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Texas Governor Abbott provides update on power outages, roads
During a press conference today, Governor Abbott said the Texas power grid continues to be reliable and fully functioning, even at peak demand.
AUSTIN, Texas - Grid reliability wasn't a question during this winter storm, according to state authorities.
"The historic reforms that we have implemented at the direction of the legislature and the governor mean that we have more power available than before, more backup for generators than before and more reliability," said Peter Lake, chairman of the Public Utility Commission.
In a Friday briefing, the governor and state officials outlined the status of the grid, utilities and road conditions. They highlighted winterization efforts that prevented a disaster like last year's winter storm. As of Friday, the governor said about 20,000 customers are without power, but that is due to weather-related issues local providers are dealing with, and not grid reliability.
"Overnight we hit our highest load of this winter event. It came early this morning. During that time our generation and transmission partners have operated admirably. We have no confirmed outages of equipment due to weather," said Brad Jones, ERCOT CEO.
"With the expected peak demand over the next two days, there should be about 17,000 megawatts of extra power capacity. That's enough to supply more than 3 million homes across the state," said Governor Greg Abbott, (R) Texas.
But roads, that's another story.
"Roads throughout the state continue to be icy, and we are working to fully address problem spots, we are continuing to deal with some heavy areas of icing and really stubborn ice," said Marc Williams, executive director at TxDOT.
In Kerr County, a massive pile up was the result of a collision and a tractor trailer jackknifing, all due to ice.
"We've been working throughout the night to address not only moving those vehicles and trucks out of the way, but also get the trucks that backed up after those incidents to clear and move out of the roadway," said Williams.
Around 4,000 TxDOT crew members have been working around the clock to clear roadways. Officials said ice will continue to be a concern, at least over the next 24 hours. If you can avoid driving, it’s best to do so for now.
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MORE HEADLINES:
Local disaster declaration in place for Austin-Travis County
Icy conditions strand hundreds of vehicles on I-10 in Kerrville, Texas for hours
"Stay home": Freezing temps making Texas roads icy, dangerous
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