By St. Rep. Jason Isaac
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Last night around midnight the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid began experiencing numerous forced outages of generation due to the unusually cold weather.
Rotating outages were implemented around 5:30 a.m. to continue until a sufficient amount of generation was returned online. Rotating outages are... controlled temporary interruptions of electrical service initiated by each utility when supplies of reserve power are exhausted.
Without this safety valve generators would overload and begin shutting down to avoid damage risking a domino effect of a state-wide outage.
As I write this during mid-afternoon ERCOT has issued a notice that rotating outages are no longer needed at this time.
There is a
strong possibility however that they will be required again this evening or tomorrow depending upon how quickly the disabled generation units can be returned to service and the severity of the
weather and resulting demand on power.
ENERGY CONSERVATION IS CRITICAL DURING PEAK DEMAND HOURS THIS EVENING BETWEEN 6 and 10 P.M.
- Please turn off all unnecessary lights and all unnecessary electronics appliances etc. until we are through this critical period.
- Rotating outages will be limited in duration to between 10-45 minutes unless equipment trips due to a power surge during the restoration process.
- Customers can minimize the chance that power surges will occur by turning off all appliances lights and other electrical equipment. Leave one task light on to determine when power has been restored.
- Minimize unnecessary travel as traffic signals may go out of service resulting in traffic jams.
These power outages are related to a problem
with generation of power during the extremely cold weather.
News releases from the Public Utility Commission are available at:
PUC
If you have a sustained power outage please contact your electricity provider.
It is an honor to work for you in the Texas House.
Jason Isaac represents Texas House District 45 including Blanco Hays Caldwell counties southwest of Austin Texas.
