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Governor Greg Abbott said Thursday morning Texas has enough power to keep up with demand from the winter storm slamming the state.
"As compared to last year, Texas has 15% more power generation capacity. There’s also more reserve power available than last year. The grid is projected to have a surplus of more than 10,000 megawatts for peak demand tomorrow on Friday morning which we expect to be the peak demand of the winter storm," Abbott said, according to FOX 4. Peak usage isn't expected until 8 a.m. Friday, he said.
Abbott added, “The power grid is performing very well at this time." He also said there will be enough power to get Texans through the storm uninterrupted.
As of Thursday, there are scattered power outages across north Texas, but no widespread outages, FOX 4 reported. More than 70,000 Texas residents are without power altogether. Abbott said in the news briefing that more than 10,000 linemen are working to help restore power, and an additional 2,000 are coming in from out of state to help with the repairs.
Earlier this week, Abbott said "no one can guarantee" power outages won't happen amid the winter storm. "No one can guarantee that there won't be a load shed event. But what we will work and strive to achieve — and what we're prepared to achieve — is that the power's going to stay on across the entire state," he said in a news briefing Tuesday, according to Business Insider.