TX was warned to make changes after 4 weather events threatened power grid in 10 years, report shows
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- On Tuesday, the federal government issued its final report into February's winter freeze that knocked out power for millions of Texans and killed at least 200 people.
The report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recommended owners of power generators in Texas to winterize their equipment so a repeat of the power grid failure doesn't happen again.
History has already repeated itself. The report shows in just the past decade, there have been four instances of extreme cold that threatened the power grid.
Each time, the report says the commission issued recommendations to keep similar events from occurring.
The final report shows the following:
- 81% of freeze-related generating unit outages occurred at temperatures above the units' stated ambient design temperature
- 87% of unplanned generation outages due to fuel issues were related to natural gas
- Natural gas fuel supply issues were caused by natural gas production declines
The report also included 28 recommendations such as:
- Generator owners should retrofit existing generating units, and when building new units account for weather events including extreme temperatures
- Generator owners and operators should perform annual training on winterization plans
- Develop corrective action plans should freeze- related outages occur
To read the full report, visit FERC's website.
SEE ALSO:
Is Texas prepared for another winter storm? Some experts don't think so
Deadly Texas winter storm power outages were due to freezing or lack of winterizing, report finds
Winter storm: What it looks like around Houston and across state
