Staff Reports
WFAA interviewed Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT, on Tuesday to find out more about the current electric crisis in Texas.
According to Magness, the state’s problems stem from several different factors, resulting in uncertainty on when power will be restored.
Magness said approximately 45,000 megawatts of electricity are offline as of Tuesday morning, which was a jump from the 34,000 megawatts offline on Monday.
According to officials, one megawatt of electricity can power approximately 500 homes a year.
ERCOT said 70 to 80 of Texas’s 680 power plants are currently offline, causing the outages.
According to Magness, winterization of generation fleets is one of several things that needs to be looked at constantly; in recent years, there have been improvements to how energy providers prepare equipment for weather conditions, but it wasn’t sufficient for such historic low temperatures.
Jason Whitley with WFAA said Texas is currently on a deserted island as far as power goes.
The eastern power grid is experiencing power outages due to a winter storm as well, and ERCOT doesn’t have a connection to the western power grid.
Mexico has provided Texas with 450 megawatts of electricity, but it won’t be enough to help restore power to everyone.
According to Magness, crews are working around the clock to get power generators back up and running; some generators are coming up while those previously running are going down.
“As we’re getting those units back on, and as we increase those, we can restore service,” Magness said. “But our goal is to maintain the safety of the grid, to add to the number of customers who are getting their power back on, and we hope we can continue to do that.”
To read the full transcript of Whitley’s interview with Magness, go here.
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New Governor and New Railroad Commissioners needed!
Typical Republican short-sightedness not providing infrastructure.
You're joking right? Sounds like the problem was a wind farm froze up. The "Green" solution failed. Who do you think mandated those programs?
Woah there lil buckaroo, turn off that FoxNews and stop spoutin' tall tails. Green was absolutely not the reason for failure, it lands squarely on the Republican leadership who failed to winterize as specified in report produced after the 2011 massive failure of the Texas grid. Over half the fossil fuel grid went off line while green performed better than expected and ERCOT had to deal with overages from wind.
You be gossiping to the likes of Chatty Kathy rather than gettin' some real news.
Green energy, as of yet; is not efficient enough to be a practical alternative to fossil fuels. There are just as many scientists that say global warming is not caused by man (fossil fuel) as there are scientists that support the global warming hypothesis. Quit whining about fox news. It is, and has been; number one for a long time. The American people have a right to watch news that is not leftist ideology and opinion. If you can't handle the truth and you need someone to tell you the politically correct words to say, then step aside and let those that can manage their own lives watch fox news.
We just had a pipe burst in our bathroom. Who's gonna fix it?
Grab those boostraps!
This has been incredibly stressful and difficult especially for our elderly no power for 48 hours we need $1000.00 to every household to pay this electric bill that will be hitting us, for all who have opened our homes to those with no heat,water or food, they knew this storm was coming for over a week & did nothing to prepare. Our governor Abbott has declared all 254 counties a disaster and we will need assistance thank you
Leave the coal and gas plants along !!!!! Wind energy is not going to work!!!!!!!
You can always tell who watches FoxNews by just how wrong they are with the most simplest of facts.
what are you talking about, did you even read the article...
Ella, you're an idiot. U don't know a damn thing about political differences and should be muzzled with a dirty sock.
Ella is 100% correct, I highly suggest you stop watching FoxNews so you stop hanging your lil bootay out in the wind because it's looking red and chapped.
“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union. It limped along on under-investment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances,” said Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston.
"Most of the plants that went offline during evening and morning today were fueled" by coal, gas, or nuclear power, he added. About 40 percent of Texas electricity comes from natural gas-fired plants, followed by wind turbines (23 percent), coal (18 percent), and nuclear power (11 percent), the Journal reports, citing ERCOT's 2020 data.