Road conditions and the power grid are top of mind for many North Texans as we head into the next several days.
Tila Grant, a spokesperson for TxDOT, said crews are ready for whatever comes Sunday. They started prepping for winter weather while people were still taking beach vacations.
“We start testing equipment as early as the summer,” Grant said. “We start testing routes and going to see what locations they’ll put the brine down so we’re more than prepared for that.”
She said Friday morning is when operations are expected to get underway.
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“Right now, what our plan is, is to have our crews go out Friday morning at 8 a.m. and hit the roads and apply that initial layer of brine,” she said.
100 trucks and some 500 crew members will spend 30 hours getting the first layer of brine down throughout seven counties in what TxDOT calls its Dallas District – Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman, Navarro, and Rockwall.
Half a million gallons of brine are carefully placed throughout the district for refills.
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“They’re going to hit bridges, they’re going to start on the major highways, and then they’re going to start on the right lanes and work their way inside,” said Grant.
As for the power grid, expert Doug Lewin, author of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter, said no one can say with certainty to expect outages. But with a chance of precipitation on Sunday, the chances increase.
“The odds go up. There’s no other way about it. I still think the odds are low,” Lewin said.
Many factors are at play with demand being a significant one. But unlike the winter storm of 2021, the grid is more prepared.
“During Uri, ERCOT estimated that we needed 77,000 megawatts. That’s what demand was. The demand could not be served,” he said. “It was almost certainly over 80,000, and we will get around there or exceed it this time.”
Following 2021, ERCOT committed to winterizing its plants which included more battery storage. ERCOT said the demand forecast for this winter system is 86 GW. If that happens, Lewin said we will exceed the record set in August of 85.5 GW.
“If there were to be outages, and I still don’t think there will be, you’re talking about a very short period of time,” Lewin said.
