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Strong winter storms suddenly hit much of the United States this week. Texas, in particular, was hit particularly hard. Several decimeters of snow fell and the temperatures were many degrees lower than what the people of Texas are used to.
More than four million homes were affected by power outages and about 20 people died. On Thursday, most homes in Texas recovered their electricity, but more than 300,000 electricity customers are still without power. And the cold will not abate in a few days.
Power outage for several months
At the same time, Texas’ largest electric company, ERCOT, says the power grid was only “seconds or minutes” away from an even bigger disaster, something that could have left Texas without power for months to come.
It was Monday morning that the sudden and extreme cold snap destroyed natural gas plants, wind turbines and coal-fired power plants and caused a major power shortage in the system. At the same time, the need for electricity increased as the winter storm hit Texas. The decision was made quickly to implement a rotating shutdown, which turned into an extensive and long-term blackout.
– The situation needed to be resolved immediately. If network operators had waited, more units could have gone down and then it would have been executed, says Bill Magness, ERCOT’s chief operating officer, according to the Texas Tribune.
According to Magness, if the measure had not been taken, it could have been a recurring blackout for several months. Equipment could have burned out, transformers could have exploded, and power lines could have fallen.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has harshly criticized ERCOT and called for an investigation into the company and its problems this week.
“It is completely unacceptable that you have been forced to put up with a single minute of this,” Abbott said at a news conference Thursday.
– ERCOT has failed.
