The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has instructed utility companies to begin rotating power outages to compensate for a power generation shortage because of the extreme weather.
Oncor Electric Delivery advises that most planned rotating power outages today will last between 5 and 15 minutes, but some may last longer, up to 45 minutes. These rolling outages occur when the electric utilities in Texas get close to exhausting their reserve power-generating capacity. Some plants fired by natural gas may have trouble keeping up in the extreme cold.
Oncor advises that when your power goes off, try to turn off everything you can except a couple small lights that tell you when the power’s back on. That way, you can avoid power surges that can cause damage to sensitive electrical equipment and cause additional blackouts further down the line.
Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electric service, typically lasting 10-45 minutes per neighborhood. The locations and durations are determined by the local utilities. Critical need customers such as hospitals and nursing homes are generally not included.
It is not known at this time how long the need for rotating outages will last.
Officials at Oncor said that power outages have impacted several residential neighborhoods in Brownwood as well as some commercial areas.
Consumers and businesses are urged to reduce their electricity use to the lowest level possible, including these steps:
* Limit electricity usage to only that consumption which is absolutely necessary. Turn off all unnecessary lights, appliances, and electronic equipment.
* Businesses should minimize the use of electric lighting and electricity-consuming equipment as much as possible.
* Large consumers of electricity should consider shutting down or reducing non-essential production processes.
