Update: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says rolling blackouts will likely continue into Tuesday morning and may be necessary all day Tuesday. The agency that manages the state's electric grid started ordering rolling blackouts about 1:30 Monday morning.
"In these cases where there's just insufficient supply of generation on the grid to meet the very high demand, the plan is intended to ensure the reliability of the grid as a whole," says ERCOT Senior Director of Operations Dan Woodfin. "That makes sure we don't have worse problems than these kinds of outages. It's done exactly that."
Woodfin says Texas set a record for demand for winter Sunday night, with 69,222 megawatts between 7 and 8 p.m. He says demand stayed near that level through the night.
"This is certainly more megawatts and longer than we've ever had to do in the past, I believe," Woodfin says.
ERCOT manages the grid but does not own any transmission lines or power plants. When ERCOT orders a reduction in demand, regional providers, such as Oncor Electric Delivery, determine how and where to cut power.
Woodfin says providers try to avoid "critical" areas, such as hospitals and first responders.
In addition to a spike in demand, Woodfin says generators had issues beginning Sunday. He says oil and gas plants were knocked off line because of the snow and ice; wind turbines were stopped because of ice.
"This weather event is really unprecedented," he says. "We're seeing temperatures, wind chills, even blizzard conditions that are well beyond that's anything that's really happened in my lifetime, for sure."
Woodfin says ERCOT has worked with generators and owners of transmission lines to improve reliability.
"But this event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter," he says.
Monday morning, DFW Airport hit a record low of six degrees.
Oncor said it had "significantly extended" planned outages beyond the 15-45 minute window Monday morning.
"Outages due to this electric emergency could last for hours & we ask you to be prepared," Oncor tweeted. Details about outages are available at https://stormcenter.oncor.com/ .
In addition, Oncor said crews were responding to longer, unplanned outages caused by snow and ice. The last time rolling blackouts were ordered was during winter weather in 2011.
Original Story:
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has started rolling blackouts as a result of increased demand. According to Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, temperatures across Texas have not dropped this low since 1989.
DFW Airport hit a low of six degrees Monday morning.
At 1:25 a.m. Monday, ERCOT started rolling black-outs across the state, cutting power to up to two million homes at a time. Each outage was scheduled to last 15 to 45 minutes.
"We've worked with ERCOT, with the Railroad Commission and with all market participants to be proactive in trying to find solutions," says Texas Public Utility Commission Chair DeAnn Walker.
But Walker says PUC and ERCOT have no additional generation they can add to the system.
"Therefore, it comes from conservation and demand management. That's where we need your help," she says.
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ERCOT has urged people to set their thermostats no higher than 68 degrees, unplug unneeded lights and appliances and avoid using large appliances like ovens and washing machines.
“Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now,” ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness wrote in a statement.
Monday Morning, Oncor Electric Delivery said planned outages had been "significantly extended" beyond 15-45 minutes due to the severity of the shortfall of electricity generation.
"Outages due to this electric emergency could last for hours & we ask you to be prepared," Oncor tweeted.
Oncor also said crews were responding to separate outages caused by snow and ice.
Details on outages are available at stormcenter.oncor.com/ .
ERCOT says rolling blackouts will continue through Monday morning and "could be initiated until this weather emergency ends."