I Hear You, But I Don’t See You

Sulphur Springs was without power for well over an hour and in some cases are still in the dark. Unlike the promise of a brownout of 20 to 30 minutes. Emergency officials opened Hopkins County Civic Center just before 5:00 pm Monday as a warming station. The facility will remain open as long as the power remains out and as people need it during the winter weather, according to Sulphur Springs Police Chief/Emergency Management Coordinator Jason Ricketson.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is beginning to restore some of the power lost due to Texas’ winter weather event. Monday afternoon at 4:00, approximately 2,500 MW of load is in the process of being restored, enough ability to serve 500,000 households. ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness said, “ERCOT and Texas electric companies have been able to restore service to hundreds of thousands of households today, but we know there are many people who are still waiting.” “It’s also important to remember that severe weather, mainly frigid temperatures, is expected to continue, so we’re not out of the woods.”

More than 1 million customers in the Houston area are without power. Gov. Greg Abbott told Houston’s KPRC 2 it was a matter of the cold, brutal temperatures. “The private company providers and generators of that power, their operations froze up,” Abbott said. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner made it clear whom he blames. He posted a Tweet that said, “Neither the City of Houston nor Harris County controls or regulates ERCOT or the power generators. The power outages are the responsibility of the state.” Who’s correct? “The ERCOT market design is fatally flawed,” said Ed Hirs, the University of Houston energy fellow. “It was never a matter of if it would fail. The only question was when.”