Texas Power Outage Haunts Residents

February 3rd, 2011 - 6:53 pm ICT by GD  

By Ranjan Bhaduri
nmc_02snow-1_17838911Feb 3, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Texas imposed a rare statewide blackout on Wednesday owing to frigid weather conditions shutting down a number of power generators on the state. The same action may be repeated Thursday if snowfall foes not recede. An energy emergency was declared by the grid operator after 7000MW power deficit place. ERCOT or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas announced withdrawal of the blackout around 2 p.m but cautioned about a repeat of the same scenario the next day. If more power plants do not resume power generation it will be very difficult to met the heavy demand for heating in cities where the temperature is below freezing point. Thankfully the power blackout did not affect the gas and oil generation much it left near about 1 million homes without electricity and heat for an hour. Not only the households, but the schools were also affected. The traffic snarls were sen on the roads as the traffic lights went out.

Transmission utilities including CenterPoint Energy and American Electric Power Co also imposed blackouts which was an unprecedented move for the residents of Texas. The National Weather Service said in the next two days Texas will witness sleet and frozen rain. ERCOT said that by rotating the power outage total blackout was prevented. However, some users complained they were informed late.

Needless to say the power blackout left a lot of residents in the state angry and clueless. ERCOT said over 50 power generating units had tripped and more can collapse owing to extreme cold temperatures. The operator asked the users to consume as less power as possible during this trying time.

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