Power outages force rollovers across Texas

Power outages force rollovers across Texas

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According to the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), a large network operator that controls about 90% of the state’s electrical charge, the spin interruptions are likely to last all Monday morning and end in a state of emergency.

According to the Houston Office of Emergency Management, people can be in the dark until at least Tuesday.

“Power outages are likely to occur again throughout Monday and Tuesday. We are experiencing winter weather that we have not experienced for decades,” the office said. tweeted on Monday.

Rotary power outages occur when power outages cut off electricity to neighborhoods and small businesses, usually for 10 to 45 minutes before transferring it to another location, ERCOT said. Traffic lights and infrastructure can also lose power during these eclipses.

California sometimes uses heat waves during heat waves, but extremely cold weather has forced action in Texas, where the winter storm has already cut off more than 2.7 million customers’ power, according to Poweroutage.us, a website that detects power outages in the US. .

Snow fell in much of Texas, including more than 10 inches in San Angelo, the snowiest day on record, and 4 inches in Dallas to pick up the seventh snow on the record.

The entire state was below freezing on Monday, with a temperature of 25 degrees in Brownsville in the south to 15 degrees below zero in the Panhandle. A trail of snow has been reported in Brownsville, only the third time since 1898 that there has been snow in the city at the southernmost point of the state along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The temperature in the high teens was predicted for Dallas on Monday, while Houston expected a high temperature in the mid-20s. Temperatures in Dallas below freezing will be expected until Thursday.

The city of Houston said in a news release that the storm may be here for a few days and that people may experience rolling sticks more than once.
“The electricity grid is still losing power,” said Sylvester Turner, mayor of Houston. tweeted. “If you are without power, you can be without power all day. Please do your best to stay warm safely. Look at our seniors.”

The city recommended that people save energy by turning off thermostats to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, pulling out unimportant lights and appliances, opening curtains during the day to allow sunlight and closing curtains at night to reduce heat loss .

The ongoing eclipses have caused several police facilities to operate on emergency generators, said Art Acevedo, chief of police in Houston.

“Please reduce the load on the electrical grid by minimizing use,” Acevedo tweeted on Monday.

One family’s difficult day without power

In Katy, Texas, just west of Houston, Tricia Lydick said her home had been without power since 5:30 a.m. Monday, and no sign that she would return soon.

Lydick lives with her brother, Michael Towns, and their mother, Ann Towns, who are both disabled. Her mother has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and needs oxygen 24 hours a day. The family has extra tanks with enough to last 12 hours.

But her mother uses a CPAP machine to breathe while she sleeps, and no electricity makes it impossible for her, Lydick told CNN.

“Four hours is not a big deal, but I do not want it to come where our oxygen is starting to run for mom,” Lydick said. “We are native Texans and have never had a pace before.”

She tried to contact her power company by telephone, but to no avail. The family uses blankets and jackets to keep the house warm.

“Since all the roads are ice, it’s harder to straighten the lines,” she said. “I fully understand that.”

If the power outages last longer than expected, Lydick said her first thought would be to take her mother to the hospital.

“But the roads are icy, so I do not know how I could,” she said. “She can not live without her oxygen.”

‘Record-breaking electrical demand’

The ERCOT ordered the interruptions on Monday at 01:30 CT (2:30 ET). ERCOT set a new peak demand for electricity in the winter between 18 and 19 hours Sunday, which holds the old record from January 2018, ERCOT said in a tweet.

“We are experiencing a record-breaking electrical demand due to the extremely cold temperatures that have suppressed Texas,” Bill Magness, president and CEO of ERCOT, said in a news release. “At the same time, we are dealing with the generation of higher than normal generation due to frozen wind turbines and limited ground supply available for generation units.”

Entergy Texas, which according to its website supplies power to about 461,000 customers in 27 states in the state, said it began the outage on Monday.

“We apologize for the inconvenience these interruptions may cause, but we currently have an unusual situation driven by extreme weather conditions. We are working to respond and restore power as soon as it is safe to do so,” said Stuart Barrett. , vice president of the client, said. service.

“While we were preparing crew members for this storm, a loss of generation, coupled with the peak load, put a strain on the system. As a result, we did not have enough power to meet customer needs in Southeast Texas. . “

CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin contributed to this story.

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