By: Storme Jones
OKLAHOMA CITY -
As of Wednesday afternoon, Oklahoma is at a level one energy emergency meaning there s no current need for rolling blackouts. However, Oklahomans know all too well that could change at any moment.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is now looking into blackouts across the region. The Southwest Power Pool is FERC’s regional transmission organization over Oklahoma and 13 other states.
“What are ways that OG&E or public utility companies can improve their infrastructure so that we don t experience these outages,” Rep. Cyndi Munson, D-OKC, asked.
Tuesday, FERC announced a joint inquiry along with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) into bulk power systems response to extreme winter weather.
At the height of this week’s winter storm, nearly 5 million homes and businesses lost power. Just a week before, state energy leaders assured the public Texas’ power grid was ready and able to handle the coming storm. So, what went wrong?
Texas power grid was seconds or minutes away from catastrophic failure, officials say
From CNN’s Chris Boyette
Pike Electric service trucks line up in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 16. Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
Electric Reliability Council of Texas officials said the state s power grid was “seconds or minutes” away from catastrophic failure and a complete blackout if not for controlled outages implemented early Monday morning.
“I think if we hadn t taken action, it wouldn t have been that we would have waited a few days and saw what happened, it was seconds and minutes, given the amount of generation that was coming off the system at the same time that the demand was still going up significantly,” Bill Magness, president and CEO of ERCOT, said Thursday.
Texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state’s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies — many of which opted against the costly upgrades. That, plus a deregulated energy market largely isolated from the rest of the country’s power grid, left the state alone to deal with the crisis, experts said.