SENATOR NEEDLEMAN ISSUES STATEMENT AFTER TEXAS GRID FACES HIGH DEMAND, RISKS OF BLACKOUT AND STORMS KNOCK OUT POWER FOR NEARLY ONE MILLION

Today, State Senator Norm Needleman (D-Essex) issued a statement as Texas faces its latest high-profile issues with its power grid. Last week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued its fourth warning in the last month that its grid may reach emergency conditions due to summer heat and high usage, with past warnings issued due to power plant maintenance and grid inflexibility, according to Bloomberg. A second report said the state’s power grid faces an 18% chance of rolling blackouts this summer, when average temperatures in the state will stand over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Additionally, last Thursday night, the Houston area experienced a significant and damaging storm that knocked out power to more than 900,000 utility customers in the region, which resulted in days of power outages amid challenging conditions. By Monday morning, more than 225,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity, with heat indexes threatening to climb above 100 degrees this week. All the while, power prices at the time soared as high as 1600% during the heat wave.

The statement follows as such:

“It seems a stiff breeze could threaten the Texas power grid these days, a cautionary tale of the extreme dangers that come in deregulated and disconnected markets. This is what happens when a grid is maintained poorly. Texas ratepayers often face spiking electric costs and very inconsistent service, with seemingly constant threats of blackouts and outages, which reflects mismanagement and poor priorities, chasing low prices with impacts that leave customers in the cold and heat. Instead of focusing on grid reliability and meeting its consistently high demand, Texas’s energy industry is focused on profits over people, especially glaring as they are an energy powerhouse.

This is unacceptable, especially in the wake of the surprise Houston storm that caused severe damage – and now, a day after the damage, utilities can’t even provide customers with estimates for when the power will turn back on. These circumstances reinforce the importance of grid reliability and maintenance, part of why our state’s performance-based regulations are so important to prevent similar disasters.

That’s why legislators in Connecticut are working to advance policies that tie cost, reliability and mitigating carbon emissions – which are a contributor to this Texas storm’s severity – together, and foster a larger responsibility for our utilities to provide the highest standard of service possible. We sat in the dark for days after storms in 2011, 2017 and 2020; without continued investment in and support of our grid, we could face the same troubles Texas, despite all of the energy it sits on, regularly experiences through questionable management of serious circumstances.”