Over 12,000 customers in Lake Highlands continue without power Tuesday as a result of power outages caused by severe winter weather.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas initiated the outages at 1:25 a.m. Monday because of record-breaking electric demand as people try to keep their homes warm. The outages are expected to last until the “weather emergency ends,” according to a news release.
Due to ongoing record-low temperatures and generation, ERCOT has continued to direct Oncor and utilities across the state to drop power load through maintained, controlled outages, said Mayor Pro Tem Adam McGough in a Facebook post this morning.
“Oncor was able to rotate some outages overnight,” McGough said in the post. “But poor grid conditions have continued to prevent us and other utilities from rotating, or rolling, the entirety of these outages, leading to extended periods without power for many of our customers.”
McGough continued that ERCOT is unable to predict when grid conditions will stabilize and urges residents to prepare for continued extended outages.
Crews are working to restore equipment damaged by the winter storm and have been relocated from areas with limited damage to areas with more damage.
In the post, McGough included some FAQs about the outages, including a response as to why some home lose power for hours, some for minutes or not at all for others:
“There are two major issues affecting many of customers right now: winter storm outages and controlled power outages directed by ERCOT,” he said. “We are using all designated power lines for controlled outages so that hospitals and other critical infrastructure remains intact and system stability is preserved. This means that customers near critical facilities, or those in limited areas where rolling outages won’t take place in order to maintain grid stability, may not experience outages, while those farther from these facilities or areas may be out multiple times or for longer instances.”
