TxDOT crews all over East Texas have started pretreating roads, bridges, and elevated surfaces ahead of the freezing temperatures coming over the next few days.

This starts a bit of a chain reaction in our minds as our thoughts turn to last year's deep freeze and power outages state-wide. With 12 deaths in East Texas officially deemed as winter storm-related in 2021, it's easy to see why.

Last year's winter storm deaths occurred on February 11th - February 23rd, 2021 with the most deaths coming on February 16th, 2021. With that anniversary quickly approaching and a winter storm on the way once again, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has released its final winterization report.

ERCOT Tries To Set Our Minds At Ease Before "Wintery Mix" 


“The Texas electric grid is more prepared for winter operations than ever before,” said Interim ERCOT CEO Brad Jones.

ERCOT inspected 302 electric generation units and 22 transmission stations last month. Those units represented 85 percent of the megawatt-hours lost during Winter Storm Uri due to outages.

Three of the inspected facilities have been marked for further review. They remain operational and only represent 0.4 of the total ERCOT generation capabilities.

“We are confident these 321 inspected facilities either meet or go beyond the new requirements from the Commission and we will continue to work with the other 3 facilities to ensure they correct remaining deficiencies,” said Woody Rickerson, ERCOT Vice President of System Planning and Weatherization. “Our teams spent thousands of hours preparing for and conducting these 324 on-site inspections to ensure the electric grid is prepared for winter.” 

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ERCOT didn't reveal where these generation units with remaining deficiencies are located, but I am confident that we will not have the same issues as last year.

What happens next will be something we could never imagine would have gone wrong, just like last year.

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