As a massive winter storm hit Texas this past weekend, power grid operators began taking extraordinary measures to keep the lights on and avoid rolling blackouts.
According to outage tracking data on Sunday, more than 91,000 customers across Texas were without electricity, with East Texas among the hardest-hit areas, but the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' grid (ERCOT) reported still being stable with sufficient power reserves.
Hockley and surround counties received about 3 to 5 inches of snow along icy temperatures in the 28 degree range.
Locally in Levelland near the Kaufman housing addition there was a power outage on Saturday. The city advised that Spartan Transportation building was open to serve as a warming center as residents waited for power to be restored.
Other problems in Levelland included burst water pipes, which city utility crews addressed during the freezing weather.
Meanwhile, schools in Hockley and Cochran had early outs or no school on Friday, with no school on Monday as the winter storm consumed the area with frozen rain and snowfall over the weekend with road conditions deteriorating.
Xcel Energy positioned over 250 internal crew members, plus additional contractors, to address potential power outages in Texas and New Mexico as Winter Storm Fern the region, with high winds and ice from the storm expected to cause local outages and damage.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued an emergency order for the deployment of backup generation resources in order to mitigate blackouts in Texas during , authorizing ERCOT to deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other major facilities. Texas currently has more than 300 data centers with tremendous power requirements making it more difficult to maintain adequate electricity supply during extreme demand conditions like severe winter weather.
According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), “Winter electricity demand is rising at the fastest rate in recent years,” while the premature forced closure of reliable generation such as coal and natural gas plants leaves American families vulnerable to power outages. The NERC 2025 – 2026 Winter Reliability Assessment further warns that areas across the continental United States have an elevated risk of blackouts during extreme weather conditions.
Power outages cost the American people $44 billion per year, according to data from DOE’s National Laboratories.