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KPRC Houston-area lawmakers

KPRC, Houston-area lawmakers said they are demanding answers from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) after rolling power outages left some 400,000 Texans in the dark for varying periods on Wednesday, Local 2 Investigates reported.

“It’s no secret that winter comes around once a year,” said Sen. Mike Jackson State. He said ERCOT should have better planning and procedures in place to ensure that Texans are not shy in the future. He and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said frozen water pipes burst in two power plants the Dallas area, causing the entire plant to close, which they say has contributed to the blackout that affected families by state.

He said ERCOT should have better planning and procedures in place to ensure that Texans are not shy in the future. He and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said frozen water pipes burst in two power plants the Dallas area, causing the entire plant to close, which they say has contributed to the blackout that affected families by state.
Jackson said the security systems in these plants have led to entire plants to close when the pipes burst.
Dewhurst said the natural gas plants that were forced off-line were the oak and plants Sand Hill in north Texas.
Dewhurst told the power applied to the Texas ERCOT grid was nowhere near peak capacity. He said that other natural gas plants were supposed to provide relief, but the cold caused low pressure in supply lines so that these safeguards have been unable to kick in.
State Senator Tommy Williams, however, said the industry has failed to deliver on a promise to increase its production capacity of electricity. He told Local 2 investigation of the industry pledged to expand its production capacity when electricity was deregulated in Texas, but the events of Wednesday driving to doubt it.
Williams, who serves in national affairs and Senate finance committees, noted that most of its voters living east of the ERCOT grid, and these areas had absolutely no problem power outage Wednesday.
Governor Rick Perry said the unprecedented demand on the energy grid of the state caused a power outage. In a statement, he urged everyone to reduce energy consumption.
However, Jackson said he would push for answers to ERCOT because, “We need a better system to ensure that this does not happen again.”
As a member of the Senate Natural Resources and works councils and trade, both of which have oversight over the energy sector, Jackson said: “We’ll get into the (ERCOT)” because he said they called for more to be loaded into the grid and they could not get it.
ERCOT does not produce electricity in Texas, but he manages the flow of power that other production companies truly electric.
Jackson said that since the summer months are the peak periods, maintenance is often scheduled at plants in electricity production during the winter months, which could also cause problems in the future, given failures Wednesday.
Some viewers posted messages on Facebook theKPRC page indicating that their diet was cut several times, while others have never had their power interrupted at all.
Spring School District was forced to send students home early because of the blackout, and the Harris County Jail visits canceled for the day because the visitor’s elevators will not work if power is cut.
Houston Transtar urged drivers to exercise caution throughout the day from outages affected some traffic lights and warning signals.
The Houston office of Emergency Management has issued a notice 14 hours after he was informed that more cuts were ordered by ERCOT, if the power was expected to resume uninterrupted.
Source: http://www.click2houston.com/news/26717798/detail.html