Calling the situation “an unprecedented power shortage,” CenterPoint Energy said because of directives from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), its customers should prepare to be without power for “several more days.”
CenterPoint reminded that it does not generate power and said it must follow ERCOT’s decisions about distribution. Those decisions and apparent lack of preparation for a storm that was predicted for almost a week has left more than 5 million Houston-area customers without service in record-low, sub-freezing temperatures since Sunday night.
CenterPoint’s finger-pointing wasn’t the only blame being directed at ERCOT. Earlier in the day, Gov. Greg Abbott called the shortages “a total failure by ERCOT” and said he was calling on the Texas Legislature to launch an investigation of the nonprofit regulator as an emergency item.
Following is the CenterPoint statement:
“The Texas electric system continues to face an unprecedented power shortage due to extreme winter weather. Because the state’s current power generation has fallen short of demand, significant electricity outages have resulted across Texas and are lasting longer than previously planned. CenterPoint Energy is required to comply with ERCOT’s directive to suspend electric service to a portion of its customers. The company does not generate electricity itself, so the current shortage of power capacity from the grid is not something that CenterPoint Energy directly controls.
Due to the continued issues with power generators’ ability to produce electricity, CenterPoint Energy’s customers need to be prepared to be without power, potentially for the duration of the generation shortage event, which could last several more days.”
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