ERCOT says limited outages are still possible overnight due to snow and freezing temperatures

AUSTIN, Texas – While many CPS Energy customers have had their power restored, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas says there is still a possibility of limited outages Thursday night or Friday morning due to freezing weather.

Still, ERCOT said in a statement Friday that it hopes more power generation will be available.

“The generators that were on line this morning remained on throughout the day,” Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations for ERCOT said in a written statement. “With a stable generation, we hope that more generations will continue to be available.”

Although the snow is coming to an end, there will still be below freezing temperatures, snow and ice overnight until morning, which can lead to limited blackouts. These outages will help maintain grid stability as usage increases, according to ERCOT.

According to CPS Energy’s outage map, around 7:00 p.m. Thursday there are 215 active outages and 5,103 customers without power. These numbers are subject to change throughout the night.

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Those without electricity can fall into any of these three categories, according to ERCOT:

• Outdoor areas due to ice storm damage to the distribution network

• Areas that have been taken out of service due to the emergency energy discharge that must be manually restored (i.e. sending a crew to the scene to re-energize the line)

• Large industrial facilities that voluntarily went offline to help during this energy emergency

At 6.30 p.m. Thursday, ERCOT said nearly 36,000 MW of production remained in forced shutdown due to this winter weather event. Of this total, around 21,400 MW are thermal generation and the rest are wind and solar.

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