ERCOT Says Texas Not Prepared For Winter Weather Like in February
Let's flashback to February when Winter Storm Uri came through, shut down the state of Texas, and would become the costliest natural disaster recorded in the United States.
According to a University of Houston report, Winter Storm Uri affected about 4.5 million homes in Texas. 69% of Texans lost electricity during the storm and spent an average of 42 hours without power. 49% of Texans went without water for an average of more than two days.
By the time all was said and done, Winter Storm Uri would claim the lives of more than 100 Texans, would total 295 billion dollars in damages, and would result in seven board members resigning from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
The Texas Electrical Grid is managed by ERCOT, and according to a KVUE report, ERCOT just released a report that shows we could see a repeat of events if Texas has another extreme weather event this winter.
The report is called SARA, or the Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy for the ERCOT Region. The SARA report looked at several different weather scenarios and found that four of the five scenarios could lead to potential blackouts.
Back in June, Governor Abbott signed two bills into law to address the issues that followed the blackouts. One of those new laws required power plants to weatherize, but didn't provide a deadline to get it done. The new law didn't affect natural gas facilities.
According to that ERCOT report, “There is no planned capacity expected to become operational by the start of the winter season based on the latest developer information. This is largely due to the new practice of classifying projects approved for grid synchronization as operational rather than planned resources.”
In short, ERCOT hasn't really done anything to prepare for another extreme weather event like Winter Storm Uri.
There have been lots of reports that say Texas is in for another could winter, and the possibility of a repeat of February 2021 is likely.
Better make sure you've got the supplies you'll need to survive another prolonged freezing blackout just in case. Thanks for nothin', ERCOT.
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