A worker repairs a power line in Austin, Texas, USA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2021.
Thomas Ryan Allison | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Texas Electrical Reliability Council, known as ERCOT, which controls most of the state’s power, said it plans to exit emergency conditions Friday as energy has been returned to millions of customers who remained in the dark.
However, the impacts of the deadly storm are still being felt throughout Texas.
ERCOT said energy conservation “is still critical.” According to the latest data from PowerOutage.us, about 200,000 customers in the state still do not have energy. Utility officials say limited blackouts can still occur if electricity demand increases.
On Tuesday, at one point, more than four million customers were without electricity.
Although the heat could return, some parts of the state’s water supply could now be at risk after the water pressure drops, causing potential pollution.
Alison Silverstein, an independent energy consultant and former strategic adviser to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said 20 million or more jeans could be forced to boil water.
ERCOT officials said Thursday during a virtual press conference that the network was “seconds and minutes away” from a much worse disaster, given the speed with which generation was coming out of the system. KXAN in Austin first reported the comments. If they hadn’t cut off electricity when they did, the entire grid would have gone down, according to Silverstein.
Winter conditions affected energy production from natural gas, coal, renewable energy and other sources, in the same way that consumers obtained their thermostats amid refrigerated temperatures. The network cannot match the dynamics of supply and demand.
Natural gas production in Texas fell by about 30%, making it difficult for power companies to find the gas they needed to run their power plants. According to some estimates, up to four million barrels a day of crude oil production were disconnected.
Energy prices initially rose after production stopped, but took a breather on Thursday with falling futures on West Texas crude oil and natural gas.
WTI declines continued on Friday, with contract trading below $ 60 a barrel. Earlier in the week, WTI breached the $ 60 mark for the first time since January 2020.
Henry Hub natural gas futures gained 1.95% to trade on Friday at $ 3.137 per million British thermal units. For the week, natural gas has risen more than 7%.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for an investigation into ERCOT.
“The Texas Electrical Reliability Council has been anything but reliable for the past 48 hours,” he said Tuesday in a statement. “There are too many jeans without electricity and heat in their home, as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. This is unacceptable.”
Looking to the future, experts say maintaining winter equipment could be one of the steps taken to prevent future disasters.
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