Rolling Power Outages In Texas Plunge 3 Million Into Darkness

More than 2.6 million Texans had to deal with power outages on Monday, February 15, as the utilities of the state continued rolling blackouts due to record cold temperatures. The extreme temperatures caused too much demand on the state’s power. Poweroutages.us reported 2,646,256 outages in the Lone Star state as of 10:33 a.m. on Monday.

It’s the first rolling blackout due to cold temperatures to hit Texas since 2011. Commonly, spikes in electricity demand occur in summer when air conditioners are cranked up.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has responded to a record demand of 69,150 megawatts use on Sunday evening, more than 3,200 megawatts higher than the previous winter peak of January 2018.

Reserves have decreased to less than 1,000 megawatts and transmission companies have been ordered to reduce demand on the system, said ERCOT.

Outages will be executed for residential neighborhoods and small businesses for up to 45 minutes at a time. Large industrial companies had power shut down under pre-agreed emergency plans.

The power regulator announced a level three emergency and cautioned customers to limit power use and prevent uncontrolled system-wide outages.

According to the National Weather Service, an Arctic air mass has expanded south, well beyond areas accustomed to freezing weather. Winter storm warnings were noted for much of the Gulf Coast, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Texas has a wind power capacity of more than 25,000 megawatts. However, 12,000 megawatts was out of service on Sunday morning, according to ERCOT. When wind-turbine blades get covered with ice, they are shut down. About half of Texas’ wind turbines were shut down Sunday morning due to the ice and extreme temperatures. The turbines that are still running are achieving more power than forecasted for this time of year.

Wind generation is the second-largest source of electricity in Texas, accounting for 23 percent of state power supplies last year behind natural gas, which accounts for 45 percent of power supplies.

Energy traders noted last week that 5-minute power prices in Texas reached $4,000 per megawatt hour. For comparison ERCOT North averages $26 per megawatt hour in 2020.

ERCOT expects power demand to reach a record high on Monday, February 15^th and Tuesday, February 16^th.

A combination of freezing temperatures and precipitation threatens to paralyze wind farms in Texas. That would be catastrophic for power plants that have a contractual obligation to supply a certain amount of electricity at specific times. This could force Texas utilities to buy the power they need on the spot market. Currently, power is extremely costly.

The largest cities of the state including Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, El Paso and more were without power for periods of up to an hour at a time.

Sections of Texas were colder than Alaska, reported the National Weather Service. The temperature at 5 a.m. in Houston was 18°F, equaling the temperature in Anchorage. In the Dallas-Fort Worth region the temperature was 5°F.

The decrease in crude supplies may force a rush for alternative fuels including propane and heating oil, fuels used in mobile heating devices including generators.

No matter where you live in the U.S., you are always under threat of blackouts. Be prepared with a back-up generator from APElectric.