Texas power grid operator says rolling outages to continue through Tuesday

DALLAS - Rolling power blackouts happening across North Texas and the state since early Monday will continue into Tuesday, officials with Texas’ electrical grid operator said at a Monday morning press conference

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT ordered them because there was too much demand for electricity in the record cold. Rolling outages began around 1:30 a.m. Monday when it reached its highest emergency alert level.

That means providers are intentionally cutting off power to select neighborhoods. It also means traffic lights and other infrastructure is being temporarily cut off.

But ERCOT officials also acknowledged something Texans around the state had been saying -- some areas are experiencing total power loss, not just rolling blackouts.

"They don't know how long it's going to take to get some of the generation back," an ERCOT spokesperson told reporters from Texas media outlets.

ERCOT said the supply of natural gas to power plants is being limited and some wind turbines are frozen. So, keeping up with the amount of power being used across Texas is even more difficult.

Texas set a new a new winter record for energy demand Sunday night breaking a record set three years ago.

With temperatures hovering in the low teens and single digits during the day, demand will stay high. ERCOT urged people to conserve as much power as possible.

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