ERCOT says power outages may continue through Tuesday to protect electric grid
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Feb 16, 2021
USA oil production has dropped by anywhere from 1.5 million to 1.7 million barrels a day, helping US crude prices trade above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than year.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has sought to cut power use in response to winter record of 69,150 MW on Sunday evening, more than 3,200 MW higher than the previous winter peak in January 2018.
Of the 25,000-plus megawatts of wind power capacity normally available in Texas, 12,000 megawatts was out of service on Sunday morning, an ERCOT spokesperson said.
At times, parts of Texas were colder than Alaska, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature at 5 a.m.in Houston was 18 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 Celsius), matching the reading in Anchorage.
This image released by the Fort Worth Fire Department shows firefighters during a search and rescue of drivers following a major crash caused by the icy weather on Interstate 35 near Fort Worth, Texas. Texas, which isn't accustomed to winter's full fury, is getting a big taste.
Responding to a request from Governor Greg Abbott, President Joe Biden granted a federal emergency declaration for all 254 counties in the state on Sunday, authorising U.S. agencies to coordinate disaster relief from severe weather in Texas. Flights are grounded. More than a million barrels a day of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of gas production are shut while pipelines have declared force majeure and massive refineries have halted gasoline and diesel output.
- A rare deep freeze in Texas caused so severe a spike in demand for heat and electricity that on Monday, the state's electric grid operator imposed rotating blackouts that left more than two million customers without power. West Texas Intermediate futures rose by as much as 2.5%, above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year.
"This impressive onslaught of wicked wintry weather across much of the Lower 48 is due to the combination of strong Arctic high pressure supplying sub-freezing temperatures and an active storm track escorting waves of precipitation from coast-to-coast".
"It is going to be a cold week", said David Roth, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. "It is going to take a while for them to break out of it".
