Power grid is stable, governor says, but freezing temperatures will continue affecting roadways

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott holds news conference on winter weather - clipped version

Texas’ power grid appeared to remain stable Friday morning even through peak demand hours during the second day of the winter storm, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference.

Freezing temperatures persisted on Friday throughout most of the state, but demand for energy was much lower than previously forecasted, according to ERCOT’s website. As a result ERCOT did not need to implement rolling outages like it did during last year’s winter storm.

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Though the state’s power grid withstood the peak of the storm, state officials warned Texans that freezing temperatures will continue throughout most of Texas for the next few nights.

The subzero temperatures will keep roadways icy, making travel dangerous.

Many statewide officials urged Texans to avoid traveling until conditions are expected to improve on Saturday.

will hold a news conference following his briefing with statewide officials about the response to the second day of the winter storm.

The news conference will occur at 11 a.m. It will be livestreamed in this article.

On Thursday, thousands of homeowners in Texas found themselves without power due to local issues, like downed power lines.

During the peak of San Antonio’s outages on Thursday, roughly 33,000 CPS Energy customers lost power. Those numbers steadily improved throughout the day, with only hundreds dealing with an outage as of Friday morning.

Travel conditions are still dangerous due to the icy roads. In Kerrville, traffic was at a standstill Friday morning on I-10 due to a crash that shut down the highway.

Around the Hill Country, one-tenth to one-third-inch of ice has occurred in spots and temperatures fell into the teens.

San Antonio is expected to get above freezing — in the upper 30s — when the sun makes an appearance on Friday.

Read more:

Portion of I-10 in Kerrville closed due to jackknifed big rig, icy conditions

These San Antonio-area school districts, universities have announced closures, changes due to the freeze


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