Widespread power outages on Houston’s coldest day in decades

Like many of you, my home in League City has been without power since about 2 a.m. this morning. The power went out just as the winds came up and temperatures really began to plunge across the Houston area.

Before the winter storm impacted the region, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said there would need to be rolling blackouts that would last 15 to 45 minutes. However, what is happening across much of the Houston area is more significant than that, or power lines affected by ice.

“These are not rolling blackouts. We are dealing with systemwide power outages across the state,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday morning.

ERCOT is responsible for managing the flow of power across the state. Companies such as CenterPoint are responsible for maintaining the “lines and poles” that deliver electricity to your home. That CenterPoint’s website is experiencing technical problems this morning is not helping to clarify the situation.

One local public official told me that ERCOT has had to take several power generating plants offline, presumably due to the extremely cold weather. This is unfortunate, given that these conditions have been forecast to occur for almost a week now.

I don’t have confidence in any time frame for when power might be restored to the metro Houston area. It’s really outside my area of expertise. But this is a bad situation when Houston is seeing high temperatures around 20 degrees today, and will be much colder tonight, and we can’t be certain when the heat will come back on.

We’ll have a weather update by around 1 p.m. this afternoon.

 

34 thoughts on “Widespread power outages on Houston’s coldest day in decades”

  1. I heard over the weekend that when the artic blast hit un north the wind turbines were freezing up and part of the states power generation comes from wind turbines located in various areas of Texas.

    • 23% of our electricity is provided by wind – most are frozen due to the weather. We have ‘retired’ several coal and fossil fuel generators in the past three years, even while demand in Texas is growing due to the influx of new residents. Really pissed at our PUC, our legislators and ERCOT for letting this situation develop.

      • Not true. The 23% is true, but only about half are down, not most. And the strong winds have enabled the remaining ones to generate more than expected, so the total shortage from wind is a very small percent. And like all new technologies, they will learn from this, and make them better for the future. Coal is a dinosaur and should be, and will be, retired.

  2. Live in Spring Branch my power went off for a sec overnight but came back on. I live by a fire station. I’ve lived in this area since Hurricane Ike and got my power back fast after the storm then. I’m thinking since the fire station needs power that will save me like 13 years ago. Ugh I hope I’m not wrong. Bundle up. Good luck to everyone going through this surreal time.

    • I think you are pretty much correct…power official said on tv that some areas are considered “essential”…there is either a hospital or fire station or law enforcement headquarters located within that area. So I think your fire station IS saving you! 👍

    • You are likely correct.

      The way it was explained to me was that “some” buildings are labeled “essential” in an emergency so their power is considered highest priority so that building (and any houses on the same string of power) are done first and then the others in the neighborhood.

      I could be wrong (and have been in life) but that was what was explained to me as to why we have done well in the storms.

      • I’ve done all that, I guess my question is which is better if I’m looking at being without power through the coldest of the weather tonight and tomorrow. Better to try and keep some water flowing through the pipes, or to shut off the water at the meter and try to drain the system if the inside temperature is going to plunge.

  6. I completely understand your frustration….homeowners do all we can and it turns out to be basically out of out hands in some corporate headquarters purvey.

    Fortunately, in Mauriceville, my wife and I invested in a 22 kW stand-by generator.

    Look forward to your wether reports….even over here as ther tend to be the most explanation/accurate.

    Good luck to you and yours,
    Steve Thompson

  8. Next time CenterPoint asks for another rate increase, I hope all remember their stunning lack of preparedness for this cold snap. Rolling blackouts are to be expected; the lack of any info as to if an outage is a blackout or a downed line/transformer, etc is ludicrous. Website down, phones not answered….

  9. That they KNEW this was coming and nothing was done to harden the plants is CRIMINAL. There ARE things that can be done to combat extreme cold. My guess, (a guess it is) is that the gas lines have frozen at the point where the lines are restricted. There is water in natural gas, and gas going thru a restriction expands and gives off heat. THAT causes the lines to become blocked when the water freezes. Those are KNOWN spots, and heat tape or some other method should have been used to prevent this ^%$#$&^. Could I be wrong? Yeah, but I’d bet I’m not. And IF I’m right people need to pay with their jobs.

    • I appreciate your enthusiasm, but its not so simple. Industrial facilities built in places that routinely face such weather conditions are designed differently from the start. Decisions like putting compressors inside buildings. You can’t erect a building overnight. And when you put in place mitigation like heat tracing, you aren’t able to test it under real world conditions (you can’t really simulate a freeze like this) so in the actual event maybe it works, and maybe it doesn’t. I know there are lots of hard working people out there trying to keep their facilities running despite this event being far outside the design envelope of their facilities.

  10. Guys, please don’t slam the company who sponsors SCW. We are serviced by a different power company and even a different power grid, and we’ve been without power since 9 pm last night. I appreciate Reliant’s sponsorship for this weather service and understand this situation is an anomaly.

    • We too have been without power since 8:15 last night. It was a cold night and will continue to be a cold day.

    • Ive been with Reliant for a lifetime and I’ve never seen such as this. I’m 66 years old and disabled and I’ve never felt this cold in my life. I pray we all get through these days we will face without power. We need to be focused on surviving not laying blame on others, let us be grateful it’s not any Worse.

  11. “We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas,” said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness. “At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units. We are asking Texans to take some simple, safe steps to lower their energy use during this time.”

    • “We are asking Texans to take some simple, safe steps to lower their energy use during this time.” Uh, do they expect us to “lower” energy use into the negative as so many users are already at ZERO consumption. Sorry if I assume most of these mouthpieces have an IQ not exceeding okra.

  12. Thank you for the update. I’ve been up since 0430 and haven’t had power since at least that time. Websites are down and phones are just ringing busy so I really was in the dark as to what was going on (pun absolutely intended). You guys are lifesavers. Keep up the good work!

  13. My issue is that Center Point does not properly maintain their lines. We have reported a pole leaned over and lines that you can almost touch for years. Nothing has been done about it. It really erks me that we pay all of this money and nothing is handled.

  14. I blame it on WFH required by most companies nowadays. City of Houston should have mandated a day off work. I have to keep my house warm enough for virtual meetings and fire up all the ancillary electronics. No energy conservation happening here as its still a office day.

  16. Totally disgusted by the lack of forethought and transparency in managing this weather situation. Like you said, it wasn’t a surprise event.

  17. Wow, this is a BIG mess! Here in Galveston the city was totally dark at 4:30 am and still without power. Private homes and businesses have generates.

    The Senior housing complex I live in has no power for heat, to cook and no elevators. The fire truck/EMS just came to service a resident and had to walk up the dark staircase with their equipment.

    Everyone stay safe and bundle up for the overnight drop in temperatures!! Pray the electric service is restored soon.

  18. Power just came back on in Clear Lake! Noon on Monday.

    Stay safe everyone. Support Space City Weather

  19. I’m lucky enough to have power. I lowered the heat to 62, only have one light on, and have everything unplugged/off except the fridge/freezer and the cell phone. If you still have power please use the minimum.

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