been off start back up and loads come back on. Cold load shedding is a protective practice where some nonessential loads are intentionally left de-energized before the line is re-energized, to keep voltage stable and reduce the inrush or peak demand during restoration. This helps prevent overloading equipment, voltage dips, or protective trips as the system comes back online. The other approaches described don’t address this planned reduction of startup load: restoring with no shedding risks a big inrush; rerouting load is about different coordination of feeders; and shutting all power until repairs are done stops restoration entirely rather than managing the surge.