AUSTIN (AP) — Texas is still at risk of power blackouts this winter in the event of extreme weather like the catastrophic February storm that buckled the state's electrical grid and left millions of people without heat for days, the nation's grid monitor said Thursday.
“The concern is certainly sufficient,” said John Moura, director of reliability assessment at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, known as NERC.
The warnings in the annual winter forecast by NERC, which oversees the reliability of the nation's electrical sector, comes as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the new leadership of the state's embattled grid signal their confidence that the lights will stay on this time. Energy experts are skeptical that sufficient changes have been imposed on power plants and gas producers in Texas, where the energy industry has a lot of clout.
