After the massive tornado hit the state, the infrastructure had to be rehauled into preparedness for the next winter storm. The likeliness of which is expected with the cold months approaching, the data hasn’t been welcoming so far. The governor has upped his ante and gone full-on in public messaging about this winter’s grid readiness.
Salvaging of the situation
The political scurry to assure people at the Austin news conference was palpable. The chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Peter Lake, echoes Governor Abbott’s sentiments on the same subject of providing electricity all through winter.
The governor told a leading news channel about guaranteeing the Texan people of light a fortnight earlier. After meeting up with the Chief grid operator and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Governor Abbot got this statement out. A press conference was totally an idea that the governor had brought up because the Texan people are familiar with his team’s functioning. At the same time, another source claimed that it was Lake’s idea to go to the press and make an official statement to gain people’s confidence.
The ground reality of the grid
Governor Abbot has taken a strong liking for the public messaging system. For months, he has ensured that positive public statement goes out. He had even asked the major electric industry trade group to put out a statement through ERCOT. The media gathered this information after they interviewed both the current and former power grid officials, energy trade group representative, and several of the directors and executives of the energy company.
Though the messaging may have done its work, it doesn’t reflect in the data that ERCOT has released or the concerns that some of the power officials seem to have expressed along with energy experts because another massive winter storm could actually lead to grid failures all over the state leaving several Texans with no power as it did this year in February wherein hundreds of people died.
