Officials from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Wednesday told reporters they still can't say when the controlled power outages will come to an end.
ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness said the immediate problems they're facing are due to the continued cold weather and the energy companies' inability to get generators back up and running.
"We're optimistic we'll see some today (generators back on line) as we see some warming trends," said Magness. "If we get the generation back over the next 24 hours into tomorrow, and the weather continues to moderate, I think that what's going to drive the end of it."
Recent positive trends unfortunately have been offset by additional problems in balancing the supply and demand in the state's power grid.
During the overnight hours, ERCOT was able to restore approximately 3,500 MW of load, which is roughly 700,000 households.
"The generators (Energy Companies) were able to get a few extra generators online, but we also lost some generation," said ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin.
"And so the net-net, it wound up being, as far as thermal generation goes, gas-coal and nuclear, we wound up having the same amount this morning as we did last night." Woodfin added, "However, we are anticipating another cold front this evening which could increase the demand."
