GOV. ABBOTT: POWER GRID MEETING DEMAND DURING WINTER STORM

  

Governor Greg Abbott says the state’s power grid has held up to the demand created by Winter Storm Landon, and is “more reliable and more resilient than it’s ever been.”

Speaking at a press conference this (Friday) morning, Abbott and other state officials said the grid is performing well at peak demand during the storm.  He said the peak was reported this morning at 69,000 megawatts, and more than 86,000 megawatts were available to serve demand on the grid, exceeding the peak demand of 77,000 megawatts during Winter Storm Uri last February.

While Abbott said most of the state should continue to see freezing temperatures for the next few nights, the state does not expect demand to exceed today’s peak for the rest of the storm.

Abbott said the actions taken by the legislature, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public Utility Commission (PUC) “have resulted in a stronger grid.”  He pointed to the state having an additional 15 percent in power generation capacity from last year, new winterization requirements, more power generators that are online and the availability of alternative fuels as major reasons for the grid’s current standing.

Abbott said there should be between 15,000 and 17,000 megawatts of capacity, enough to power around three million homes, above the next projected peaks, which are tonight at 9 p.m. and tomorrow (Saturday) at 8 a.m.

At the time of the press conference, around 20,000 Texans remained without power.  Abbott reiterated that the reason for the loss of power is at the local level and not related to the grid, with the most likely causes being fallen trees or tree limbs on power lines or ice weighing them down.  He said utility providers and linemen are working “around the clock” to restore power.

Anyone who loses power can report an outage and look up information about their power provider by visiting www.puc.texas.gov/storm.