North Texas winter storm: ERCOT projects enough power to meet demand
Texas’ power grid manager projects that the state will have enough electricity to meet demand during the winter storm.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electricity for most of the state, reported Thursday morning that the grid was operating under normal conditions with sufficient power for current demand. Peak demand is estimated to happen at 8 a.m. Friday, when the temperature is expected to be 17 degrees in the Fort Worth area.
During a Thursday news conference in Austin with state officials, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state is dealing with one of the most significant icing events in several decades, but said the grid is “performing very well at this time.” There’s expected to be plenty of power over the remainder of Thursday and early Friday, Abbott said. His assurance was echoed by others in the room.
“The grid remains strong, reliable and it is performing well in this winter weather event,” said Peter Lake, Chairman of the Public Utility Commission.
Abbott said there’s expected to be enough extra power for about 2 million homes at the predicted peak demand,
A little before noon Thursday, there were more than 67,000 power outages in the state, according to poweroutage.us. Abbott said the most probable cause of outages around the state was winds affecting lines, ice on lines or fallen tree limbs.
“It’s important to understand that these are localized outages that are not related to system-wide reliability issues,” Lake said.
Officials encouraged anyone without power to contact their local providers.
“Local power providers are bringing in extra resources to get those power lines back up, and the state of Texas is helping them,” Abbott said.
He said more than 10,000 line workers are assisting power transmission companies. Abbott also noted that nearly 2,000 more are coming in from outside the state.
Gov. Greg Abbott also issued disaster declaration related to inclement winter weather in 17 Texas counties: Bosque, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro, Rains, Red River, Rockwall and Williamson. Abbott said more counties may be added.
Christi Craddick, a commissioner of the Railroad Commission of Texas, said the agency has been in contact with natural gas providers. She said “the gas is flowing.”
“They don’t anticipate any service interruptions to the residential customers, so you’re gas should stay on, you should gave heat, you should be able to cook,” she said.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 10:24 AM.
