Texas Governor Greg Abbott promised on Saturday that the "lights will stay on" over the upcoming winter amid concerns that extreme cold weather may return and cause mass outages again.
Abbott said in an interview with local broadcaster Fox 7 that he is "very confident" about energy security this winter, as he "signed almost a dozen laws that make the power grid more effective."
According to Abbott, natural gas suppliers have also “been doing winterization that most people don’t know about."
"Most importantly is the approach [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] has taken this year, unlike last year. Last year they were reactive and waited until a crisis mode before they summoned more power, more energy. Now the way ERCOT works is they work days in advance in summoning that power to make sure they will have enough power to keep the lights on," he said.
The new regulation, adopted last month by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, requires power companies to take measures to ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity in winter conditions. Texas power providers were forced to submit their plans for preparing the sites for winter to the Public Utility Commission, according to The Texas Tribune.
Inspections are expected to start in January, with penalties for non-compliance.
Following the three winter storms that struck Texas and caused mass outages amid below-freezing temperatures in February, some state power operators reported problems with electricity supplies over the summer.