CenterPoint and ERCOT preparing for frigid temps next week in Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The start of 2021 was a nightmare millions of Texans want to forget.

Now, there's a concern if they'll relive it in a just a few days. Millions were without power for days in the freezing cold after the state's power grid crisis.

The same happened recently after Hurricane Beryl ravaged parts of southeast Texas. ABC13 has reached out to CenterPoint Energy for their plan with the upcoming freeze.

A company is deploying its cold weather readiness plan and actively monitoring the weather forecast and has a cold weather action plan in place. The company has also trimmed approximately 3,500 miles of higher-risk tree trimming and vegetation across the Houston area.

The pre-winter safety and readiness actions taken by CenterPoint include:

• Inspecting and testing critical equipment, including all 270 substations, to prepare for high demand and cold temperatures

• Hardening electric and natural gas infrastructure across the Greater Houston area, including installing heaters and devices to prevent ice damage or buildup.

• Maintaining freeze protection equipment and enclosures for cold-weather critical components.

• Repairing damaged or degraded thermal insulation and water-proofing materials.

• Conducting emergency training for hundreds of operational personnel and contractors to prepare for, mitigate, and respond to the impacts of severe winter weather

"Our teams are well-prepared and ready to respond to any potential impacts from the forecasted colder temperatures. We have enhanced staffing plans in place and crews stationed across the communities we serve, so that our teams can safely and quickly restore service to any impacted customers. We will remain alert throughout the next week and continue to coordinate with local officials as our communities take steps to prepare. We urge our customers to stay weather alert and have an emergency plan in place," Darin Carroll, CenterPoint's senior vice president of electric business, said.

ERCOT also sent a statement to ABC13 about the improvements they made to the electric grid since 2021:

• Weatherization and Inspections. The ERCOT Weatherization and Inspections Program is entering its 4th season of cold weather inspections. In December, we completed 149 inspections. In total we will conduct a minimum of 450 generation resources or transmission service provider facilities by the end of February for this winter. ERCOT completed three full seasons of winter weatherization inspections with enhanced requirements for generation and transmission facilities and conducted its second summer weatherization inspections this past summer in 2024.

• Firm Fuel Supply Service (FFSS). An additional source of onsite fuel for generators benefits the grid by providing a redundant, or additional, fuel source should there be a natural gas scarcity. FFSS Phase 1 created the FFSS service. Phase 2 expanded resources that can qualify. If a resource's fuel service is firm and isn't under a lower curtailment priority if there's a curtailment event, they can now qualify.

• Scheduled Maintenance Period. ERCOT has worked with generators and transmission operators to schedule their maintenance in the shoulder months while allowing ERCOT to reliably operate the grid in the off-peak seasons.

• Forecasting Improvements. ERCOT has been working on reducing weather forecast error by procuring additional weather forecasts and developing load forecast models that are tuned for extreme cold weather. ERCOT has also improved the forecasting software testing process related to holidays and other outlier scenarios.

• ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS). Added in June 2023, ECRS takes advantage of resources that can start within 10 minutes to address unexpected or rapid changes in supply or demand.

• Fast Frequency Response Service. Added in 2022, this addition to our ancillary services takes advantage of the capability of faster-responding resources to respond to events.

• Critical Supply Chain and Critical Infrastructure Map. This map was created in 2022 to share the locations and connectivity of all the critical parts of the Texas power infrastructure.

• Improved Inter-Agency Communications. Agencies are seeing improved, ongoing communications through both the Texas Department of Emergency Management and Texas Energy Reliability Council.

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