Texas governor warns of isolated outages but insists power grid will hold up as winter freeze looms

State’s grid operator expects high demand ahead of winter cold snap one year after devastating power crisis

Nearly one year after a major freeze left millions of residents without power and killed more than 200 people, Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the state is “well prepared” for severe weather in the coming days.

After one of the largest infrastructure crises in the state, officials assured residents on 1 February that an incoming cold front is expected to bring potentially icy conditions – but colder temperatures will not reach their lows from February 2021, and winter storm conditions will not last as long.

“We are utilizing every applicable state agency to make sure that Texas will robustly respond to this extreme cold winter storm that is going to be sweeping across Texas,” Governor Abbott said during a briefing on Tuesday.

Mr Abbott added that there could be some isolated power outages but expressed confidence in the overall power grid.

A series of winter storms that swept across the US in February 2021 left the state with a major power crisis, leaving millions without electricity in freezing conditions. The disaster snowballed into a full-blown water crisis, exacerbated by supply chain shortages and major food disruptions.

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported a death toll of 246, though an analysis from BuzzFeed News found that deaths related to the crisis likely reached more than 750. The state reported that the leading cause of death from the crisis was hypothermia.

The state has spent the last year appointing new regulators and tweaking legislation, but experts contend that the state is just as vulnerable in another winter storm, particularly as the accelerating climate crisis is likely to make such severe weather events more common.

The near-collapse of the state’s electrical grid last year can also be traced to a 1999 decision to effectively deregulate the system by handing control of the state’s electricity delivery infrastructure to a market-based network of private operators and energy systems.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz faced widespread scrutiny after flying to Cancun, Mexico for a family vacation during the freeze, which he later called a “mistake”.

On Tuesday, Governor Abbott warned that some Texans may lose power during the cold front, but he said outages are not necessarily evidence of the grid’s failure.

“People may lose power. It could be that power lines are down. Power lines run by the company that customers enter into contracts with,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that there are problems with the power grid in the state of Texas. It means that, for a short period of time, a particular neighborhood may be without power.”

Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s grid, has predicted high electricity demand that could strain the grid, and is implementing an “aggressive grid management plan”.

The organisation issued a statement that it “will deploy all the tools available to us to manage the grid effectively during this winter weather,” according to a statement.

Texans already endured a strong winter system earlier this year. An arctic cold front is forecast to move through south central Texas on Wednesday, with temperatures dipping below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and bringing snow and a wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet over parts of the state, according to the National Weather Service.

A winter storm watch has been issued for the region.