Experts 'confident' in the Texas power grid as many brace for Arctic blast

HOUSTON - Officials in the Houston-area are urging people to get ready for unusually cold weather expected for later this week.

"People need to prepare for a hard freeze for Friday [and] Saturday," said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Wrap those pipes now. Get a little extra water [and] keep that on hand. If you’re going out of town, wrap the pipes, or drain the pipes of water and turn them off."

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On Thursday, an extreme blast of Arctic air is expected to surge across much of the country. The deep freeze is forecasted to drop low temperatures into the teens Friday morning in Houston.

On Monday, many people were out buying supplies preparing for the winter temperatures. We met Ruben Delgado purchasing cases of bottled water and a generator.

"They say it’s going to be windy, so that means it’s going to feel horrible," said Delgado. "Losing power is probably the biggest concern. Looks like it’s going to be bad."

In February 2021, a deadly winter storm caused massive problems across Texas. Dangerously cold temperatures combined with snow, sleet and freezing rain. Roughly five million people lost power and frozen pipes were bursting in homes statewide.

A spokesperson from ERCOT says they’re ready for the cold weather, and they’re not expecting any issues this week. Most officials agree, there could be spotty power outages caused by the strong wind gusts. However, experts believe large-scale statewide power outages this week are unlikely.

"There are a couple of big differences from February 2021," said Doug Lewin from Stoic Energy and the Texas Power Podcast. "It doesn’t look like there’s going to be much snow and ice associated with this system. It also does look like temperatures are going to be somewhere 6-10 degrees warmer."

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Lewin says if there is a moment of concern, it would be Thursday night or Friday morning. However, he thinks the Texas power grid won’t fail this week.

"The moments you’re really looking at are late Thursday night and Friday morning, because you’re going to have a huge temperature drop," said Lewin. "I think we’re going to have enough to get through this."

Officials are advising people to wrap their pipes just in case. In addition, for those leaving town, they’re being urged to shut off their home’s water and empty the system.