Power outages: Abbott says electricity being restored to some homes as crews work to repair power plants - KPRC Click2Houston

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HOUSTON – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that power is being restored to some homes as crews continue their efforts to repair power plants that were crippled by the winter storm that swept across the state.

Officials have ordered blackouts across Texas after record demand and failing power plants have combined to spell problems for the state’s grid. Now, they say those outages may be longer than previously planned.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is responsible for maintaining the supply/demand balance on the state’s grid. A spokesman for the agency said a record demand of 69,222 megawatts was hit between 7 and 8 p.m. Sunday. That was followed by several power plants going offline in rapid progression, he said. At 1:25 a.m., the agency activated its highest alert level when the power reserves dropped, he said.

The spokesman said that ERCOT has directed the transmission companies to reduce the load on the state’s grid by designated amounts based on the amount of power they draw from the system. He said it is up to the transmission companies to decide how to best reduce their draw on the grid.

ERCOT officials said there are about 2 million homes in Texas that are without power as of 10:30 a.m. Monday. By Monday afternoon, ERCOT said about 2,500 megawatts of power had been restored and that is enough to power 500,000 homes.

The outages are expected to continue until at least Tuesday morning, officials said.

Abbott responds

In an interview with KPRC 2, Abbott said officials had been preparing for a week ahead of a winter storm that has now crippled the state’s electrical system. He said the problems started when several power plants that are responsible for generating power for the state froze up.

Abbott said power has been restored to several hundred thousand homes and he expects more homes to get power back again soon. However, the governor did not say where in the state those homes will be located.

The governor said the only shortcoming, in this case, is with the companies responsible for generating power. He said officials will be working to determine how to prevent such failures in the future.

CenterPoint explains what’s going on

Kenny Mercado, executive vice president for CenterPoint Energy, which transmits power to most of Southeast Texas, said the blackouts cannot be rotated any longer because the supply is not available to move the power around the system.

“This is a very serious situation, and we do not want the system to go down,” Mercado said. “We’ve got to keep a balance. We have to keep the load demand balanced across Houston, and not only that, but balanced across the entire state of Texas, and we’re watching it very closely.”

Mercado said that the CenterPoint customers that have power are part of the emergency service areas, which include things like water and sewer plants, hospitals, police and 911 centers.

“We have all these important loads that we have to preserve,” Mercado said.

By Monday afternoon, CenterPoint said that 1.162 million of its customers were without power because of the blackouts. There were also 62,500 customers whose power outages were related to the storm and not the blackouts. CenterPoint serves about 2.6 million customers.

In a statement, CenterPoint officials said that the outages will last at least the rest of Monday.

CenterPoint released the following tweets and a statement on Monday.

UPDATE: We continue complying with @ERCOT_ISO‘s request to curtail power delivery due to the statewide power generation emergency. As a result customers may experience longer outages than previously anticipated. We appreciate your patience. #hounews
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

⚠ The Texas electric system is facing an unprecedented power shortage situation due to the extreme winter weather impacting the entire state, including Houston & the region. Texans’ electricity consumption needs have far surpassed current power generation. #houwx #hounews 1/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

Early this morning, @ERCOT_ISO declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency and asked electricity delivery companies to reduce load through controlled outages in an effort to bring the supply of and demand for electricity back into balance. #houwx #hounews 2/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

As CenterPoint Energy made preparations to follow @ERCOT_ISO's directive to reduce load, we were anticipating outages of 15 minutes to more than an hour. #houwx #hounews 3/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

This morning, conditions for power generation were, & continue to be, very serious; @ERCOT_ISO needs electric companies to reduce their load at a higher level & longer than they originally thought, which in turn is resulting in longer outages for customers. #houwx #hounews 4/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

Unfortunately, if you are a customer who is currently experiencing an outage, you should be prepared to be without power for at least the rest of the day. #houwx #hounews 5/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

We appreciate our customers’ patience as we continue to follow @ERCOT_ISO's directive to reduce load and implement controlled outages across the Greater Houston area. #houwx #hounews 6/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

For all of our customers who do have power, we continue to ask you to conserve power as much as possible to assist with this situation. #houwx #hounews 7/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

As you may know, CenterPoint Energy is a transmission and distribution company and does not generate power, so the shortage of power generation capacity we are facing is not something we can directly address. #houwx #hounews 8/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

We know this is a very difficult situation for our customers, but we are doing our part, based on @ERCOT_ISO's directive, to reach a power supply and demand balance across the state. #houwx #hounews 9/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we do what we can to manage through this significant state-wide power supply situation. #houwx #hounews 10/10
— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts) February 15, 2021

Here’s the full statement from CenterPoint:

“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is responsible for scheduling power and ensuring the reliability of the electrical network in Texas, has declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency. As a result, immediately following ERCOT’s directive to curtail delivery of power to customers, CenterPoint Energy started controlled outages in its service territory. CenterPoint Energy is complying with ERCOT’s directive to reduce load at this time. Due to the level of that requirement, customers may experience outages that are longer than previously anticipated. The controlled outages are planned emergency measures designed to avoid more widespread power outages for customers. Like other electric utilities across Texas, CenterPoint Energy is taking offline or curtailing electricity across its service territory in order to achieve the load reduction required by ERCOT. CenterPoint Energy will continue to update customers through local media outlets and its social media channels, Twitter (@CNPalerts) and Facebook. The company urges consumers and businesses to reduce their electricity use to the lowest level possible. For steps customers can take to reduce their energy use, visit http://www.ercot.com/about/conservation.”

Outages affecting water service for some

Todd Burrer, vice president of Texas municipal utility districts for Inframark, said the water outages for the MUDs in and around the Houston area that are managed by his company are related to power outages. He said the diesel generators that are normally used in a situation like this cannot keep up with the power needed to keep the water flowing. He said water likely won’t be restored until the power is restored.

There are about 400 MUDs in the Houston area.

Outage trackers, report outages

Here is how you can track power outages across Southeast Texas.

CenterPoint Energy services most of the Houston area and Southeast Texas. Click here to view the company’s outage tracker. You can report outages by calling 713-207-2222.
Entergy services parts of Southeast Texas north and east of Houston. Click here to view the company’s outage tracker. You can report outages by calling 800-968-8243.
TNMP services an area from near Manvel to Texas City and from Sweeny to Holiday Lakes. Click here to view the company’s outage tracker. You can report outages by calling 888-866-7456.