The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texans – including Granbury – issued an Energy Emergency Alert 3 this morning due to state electrical reserves dropping below 1,000 Mega Watts. EEA 3 is the highest and final level of electrical emergencies.
As a result of that dip, ERCOT has ordered local electric transmission companies to reduce the demand on the statewide system. To do so, electricity providers have started “rolling blackouts” throughout the state, including those in Granbury.
There are currently 2.4 million Texans without electricity, so ERCOT is calling on all Texans to conserve as much electrical energy as possible to reduce the number of blackouts. They said these rolling blackouts will last longer than an hour, and will continue through Tuesday.
“Although we’ve got no way of knowing when the rolling blackouts will hit, we have crews on call that will be on top of any other isolated outages that occur (such as downed powerlines, transformer issues, etc.),” said Granbury Public Works Director Rick Crownover.
“Mainly the western portions of Granbury that are United Cooperative Service customers have been impacted by the rolling blackouts that began at 3:45 am, today,” said Granbury City Manager Chris Coffman. “Pecan Plantation and City of De Cordova as well as other parts of the county are included in the rolling blackouts.”
Coffman also stated that according to reports from ERCOT, Texas is expecting the rolling blackouts to continue today and most of tomorrow. Citizens are asked to reduce the use of electricity as much as possible because the current available electric generation supply does not meet the current all-time high peak demand.
“This statewide disaster clearly illustrates the lingering effects of the retirement of the many coal fired and gas generation plants in Texas. Relying on wind and solar for such a large part of our needs does not provide flexibility and sustainability for this type of an event,” he said.
Coffman stated that any residents of Granbury who experience blackouts should call their electric provider and let them know. This includes those residents served by the City of Granbury.
To report an outage, go to:
City of Granbury Utilities – http://www.granbury.org/19/Utility-Service-Information or 817-558-0488
Tri-County Electric Co-op, Inc. -- www.tcectexas.com or 817-444-3201
United Cooperative Services -- https://ucs.net/ or 817-326-5232
