ERCOT says it's prepared as colder weather approaches
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Cold fronts are on the way and this time next week we could be seeing temps in the teens. ERCOT says it's closely watching and prepared.
In a note sent out Friday, it says ERCOT should have enough generation to meet demand. It points out the improvements that have been made over the past 18 months:
- Weatherization and inspections
- Having an additional source of fuel onsite for generators
- Scheduled maintenance period
- Improved Communications
- Fast frequency response service
"I think they're pretty confident," SMU Maguire Energy Institute Director Bruce Bullock said. "Certainly we're much better prepared than we were. Couple of things.. the winterization, the fuel storage that is in place.. things of that nature.. should help keep things going. The other thing is this is only supposed to be maybe a two day dip in the temperature and additionally, we're not expecting a great deal if any precipitation."
As we approach two years since the winter storm that killed hundreds of Texans, some have made their own preparations.
"Now we keep a few gas cans in the garage whenever we hear there's going to be a cold front," Dallas resident Eric Davis said. "Just making sure we can provide for them.. but we're prepared based off of last year having generators and things like that."
In a report released last month, ERCOT says there is a slim chance that in an extreme weather event the grid might not be able to provide the amount of energy we will all need and outages could happen.