The One City No One Talks About in Texas Survived the Winter Storm

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This city took Texas independence literally to help its residents

Photo by Антон Дмитриев on Unsplash

Millions of homes in Texas lost power but one large city survived the storm. El Paso located in the southwest corner of Texas was not affected even as temperatures dropped to the low 20s last week. Texas’ power grid failed to provide electricity to 3.4 million homes as temperatures dropped to freezing levels.

El Paso had about a 5-minute power outage that affected 3,000 residents. El Paso Electric is not tied to the rest of Texas.

The city receives its electricity from the Western Interconnection that stretches all the way up to western Canada. In addition to El Paso, the electric grid provides power to 14 other states, part of Canada, and Mexico.

About 10 years ago, El Paso had freezing temperatures in 2011 and they learned their lesson.

When subzero temperatures came through El Paso, they learned to winterize their power plants and equipment.

In Dallas, Texas, temperatures were below freezing for about 36 hours. Many residents were without power and in freezing temperatures.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reported two-thirds of the power lost came from natural gas and nuclear. One-third of the lost energy came from wind turbines. ERCOT managers power for 90% of Texas electric load.

El Paso made improvements to its utilities and they can withstand temperatures -10 F. The city relies on different power sources including nuclear, solar, and natural gas. This helped make El Paso self-sufficient.

The city used state-of-the-art technology to help improve the power grid. What happened to the city in 2011, they made a decision that the effects of the winter storm would not affect its residents again. El Paso Electric has spent millions to upgrade its facilities to prevent future freezing temperatures. The company spent $4.5 million to winterize its facility.

El Paso also relies on power from Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station which is located in Arizona. This helps as residents demand for more power is needed during cold days. Winters are relatively short for most of El Paso as many days are sunny and warm.

Texas uses its own power grid and since El Paso is so far away from other cities, they invested in themself. The investment has paid off and helped keep residents safe and secure during these freezing winter storms.

As the rest of Texas suffered power outages on February 14, El Paso and its 682,000 residents had heat and electricity. Lessons they learned in 2011 paid off.

Steve Buraczyk, El Paso Electric’s senior vice president of operations said, “There’s been a tremendous amount of supply disruptions. It’s difficult for them to try to deal with that just within ERCOT.”

Now the state of Texas has to learn from this recent lesson to prepare for the next winter storm. Hopefully, there will be time for the upgrades to be made to avoid suffering for its residents.

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