The cold weather has renewed concerns about the state’s ability to keep the lights on, with Texas leaders warning about the possibility of local power outages. On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott said “no one can guarantee there won’t be [power outages],” months after he promised the lights would stay on this winter and that the Texas Legislature did everything it could during last year’s sessions to prevent more catastrophic outages.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s power grid, issued a winter weather watch through Feb. 6. ERCOT said it expects to have sufficient supply to meet high energy demand during the winter storm. Electric providers such as Oncor, Entergy and CenterPoint Energy have said they put winter preparations in place in the aftermath of the 2021 storm to make sure they are prepared for extreme winter weather. Oncor and Entergy also have signaled they will have personnel and crews on alert should power need to be restored quickly.
“Oncor will follow ERCOT’s direction and echo updates to customers,” Oncor said in a statement. “It is important to remember that Oncor is a transmission and distribution company, or ‘the poles and wires company’ that delivers electricity to more than 10 million Texans. Oncor does not own or operate power generation facilities, or sell, purchase or offer electricity retail services.”
— Mitchell Ferman and Allyson Waller
