AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday assured Texans that the state’s power grid is working as a winter storm covers much of the state.
The Public Utility Commission expects to see some outages as a result of icing on electric infrastructure and power lines, but local outages do not mean there’s a problem with the grid, Abbott said from the State Operations Center in Austin.
“The power grid itself is functioning very efficiently as we speak right now, and there’s not anticipated to be any challenge to the power grid in the state of Texas,” he said.
Abbott instructed those who may experience an outage to check with their electricity provider for updates. Oncor delivers electricity to much of the Fort Worth area.
As of 4:24 p.m., the grid was operating under normal conditions with enough power to meet demand. There were 30,450 electricity customers experiencing power outages across the state as of 4:15 p.m., including 68 in Tarrant County, according to poweroutage.us.
In February 2021, the state experienced widespread outages and at least 246 people died when a freeze swept Texas.
Public Utility Commission Chairman Peter Lake said reforms put into place in the time since have been working for Texas. The state agency regulates Texas utilities, and has oversight of Texas’ power grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
ERCOT is not expecting to ask Texans to conserve power, said President and CEO Pablo Vegas.
“We have plenty of reserves to make sure that the ERCOT grid is stable and powered throughout this weather event,” Lake said. “As the governor said, the primary concern this week is icing at the local level. Accumulating on tree branches and power lines can lead to down lines and local outages.”
Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said power lines could be knocked out if people have wrecks and hit power lines, causing outages. He and other officials urged Texans to avoid driving if possible.
The National Weather Service warned that dangerous travel conditions are expected through Wednesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. An ice storm warning is in effect through 6 a.m. Thursday for Tarrant and 13 other North Texas counties.
The governor’s office on Monday announced that a number of state emergency responses had been mobilized. The Texas National Guard is working around the clock to respond to the storm, Abbott said.
The Public Utility Commission is monitoring power outages and coordinating with utility providers, Abbott said. Lake said Texans should not see high electricity prices like those seen after the February 2021 storm.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick said the state should have plenty of natural gas. The agency regulates Texas’ oil and gas industry.
Last legislative session, following the February 2021 storm, lawmakers passed bills reforming ERCOT and requiring weatherization of electricity generators and transmitters and some natural gas facilities. The PUC has since approved changes to Texas’ electricity market that are subject to review by lawmakers in Austin and have been met with some criticism.
Since legislators met in 2021, the grid has shown that it can hold up, even under extreme conditions, with Texas’ population, Abbott said. But Texas is quickly growing, Abbott said.
“We’re going to need more power generation going forward, and we will accomplish that,” Abbott said. “Part of that is based upon the design that was set out by the PUC earlier this month. There will be other ideas that surface this session. Bottom line is this: We’re not going to end this session without having strategies to make sure that we will be able to provide the power to the people of this state for the next 40 years.”
Check power grid’s status and outages
ERCOT offers real-time updates on the state of Texas’ power grid on its website, ercot.com. The number of power outages across the state is tracked at poweroutage.us/area/state/texas.
Road conditions across the state can be found at drivetexas.org.
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