How Do You Know a Local Power Outage vs. a Rolling Blackout?

With winter rearing its ugly head this week and everyone on edge about the Texas power grid, how can you tell a local outage and a rolling blackout?

If ERCOT calls for a rolling blackout, information will be available through many sources including local media, ERCOT's Facebook, Twitter, and their app, and emergency alerts through emergency e-mail which you can sign up for on the ERCOT website.

Rotating outages will be throughout the whole state that is in the ERCOT region. Texas DPS will also work with ERCOT and other grid operators in Texas to send out outage alerts when an area of the state feels it will not have enough power to meet the demands of that region.

ERCOT does not call for local outages, a local outage is usually caused by an extreme weather event like ice causing power lines to snap, lightning hitting power lines, or a vehicle crashing into an electric pole.

ERCOT held up in the winter of 2022, but some Texans were impacted by local outages which had nothing to do with ERCOT or the statewide grid.

The grid failed in February 2021 when all the sources of electricity struggled in the days-long extreme weather, those sources were natural gas, coal, nuclear power, wind power, and solar energy, all of which were affected by the extreme winter weather that lasted for five days.

A spokesperson for ERCOT said the grid has been winterized and ready for a winter weather event plus the grid operator and the Public Utility Commission are working together to expand the amount of energy available in batteries that ERCOT can call upon in the event of an increase in the demand on the grid.