Rolling blackouts are possible in Lubbock, and across the South Plains and Texas Panhandle on Tuesday, due to the Southwest Power Pool having to downgrade to EEA Level 3
Lyntegar Electric Co-op, South Plains Electric Co-op, and AEP Texas have had to implement rolling blackouts at ERCOT's directive. Both ERCOT and SPP are urging people to conserve electricity over the next two days
Just before 9am Saturday, ERCOT's reserve electrical capacity was just 89 megawatts. ERCOT electricity usage may set a winter record this weekend due to a 5-day long stretch of extremely low temps across the state.
Lubbock, the South Plains; Amarillo, and the Texas Panhandle, are expecting to deal with snowfall amounts between 5" to 10" inches and temperatures below zero, over the next three days.
Weekend low temperatures in the single digits, and in some cases below zero, are expected to contribute to record high electricity use in parts of Texas. Especially in the part of West Texas that is served by ERCOT.
Lubbock drivers were seemingly unprepared for icy road conditions on Wednesday morning, Feb. 10, as the LPD has already reported more than 25 car accidents.