MISO Ends Load Reductions for Entergy Texas

02/16/2021

Entergy continues to return customers to service, prepares for additional winter weather

THE WOODLANDS – Entergy’s reliability coordinator, MISO, has cancelled its order for power outages in the Entergy Texas region. Shortly, after this, Entergy Texas began restoring customers who were affected by these outages back to service. However, winter weather in the forecast could cause additional outages over the next few days.

“We know how challenging these past couple of days have been for our customers and communities,” said Sallie Rainer, Entergy Texas president and CEO. “Our crews have made incredible progress to return several of our power plants to service which allows us to meet customer demand at this time. However, we are closely watching and preparing for additional winter weather tonight that will impact our service area.”

MISO, Entergy’s reliability coordinator, directed the company early Monday morning to initiate power outages as a last resort and in order to prevent a more extensive, prolonged power outage that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid. Since then, the company was able to bring generating units impacted by the severe weather back online and was cleared by MISO to begin fully serving the record-breaking load across southeast Texas.

The company continues to work to add customers back, but faces challenges restoring power quickly due to the difficulty of adding customers back during cold weather. Crews are currently working to restore customers affected by the load shed. This part of our restoration process could take many hours to complete. Additionally, some equipment may have been damaged due to the cold weather and the amount of load being consumed. If customers are still without power, but their neighbors have power, they can call 1-800-ENTERGY to report an outage.

“While we have come a long way since Monday morning, we are not out of the woods just yet,” said Rainer. “We have taken additional steps to prepare and protect our assets for the extreme cold beyond the measures implemented in advance of the winter storm earlier this week, in addition to returning power generation to service. Customers can help by continuing to conserve energy in the coming days.”

While Entergy Texas has been cleared to returned to normal operations, weather conditions still pose challenges in the coming days. These record-breaking temperatures can drive increased electricity usage which can increase demand on the system and impact infrastructure. Customers can follow these easy steps to help reduce consumption and lower usage:

Heating can account for as much as 55% of your monthly electric bill. Setting the thermostat to 68 degrees in the winter is an easy way to reduce how much energy you use. Every degree above 68 on the thermostat can increase your bill by about 3%.
Conserve hot water. Wrap your electric water heater with a water heater blanket that can be found at local home improvement stores and set the thermostat to 120 degrees or medium.
Keep all doors and windows closed. Constant traffic will let out the warm air, forcing your heater to work harder to keep the room at the set temperature.
Ensure fans are turning the right way. Fans should be run at a low speed clockwise during the winter. This helps keep the cold air from blowing down on you.
Keep the air circulating. Don’t block heat registers or air returns with curtains or furniture.
Leverage the sun. During the day, open your curtains and blinds to let in the warm sunlight. Close them at night to reduce heat loss.

About MISO

MISO comprises a pool of electricity generators and users that stretches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and as reliability coordinator is responsible for monitoring the portion of the electric grid it oversees and providing instructions to its members regarding actions needed to maintain reliability in that portion of the grid. In extreme and unusual circumstances, such actions may include periodic outages of the type occurring today.

About Entergy Texas

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to approximately 461,000 customers in 27 counties. Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 8,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11 billion and more than 13,600 employees.

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