Why is My Power Out if the Texas Power Grid is OK?

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ supply and demand graph has shown the state’s grid has had enough capacity to keep up with Texans’ demand for power to stay warm during the Arctic blast that rushed into the state Thursday morning.

ERCOT predicts energy use will peak at about 8 a.m. Friday.

Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott, ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas promised the grid would hold and there would be no repeat of February 2021 when thousands were plunged into darkness and more than 200 people died when the power grid failed.

“I agree with them based on these conditions, the biggest difference from this and Yuri is the weather. It’s going to be warmer, it’s going to be drier, it’s going to be sunnier, it’s going to be windier. All of those accrue to a higher likelihood of the grid staying up,” said Doug Lewin the president of Stoic Energy Consulting.

WHY IS MY POWER OUT IF THE GRID IS OK?

There could be issues with power that have nothing to do with the grid, like localized outages due to the high winds.

Oncor’s outage map shows less than 800 outages in North Texas as of 8 p.m. Earlier Thursday the electric delivery company said most of the outages were caused by high wind and the outages were being fixed.

If you experience an outage you can text OUT to 66267, use the MyOncor app to report it, call 888-313-4747 or select “Report an Outage” on Oncor’s website.