Texas Governor Greg Abbott and state officials are confident the power grid will continue running as a potent winter storm delivering sub-freezing temperatures makes its way to the state this week.
(Bloomberg) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott and state officials are confident the power grid will continue running as a potent winter storm delivering sub-freezing temperatures makes its way to the state this week.
Abbott, along with the head of the state’s public utilities commission, energy grid and emergency management division, held a press conference Wednesday to reassure Texans the state’s electric grid — operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — will not see a repeat of last year’s failure that killed more than 200 people.
“We want to make sure everybody across the entire state of Texas hears directly from the head of the Public Utilities Commission as well as the head of Ercot to know exactly the way that both the PUC and Ercot are prepared to make sure that the power grid will remain up and running very robustly during this very cold snap,” Abbott said.
Texans are still reeling from the fatal winter storm Uri in February 2021 that caused the grid to fail, leaving millions of residents without power for hours and even days. State officials say they have made a number of reforms to the grid since then including reinforcing natural gas plants and pipelines to withstand extreme weather.
“The grid is ready and reliable,” Texas Public Utilities Commission Chairman Peter Lake said. “We expect to have sufficient generation to meet demand throughout this entire winter weather event.”
The grid operator is forecasting demand for electricity will reach a high Friday morning of 67.8 gigawatts as temperatures in Dallas linger below 25 degrees. That’s slightly higher than what officials had forecast last month to be the peak for power demand this winter.
Officials said the state is not expecting to see much rain but will see extremely cold temperatures with high winds beginning Thursday. Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said wind chills are forecast at minus 10F (minus 23C) in the Dallas metro area and as low as minus 30F (minus 34C) in the panhandle, the northern most portion of the state.
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