While surrounding cities were subjected to short rolling blackouts last week, many Magnolia residents reported experiencing an extended power outage Feb. 2 from around 7 a.m. to noon.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the flow of electric power to 21 million Texas customers, said in a press release that the blackouts were to last from 10 to 45 minutes. However, Magnolia seemed to stay in the dark.

CenterPoint Energy Public Relations Manager Alicia Dixon explained that the notice to begin the blackouts was received from ERCOT early in the morning and it was declared an emergency situation which prevented CenterPoint Energy from warning customers.

Dixon said the blackouts were performed in a “rolling fashion” as a protective method to curtail the load for the power plant experiencing outages.

“This was necessary to protect the statewide grid from longer unexpected outages,” Dixon said.

However, CenterPoint Energy was overloaded with thousands of calls from residents in Magnolia stating the power continued to stay off longer than the proposed 45 minutes.

Magnolia ISD released a statement that due to a power plant failure in north Texas,  MISD schools experienced a temporary power outage.

According to Dixon, when CenterPoint Energy “brings down” customers on areas of the grid it opens a breaker. Then, by closing the breaker, that area regains its electricity.

“The breaker was not closing when we were bringing them (Magnolia) back up,” Dixon said.

Emergency situations such as rolling blackouts do not occur often according to Dixon

“The system doesn’t get tested like this often,” she said. “We have identified the problem.”

Typically, the rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electrical service initiated by each utility when supplies of reserve power are exhausted. Without this safety valve, generators would overload and begin shutting down to avoid damage, risking a domino effect of a state-wide outage, the press release explained.

ERCOT released a statement explaining why the blackouts were mandated on Feb. 2.

According to the press release, on Feb. 1 around midnight the grid began experiencing numerous forced outages due to the cold. At 9 a.m. more than 7,000 megawatts of capacity was out of service and not producing at its expected level due to the extreme winter storm.

ERCOT asked the utilities and transmission providers to implement rotating outages until the load was reduced through conservation and restoration of generator units.

Dixon reported that CenterPoint Energy discovered areas where it needs works and will take better steps to ensuring this does not occur.

“We certainly apologize for folks up there having to go through these extended outages,” she said.

CenterPoint Energy asked its customers last week to try to conserve energy during the extreme cold to avoid more potential blackouts, especially during morning and evening peak demand hours.

According to the press release, customers may conserve by turning their furnace to 68 degrees or lower, limiting the amount of non-essential appliances used and reducing the amount of times doors are opened.

ERCOT has also encouraged residents to minimize travel, as traffic signals may go out of service.

Residents should also be aware of any school closures.

Lone Star College System (LSCS) stated last week that due to anticipated winter weather conditions, LSCS modified its scheduled operations. All Lone Star College campuses, satellite location centers and system offices closed Feb. 3 at 5 p.m.

For more information about current electric conditions, visit www.ercot.com or www.centerpointenergy.com.

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