Why The Texas Power Grid Crashed Leaving 4 Million Without Electricity Why The Texas Power Grid Crashed Leaving 4 Million Without Electricity The immediate question facing the Texas power sector is whether its participants are willing to pay for winterization measures that are common farther north, even for a once-in-a-decade spell of weather.
Updated: February 17, 2021 9:34 am IST
Four million Texans have been without power after the grid crashed
When it gets really cold, it can be hard to produce electricity, as customers in Texas and neighboring states are finding out. But it s not impossible. Operators in Alaska, Canada, Maine, Norway and Siberia do it all the time.
Updated:
February 17, 2021 12:43 IST
The answer lies in the differences between Texas’s independent power grid and the rest of the United States.
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A winter storm dropping snow and ice sent temperatures plunging across the southern Plains, prompting a power emergency in Texas a day after conditions cancelled flights and impacted traffic across large swaths of the U.S. | Photo Credit:
AP
The answer lies in the differences between Texas’s independent power grid and the rest of the United States.
A brutal winter storm that has left millions without power along the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused power prices to surge has highlighted the differences between Texas’s independent power grid and the rest of the United States.
and last updated 2021-02-17 17:30:15-05
Nearly 2.6 million homes and businesses in Texas are still without power Wednesday amid freezing temperatures, a full two days after winter storms overtaxed the stateâs power grid.
According to PowerOutages.us 2.6 million customers in the state are still without power. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the stateâs electricity regulation body, still has the state in a Level 3 Alert â the highest emergency level.
That emergency level involves rotating blackouts in the hopes of conserving energy as the grid struggles to produce enough power.
ERCOT has not provided a timetable as to when the blackouts could end. The current cold snap is expected to remain in effect for the next few days before breaking up over the weekend, meaning the electrical grid will continue to be overtaxed.