ERCOT initiates rotating power outages in Texas
HOUSTON - The Electric Reliability Council of Texas initiated rotating outages on Monday morning amid a winter storm.
ERCOT, which manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers, says they entered emergency conditions and initiated rotating outages at 1:25 a.m.
RELATED: Winter storm in southeast Texas: What you need to know
At the highest point, ERCOT says about 10,500 MW of customer load was shed – enough power to serve about 2 million homes.
ERCOT says extreme weather conditions caused many generating units – across fuel types – to trip offline and become unavailable.
There is now over 30,000 MW of generation forced off the system.
"Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now," said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness.
ERCOT says rotating outages will likely last throughout the morning and could be initiated until the weather emergency ends.
MORE: How to stay warm and safe during a winter storm power outage
ERCOT is asking the public to conserve as much energy as they can by turning down the thermostat to 68 degrees, turning off and unplugging non-essential lights and appliances, and closing shades and blinds so that they don’t lose as much heat through their windows.
CenterPoint Energy put out a Tweet to let their customers in the greater Houston area know that ERCOT declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency, and that they were directed to start controlled rotating outages in their service area.
These rotating outages could last up to an hour and could take place any time over the next 24 hours.
RELATED: Power outages: 2.7M Texans without power; check your area as energy conservation urged
Utility tracker PowerOutage reports more than 2.7 million Texans are without power. Some are losing power due to the rotating outages, while others are losing power due to the weather conditions.
CenterPoint has a map showing planned and unplanned outages in the area. Click here.