DALLAS — Even though temperatures are still warm and comfortable, planning for winter can't come soon enough in the State of Texas.
"The public was traumatized by Winter Storm Uri. I used the word 'traumatized' and it keeps coming up in the press and the legislature and everybody remembers it," said Commissioner Will McAdams of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas.
He was speaking during Friday's PUCT meeting that went most of the day. The committee saw plans from ERCOT for the upcoming winter. They also spoke to energy companies about their preparations.
Woody Rickerson, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at ERCOT, was at the meeting too. When asked about the probability of another severe winter storm, Rickerson said, "[Elliott] was a 90th percentile storm. That equates to roughly one in 10 years."
The acronym "EEA" was repeatedly used during the conversation on Friday. It's something Texans should pay attention to. EEA stands for Energy Emergency Alert, and it is initiated when operating reserves drop to a certain level. EEA1 means conservation is needed. EEA2 means conservation is critical. EEA3 means it's time for controlled outages.
The acronym will likely be used again this winter season.
Energy companies throughout Texas told the committee they have done inspections and winterization of equipment ahead of time. Many also have incentives where non-residential customers can earn money if they give power back to the grid during peak times. That would help reduce demand and keep the power on.
Oncor, one of the DFW's largest energy providers, was at the PUCT meeting. Regarding Oncor's load management program, they told WFAA, "Oncor pays incentives to participating service providers who work with commercial customers to offset on-peak demand. The summer On-peak demand period falls between 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Central Standard Time(CST), Monday through Friday, June through September, excluding weekends and federal holidays. Winter Emergency on-peak demand is between 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. CST and operates 24 hours a day from December through February. The business facility must be located in Oncor’s service area and receive electricity from an Oncor meter. Examples of eligible facilities include restaurants, retail stores, healthcare facilities, warehouses, and office buildings. Interested customers can visit www.oncor.com/eepm for more info."
The hope is to never repeat the winter storm of February 2021, when millions of Texans lost power for days, leaving 246 dead in 77 counties.