AUSTIN, Tex. — Texas entered its second day of freezing temperatures Friday.
As of Friday morning, there were 20,000 homes across the state without power, according to Governor Greg Abbott.
70,000 Texans were without power during the same time Thursday morning.
The governor assured that the outages on both days were not related to the state power grid, but were rather due to local issues, including wind and ice.
Abbott said peak demand reached 69,000 megawatts overnight and the state does not expect to surpass these levels for the remainder of the winter storm.
The chairman of the Public Utility Commission, Peter Lake, said mass outages were avoided thanks to generators being turned on earlier than usual.
“The grid remains strong and it’s more powerful than it’s ever been,” Lake said.
He added that the energy grid was operated conservatively and had more reserves during this winter storm, which helped keep power running.
The CEO of ERCOT, Brad Jones, was also at the governor’s press conference.
Jones said ERCOT estimates it will continue to see high loads of demand Friday evening into Saturday morning.
ERCOT and PUC are planning to add more capacity starting at 9 p.m. Central time, to overcompensate for demand.
Temperatures across the Lone Star State will continue to be at or below freezing Friday night.
