Disaster Register

Source data

Texas February 2021 grid emergency and regional inquiry timeline

Sources checked

Cold-weather outagesTexas grid emergency from rotating outages to recovery
  1. 8 February 2021
    Start of the federal study window

    The federal inquiry began its event window on 8 February and covered Texas and the South Central United States. · Regional event window Source 1

  2. 14 February 2021
    ERCOT issued a winter weather watch

    The grid operator issued a watch for freezing precipitation and also flagged pressure on available reserves. · ERCOT Source 1

  3. 15 February 2021, 1:25 a.m.
    Rotating outages began

    ERCOT’s first public notice said it began rotating outages at 1:25 a.m. after entering emergency conditions. · ERCOT Source 2

  4. 15 February 2021, 2 a.m.
    Ordered cuts reached 10,500 MW

    The federal report put cumulative load shed orders at 10,500 MW at this point in the morning. · ERCOT Source 1

  5. 15 February 2021, 7 a.m.
    Federal averaging window began

    Investigators measured an average of 34,000 MW of unavailable expected generation from this point to 1 p.m. on 17 February. · ERCOT Source 1

  6. 15 February 2021, 7 p.m.
    Ordered cuts reached their peak

    The federal inquiry put ERCOT’s peak manual load shed at 20,000 MW. · ERCOT Source 1

Show 6 more dates
  1. 17 February 2021, 1 p.m.
    Federal averaging window ended

    The average covered 54 hours and included generation already unavailable when the cold-weather event began. · ERCOT Source 1

  2. 17 February 2021, afternoon
    Grid operator announced staged restoration

    ERCOT reported enough generation to begin restoring 1,000 MW of demand per hour that afternoon. · ERCOT Source 3

  3. 18 February 2021, 12:42 a.m.
    Last firm load shed orders cancelled

    ERCOT cancelled its remaining controlled outage orders. Local operators still had restoration work. · ERCOT Source 4

  4. 19 February 2021, 7:30 a.m.
    Forced outages remained

    ERCOT’s update put generation on forced outage at roughly 34,000 MW despite an improved balance between supply and demand. · ERCOT Source 5

  5. 19 February 2021, 10:35 a.m.
    Grid returned to normal operations

    ERCOT’s legislative briefing recorded its exit from emergency operation at 10:35 a.m. · ERCOT Source 4

  6. 20 February 2021
    Federal study window ended

    The inquiry recorded 4,124 generation outages, output reductions or failures to start across the event area over the full window. · Regional event window Source 1

Choose an event to jump to its source and see whether it refers to ERCOT or the regional inquiry.

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 Source 4 Source 5

Texas February 2021 grid emergency and regional inquiry timeline

Clock times are local Central Standard Time. Grid-wide load shed measures power that the operator ordered disconnected. Available generation, utility outages and regional incident counts measure different things.

12 records
Source
8 February 2021Start of the federal study windowThe federal inquiry began its event window on 8 February and covered Texas and the South Central United States.Regional event windowSource 1
14 February 2021ERCOT issued a winter weather watchThe grid operator issued a watch for freezing precipitation and also flagged pressure on available reserves.ERCOTSource 1
15 February 2021, 1:25 a.m.Rotating outages beganERCOT’s first public notice said it began rotating outages at 1:25 a.m. after entering emergency conditions.ERCOTSource 2
15 February 2021, 2 a.m.Ordered cuts reached 10,500 MWThe federal report put cumulative load shed orders at 10,500 MW at this point in the morning.ERCOTSource 1
15 February 2021, 7 a.m.Federal averaging window beganInvestigators measured an average of 34,000 MW of unavailable expected generation from this point to 1 p.m. on 17 February.ERCOTSource 1
15 February 2021, 7 p.m.Ordered cuts reached their peakThe federal inquiry put ERCOT’s peak manual load shed at 20,000 MW.ERCOTSource 1
17 February 2021, 1 p.m.Federal averaging window endedThe average covered 54 hours and included generation already unavailable when the cold-weather event began.ERCOTSource 1
17 February 2021, afternoonGrid operator announced staged restorationERCOT reported enough generation to begin restoring 1,000 MW of demand per hour that afternoon.ERCOTSource 3
18 February 2021, 12:42 a.m.Last firm load shed orders cancelledERCOT cancelled its remaining controlled outage orders. Local operators still had restoration work.ERCOTSource 4
19 February 2021, 7:30 a.m.Forced outages remainedERCOT’s update put generation on forced outage at roughly 34,000 MW despite an improved balance between supply and demand.ERCOTSource 5
19 February 2021, 10:35 a.m.Grid returned to normal operationsERCOT’s legislative briefing recorded its exit from emergency operation at 10:35 a.m.ERCOTSource 4
20 February 2021Federal study window endedThe inquiry recorded 4,124 generation outages, output reductions or failures to start across the event area over the full window.Regional event windowSource 1

Source links