ERCOT issues Weather Watch from Jan. 20-23 for next week's arctic cold front

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- ERCOT has now issued a Weather Watch for Monday, Jan. 20 through Thursday, Jan. 23, ahead of next week's arctic front.

The video above is from a previous report.

The power grid is very much on the minds of Texans after hundreds of people died when the power grid collapsed in February 2021.

ERCOT graphs on the company's website show that there will be more than enough electricity on hand to meet the anticipated demand for power over the next six days.

ABC13 will keep checking back for any changes to those projections.

RELATED: CenterPoint planning on having extra crews on standby ahead of arctic cold front

CenterPoint Energy said it plans to have extra crews on standby ahead of the arctic cold front that will arrive in Houston next week.

ERCOT also sent ABC13 the following 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.