Texas Governor Greg Abbott is facing a grid "emergency" this holiday weekend due to an electric energy shortage as an arctic blast causes failures at power plants in the state.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday declared that an emergency exists in Texas "due to a shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy, and other causes." It added that this emergency order is meant to "serve the public interest."
The department's emergency order allows Texas grid operators to pollute more than allowed in an effort to boost electricity generation amid threatening cold temperatures. This means Texas power plants can burn dirtier fuel oil instead of natural gas to generate power through Christmas morning, according to The Texas Tribune on Saturday.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which serves 90 percent of the electric customers in the state, requested the emergency order exceed the usual federal air quality restrictions on Friday.
"For Texas, this severe winter weather system has caused a significant drop in temperatures over the last day. This temperature drop, accompanied by high winds in excess of 40 mph, has resulted in wind chill values across the state generally below ten degrees Fahrenheit, with some areas of Texas experiencing wind chills values well below zero degrees," the DOE wrote in its order. "As a consequence, the demand for electricity in ERCOT rose to an all-time winter peak on the morning of Friday, December 23, 2022, in excess of 74,000 MW. This severely cold weather is expected to last through Sunday morning."
The department added that the vast majority of generating units in the ERCOT region continue to run without any issue, however a small number of units have experienced "operating difficulties due to cold weather or gas curtailments."
Around 11,000 megawatts of coal and gas-fired power, 4,000 megawatts of wind and 1,700 megawatts of solar power generating units were "derated" or "outaged" due to severe weather conditions, according to the DOE.
On Friday afternoon, Reliant Energy, which serves over 1.5 million Texans, urged its customers to reduce their energy usage by limiting the use of large appliances. Temperatures in some parts of Texas reached a low of 1 degree by Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Meanwhile, wind gusts reached up to 40 miles per hour in areas in North Texas, The Texas Tribune reported.
Your help is needed due to the low temperatures expected throughout Texas. Please help reduce your usage by limiting the use of large appliances. Visit https://t.co/nfC0nZiqoc for tips and tools to conserve.
— reliantenergy (@reliantenergy) December 23, 2022
Many Texans experienced power outages on Friday amid strong winds and the brutally cold temperatures, with more than 77,000 customers losing power, according to PowerOutage.us. As of Sunday afternoon, a little more than 5,000 customers were without power.
Still, Texas officials assured residents that the power grid is up and running despite the challenges, and that the grid will not be severely impacted as it was in February 2021 when three severe winter storms and frigid temperatures stressed the grid. As a result, hundreds of people died and millions lost power for prolonged periods.
In a statement to Newsweek Saturday afternoon, Renae Eze, Abbott's communications director, said no Texans lost power due to the power grid and highlighted that the governor signed 14 bills into law to "weatherize the Texas power grid and ensure its stability and resiliency."
Abbott also defended the grid on Twitter.
"The ERCOT grid performed well again today. Yesterday, Texas had the highest power demand in any winter. Today was the 2nd highest demand day for winter power. During 2 extremely cold nights, the power grid has not failed. No Texan has lost any power because of the ERCOT grid," the governor tweeted Saturday.
On Sunday, Eze told Newsweek that "ERCOT provided more power during this cold weather event than any winter ever. Any outages were due to localized issues, such as downed power lines, or other grids like MISO that cover some parts of Texas."
Update 12/25/2022, 3:38 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include further comment from Eze.
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