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Gov. Abbott, ERCOT to address severe winter weather expected this week

Abbott is holding the press conference at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday along with ERCOT, the Public Utility Commission and other organizations.

SAN ANTONIO — With freezing temperatures headed our way later this week, ERCOT says your power should stay on. We aren't expecting the sort of winter storm we saw last year, but it will be the grid's biggest test since then.

Governor Greg Abbott will be holding a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday along with ERCOT, the Public Utility Commission and other organizations to discuss the severe weather expected later this week. We will live stream that through this story.

Unlike last year, though, very cold temperatures won't last as long and it won't be as cold. This week, ERCOT is projecting 73 gigawatts of demand by Friday morning, but before last year, the demand never passed 67 gigawatts.

ERCOT says your lights should stay on because power plants have reached new standards, such as improving weatherization.

CPS Energy says it's also ready for the cold this week. They said more than 100 structures such as heaters and barriers have been installed to protect critical equipment. The outage system was reprogrammed as well, which means more outages spread out amongst more customers, but the outages should be shorter.

If your power does go out, warming centers will appear on the outage map.

But CPS Energy will be sending out an alert on Wednesday reminding people to prepare.

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