AUSTIN, Texas — The available power for the Texas power grid continues to exceed demand during this week's winter storm.
It even exceeds the demand seen last year during Winter Storm Uri, said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a news conference Friday.
He was joined by state authorities in Austin as they provided an update on Thursday's winter storm and the freezing to sub-freezing temperatures a majority of the state will experience Friday.
In his announcement, Abbott said ERCOT reported having more than 86,000 megawatts of power available this year. That is enough to cover the 69,000-megawatt demand today and could also have met last year's 77,000-megawatt demand during Uri.
"[That's] 15% more power generation than last year," Abbott said. "... The actions taken by the legislature, PUC [Public Utility Commission of Texas] and ERCOT had result in a stronger power grid," he said.
After Uri hit Texas just less than one year ago, both Abbott and state lawmakers promised there would be changes to prevent mass blackouts from happening again. Officials promised power generators would be required to weatherize and, so far, it appears they have followed through.
"At least 99%, if not more, of power generators in the state of Texas have passed inspection or are fully operational," Abbott said during a news conference Tuesday.
The main concern for officials right now continues to be the localized power outages and the condition of state roads.
Abbott said it is still possible there will be power outages that are not related to the state's power grid. At the time of Friday's news conference, Abbot said there were 20,000 homes without power, which is 50,000 less than what he reported on Wednesday.
"Like we explained yesterday … it’s an issue at the local power provider level [not the grid] … most likely ‘cause ice weigh down lines or ice causing problems with trees will fall on power lines,” he said.
Winter storm Landon has also claimed three lives in the state of Texas so far due to vehicle collisions. Friday morning, Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw reported 416 crashes and 49 injuries have occurred after the storm hit. McCraw said emergency personnel have been hit by drivers who lost control multiple times already.
"We’ve got one trooper hit. Some of the first responders in the state have been hit during the rear end of this event so please slow down, move over, and if you don’t need to drive please don’t," McCraw said.
Officials continued to tout the improvements made to the grid. The PUC had already assured Texans that no power generators would be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance when the state needs them the most.
Another critical move was ensuring natural gas producers could operate during the storm. During Uri, some of them had their power shut off by power transmission companies because they were not designated as "critical infrastructure." That left some power plants without fuel and made the deficit of electricity even worse. This year, they changed that.
Abbott also took the opportunity to thank the linemen and women who are working to restore power in the state.
“I want to express my gratitude for the linemen who have been out in subfreezing temperatures 24/7,” he said. “Working all night long, all day long, working inclement weather to make sure they get power restored.”
A majority of Texas will continue to experience freezing or below freezing temperatures Friday. Though the temperature is creeping up, any ice that melts will refreeze overnight.