Millions of people in Texas are currently without power after central power grids shut down due to record-breaking inclement weather.
What We Know:
- Governor Greg Abbot tells Texans to remain vigilant amidst record-breaking power outages in the southern state. This is startling considering Texas has its own private power grid, separate from the rest of the United States. The U.S only has 3 power grid systems: The Western Interconnection, The Easter Interconnection, and the Electric Reliability of Texas. So far, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin are the 3 areas being hit the hardest.
- At least 11 deaths statewide can be attributed to the dangerous winter storm that has continued to break records across the country. A resident in Texas exclaims, “we woke up this morning, our pipes are all frozen, and we have no water in the house.” and that is just one of many testimonies reported in regards to how this state has failed its residents. Another testimony reports that a woman and girl were killed due to carbon monoxide poisoning. They had left their car running because there wasn’t any power for heat inside their house.
- President Joe Biden issued a state of emergency declaration for Texas last Sunday. Fossil fuel groups and Republicans blamed the power failures on frozen wind turbines. They’re currently warning against the supposed dangers of alternative power sources. These claims appear to contradict reports that the current financial structure for power generation in Texas offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. Meanwhile, residents are being left to fend for themselves.
- Systems engineer Jesse Jenkins from Princeton University states that it’s a question of how much insurance you want to buy. Texas doesn’t prioritize winter protection on power grids because they don’t ideally experience winter storms of this magnitude. As from the Lone Star state, others have felt the impact of this brutal winter event. Temperatures in Oklahoma went below 20 degrees for 5 days, making that the third time in history that’s ever happened.
- Texas energy losses mostly stem from a failure to winterize the power-generating systems, and ultimately this proves to be bad news for vaccine suppliers. Employees of a medical facility in Houston scrambled once the power was shut off because they feared the vaccines in their custody would become spoiled and useless to the people that need them. As of late, it is unclear when power will be restored in all of the impacted areas in Texas.
Governor Abbot called for reform of the state’s electric grid operator, The Electric Reliability of Texas (ERCOT), in light of Texas’s highest emergency level in over a decade.
