Texas Gov Greg Abbott is calling for an investigation into the state’s main power grid operator after five million Texans have been left freezing in darkness after winter storm Uri knocked out electricity in the energy-rich Lone Star state.
The winter storm, which has sparked an energy crisis, has resulted in some people sleeping in their cars to keep warm amid unprecedented rolling blackouts.
An image showing empty office buildings in downtown Houston still lit up overnight immediately sparked outrage given there were 1.3 million people across the city without power.
Furious Texans, many of whom remain without electricity, are now demanding answers as to why the energy rich state has been left paralyzed by the winter storm.
The cold bast caused by winter storm Uri continues to wreak havoc on the energy industry with Texas oil wells and refineries halted and natural gas pipelines and wind turbines frozen.
Oil production in the country’s largest crude-producing state has plunged by more than two million barrels a day due to the storm, which has sent prices surging to $60 a barrel for the first time in a year.
Wind turbines, which account for a fifth of the state’s energy, have frozen solid and are contributing to the state’s power woes as temperatures plummet to a bitter -20F.
Nearly five million households in Texas – which runs its own power grid – were without electricity overnight and many residents took desperate refuge in their cars for warmth after the grid failed to keep up with heightened demand.
Texas’s grid operator and the Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities across 14 states, have imposed unprecedented rolling blackouts because the supply of reserve energy had been exhausted. Some utilities said they were starting blackouts, while others urged customers to reduce power usage, in a bid to prevent the collapse of their networks.
The deep freeze that has paralyzed Texas by knocking out its power grid and sparking an energy crisis saw 5 million homes plunged into darkness amid unprecedented rolling blackouts. Pictured above is homes in Houston without power but empty offices still lit up
TEXAS: Dan Bryant and his wife Anna huddle by the fire with sons Benny, 3, and Sam, 12 weeks, along with their dog Joey, also wearing two doggie sweaters, with power out and temperatures dropping inside their home after a winter storm brought snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas
Oil production in the country’s largest crude-producing state has plunged by more than two million barrels a day due to the storm, which has sent prices surging to $60 a barrel for the first time in a year. Pictured above is Exelon Power Texas in Dallas on Tuesday
Surging demand, driven by people trying to keep their homes warm and cold weather knocking some power stations offline, has pushed Texas’ system beyond the limits.
‘This weather event, it’s really unprecedented. We all living here know that,’ said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state’s main power grid.
He defended preparations made by grid operators and described the demand on the system as record-setting.
‘This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. And so that is really the result that we’re seeing,’ Woodfin said.
He said limited supplies of natural gas and frozen instruments at power plants are partly to blame for the blackouts.
President Joe Biden has declared an emergency in Texas to pledge federal aid to the state. The crisis has sparked concerns about how the energy landscape may change amid the push to rely on renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
The current crisis started to unfold when freezing temperatures that started at the beginning of the month sent prices for heating fuels, including oil and natural gas, surging higher.
The rapidly dropping temperatures resulted in gas pipelines seizing up, wind turbines freezing and oil wells shutting.
It occurred at a time when demand for heating – from households and businesses – surged to record highs.
‘I’ve been following energy markets and grid issues for a while, and I cannot recall an extreme weather event that impacted such a large swath of the nation in this manner – the situation is critical,’ Neil Chatterjee, a member of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told Bloomberg.
A map from poweroutage.us showed that nearly 5 million people were without power in Texas, and several hundred thousand in Louisiana and Oregon
Some utilities said they were starting blackouts, while others urged customers to reduce power usage, in a bid to prevent the collapse of their networks
Nearly five million households in Texas were without power overnight and many residents took desperate refuge in their cars for warmth after the electric grid failed to keep up with heightened demand
Reports are now emerging of Texans staying in their cars just to keep warm, including 44-year-old Clint Cash.
He told CBS: ‘It was awfully cold and of course getting colder, but honestly I slept in all my clothes, pretty much what I’m wearing right now I slept in. I am taking it minute by minute day by day. I don’t plan on driving.’
Deaths in Texas included a woman and a girl who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston at a home without electricity from a car running in an attached garage, police said.
Law enforcement also said subfreezing temperatures were likely to blame for the deaths of two men found along Houston-area roadways.
A half-dozen Houston residents were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday after using a charcoal grill to warm their home, officials said.
Texas officials have requested 60 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritize hospitals and nursing homes. The state opened 35 shelters to more than 1,000 occupants, the agency said.
More than 500 people sought comfort at one shelter in Houston. Mayor Sylvester Turner said other warming centers had to be shut down because they lost power.
As nightfall threatened to plummet temperatures again into single digits in Texas, officials warned that homes in the state still without power would likely not have heat until at least Tuesday.
‘Things will likely get worse before they get better,’ said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county of nearly 5 million people around Houston.
Temperatures nosedived into the single-digits as far south as San Antonio, and homes that had already been without electricity for hours had no certainty about when the lights and heat would come back on.
In Dallas, officials told residents to refrain from calling 911 to report power outages as the 911 call center became overwhelmed with power outage calls.
Drone footages captures snowfall in Galveston, Texas amid winter storm Uri
TEXAS: State officials said surging demand, driven by people trying to keep their homes warm, and cold weather knocking some power stations offline had pushed Texas’ system beyond the limits
TEXAS: Ice and snow blanket parts of a Grandview Avenue and Charles Walker Road on Monday in Odessa
TEXAS: The Trinity River in Fort Worth is mostly frozen after a snow storm Monday that saw millions lose power
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas sought to cut power use in response to a winter record of 69,150 megawatts on Sunday evening, more than 3,200 MW higher than the previous winter peak in January 2018.
About 10,500 MW of customer load was shed at the highest point, enough power to serve approximately 2 million homes, it said, adding that extreme weather caused many generating units across fuel types to trip offline and become unavailable.
‘Controlled outages will continue through today and into early tomorrow, possibly all of tomorrow,’ Dan Woodfin, director of systems operations at ERCOT, told a briefing.
The storms knocked out nearly half the state’s wind power generation capacity on Sunday. Wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of electricity in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies, ERCOT estimates.
Of the 25,000-plus MW of wind power capacity normally available in Texas, 12,000 MW were out of service on Sunday morning, an ERCOT spokeswoman said.
An emergency notice issued by the regulator urged customers to limit power usage and prevent an uncontrolled system-wide outage.
The spot price of electricity on the Texas power grid spiked more than 10,000% on Monday.
TEXAS: A snow-covered Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge leads to downtown after a heavy snow on Monday
TEXAS: Homes in the Westbury neighborhood are covered in snow in Houston, Texas, on Monday
TEXAS: A man snowboards down Congress Avenue after a heavy snow on Monday
TEXAS: Baylor University students enjoy their snow day without classes while posing near a fountain on campus