Power is switching on and off in some places in Texas as the state experiences its first day of freezing temperatures of 2022.
Many Texans fear they’ll experience what happened last year when the state’s power grid failed and many experienced blackouts.
The state reported 246 deaths related to the February winter storm of 2021 and the lack of electricity that came with it.
But Buzzfeed News estimates that tally is probably four to five times more than what was reported.
As of early Thursday afternoon, there were more about 70,000 total power outages across the state, according to PowerOutage.us.
The site aggregates power outage data from utility companies.
Governor Greg Abbott assured Thursday afternoon that these outages are not due to a faulty power grid.
"The reason is because of issues with local power providers", Abbott said during a press conference in Austin.
He went on to say heavy winds and icy conditions were likely the cause behind the outages.
The winter storm is expected to continue until Saturday.
The CEO of ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, told The Texas Tribune electricity demand isn’t expected to peak until Friday morning.
Brad Jones assured that this year, ERCOT has a “larger cushion of power” and there should not be widespread outages.
Abbott said during peak demand, there should be 10,000 megawatts of extra power capacity.
He said that was enough to provide supply to about 2 million homes.
The governor went on to say, "the Texas electric grid is the most reliable and resilient it's ever been."
The ERCOT website showed power supply was in line with demand as of Thursday morning.
Grid conditions were listed as “normal.”
