A strong Arctic front is expected to arrive in San Patricio Electric Cooperative’s service area early in the morning on Thursday, February 3. As with any weather event, power outages are possible as a result of this winter storm, which is forecast to bring freezing temperatures, high winds and possibly ice.
Our crews are ready to respond to outages, but please keep in mind that they may not be able to respond as quickly as normal if roads become icy.
Make preparations today in case you experience an extended outage.
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Plan to use a safe alternative heating source, such as a fireplace or wood-burning stove.
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Keep extra blankets and warm clothes on hand to help you stay warm.
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Make a plan to keep your pets and livestock warm and out of the cold as much as possible.
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Put together an emergency kit with enough non-perishable food and water to last your family at least a few days. Don’t forget to include food and water for your pets too.
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Fully charge a power bank and keep it on hand to charge your phone or other devices.
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Members who rely on life support or other medical equipment need to make a backup plan in case of an extended outage. We will work to restore power as quickly as safely possible, but cannot guarantee how long restoration may take.
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If you use a portable generator, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s operating instructions properly.
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Never operate a generator in a home, garage or other enclosed space. The generator should be placed outside in a well ventilated area, well away from any windows or doors, to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
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Don’t plug the generator directly into your home’s wiring. This could cause backfeeding onto power lines and injure linemen working to restore power to your home.
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Always plug equipment directly into the generator using only safety-tested electrical cords designed and rated for outdoor use.
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Outage Reporting
As always, outages can be reported by:
Keep in mind that the fastest way to report an outage may be through your online SmartHub account or app. This winter storm is forecast to affect multiple states. In the event of major outages, in our service area or elsewhere, high call volumes could make it more difficult to get through to us.
Please do not report outages through Facebook. In order to be logged into our outage management system and properly tracked by crews, outages must be reported through SmartHub or by phone.
ERCOT & Grid Conditions
At this time, ERCOT is not requesting any conservation efforts. We will notify our members if this changes at any time. Please monitor our social media pages for any updates.
For immediate alerts about the electric grid, we recommend you download the ERCOT app (App Store or Google Play) and enable push notifications.
Remember, if ERCOT were to call for controlled outages, SPEC is required to comply. These outages would be controlled by our transmission provider, South Texas Electric Cooperative. It would be our goal to rotate controlled outages throughout our system so that no circuit is without power for more than one hour at a time. However, keep in mind that our success in reaching that goal would depend on how much load shed is called for by ERCOT. If ERCOT were to ask for as much load shed as they did in 2021, it would be impossible for us to reach that one-hour goal and members would experience lengthy outages.