Texans are bracing themselves for a spell of ultra-cold weather and fear blackouts in the days ahead, despite assurances from state leaders that, unlike previous winters, their grid is adequately prepared to withstand days of frigid temperatures.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which manages the grid for roughly 90% of the state, issued an updated winter warning Friday stretching from Sunday through Wednesday, when officials said they expect “extreme cold weather” to barrel through the state, resulting in “higher electrical demand and the potential for lower reserves.”
Demand is expected to peak Tuesday and Wednesday at a record-high of 87.5 GW, ERCOT officials said. That is a staggering increase from the previous record, set last August, and from 2022 Winter Storm Elliott, when demand reached 74 gigawatts.
Earlier this week, ERCOT officials had predicted a nearly one-in-six chance of rolling blackouts if the conditions in this year’s freeze mirrored Elliott — odds that may not inspire confidence among residents of the state.
Their concerns about the grid are not unwarranted, however — especially after Winter Storm Uri in 2021, which caused 4.5 million Texans to lose power, some for days, and resulted in 246 deaths.
During Uri, ERCOT was forced to order 20,000 megawatts of rolling blackouts to prevent grid collapse in what was the largest manually controlled load-shedding event in U.S. history.
Since then, ERCOT has taken steps to improve its grid, including updating its warning system, inspecting more than 1,770 natural gas generation and transmission facilities, and adding much more battery storage and solar power.
At a press conference Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and other state leaders stressed that they expect the grid to be well-prepared to handle the days of frigid temperatures.
“We feel very good about the status of the Texas power grid and ERCOT to be able to effectively and successfully ensure that the power is going to stay on throughout the entirety of this winter storm episode,” Abbott said Friday.
“We are much, much more prepared for this” compared to Uri, he added.
Still, the state of the Texas power grid has been a divisive topic for years. NERC’s 2023-2024 Winter Reliability Assessment found that natural gas generators across the country, and in Texas, have failed to undergo weatherization upgrades needed to help keep supplies online in the event of a cold snap or prolonged outage.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
This can be solved by taking steps to weatherize natural gas plants, especially in the South. While this is not specific to Texas, the report found that ERCOT’s natural gas weatherization is worse off for the 2023-2024 season than it was last winter, despite the many recommendations and warnings issued post-Uri from federal regulators, they said.
Despite new solar and battery additions, Texas has continued to struggle to keep its grid adequately supplied during extreme hot or cold, and it has shattered demand records 10 separate times in the last year alone.