Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said 'no one can guarantee' there won't be planned power outages again as the state prepares for freezing temperatures

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that "no one can guarantee" the state's electrical grid won't need planned power outages ahead of inclement weather.
• "No one can guarantee that there won't be a load shed event," Abbott said at a press conference.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said "no one can guarantee" power outages won't happen again as the state prepares for freezing and inclement weather, despite previous assurances the grid had been upgraded and fixed.

Abbott held a press conference on Tuesday alongside officials from the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to address the electrical grid's reliability as part of the state prepares for freezing temperatures.

The National Weather Service warned of freezing rain and cold temperatures beginning Wednesday afternoon in central Texas, bringing at least 2 inches of sleet and snow with it.

And while the governor noted that each of the state's agencies will be on call during the inclement weather to try and "robustly respond" to any needs during the freeze, he admitted he could not guarantee that "load shed" events will not occur.

A load shed event occurs when the demand for electricity outweighs the available supply, resulting in rolling blackouts as the operators of the electrical grid try to avoid the system's collapse. Texans experienced load shedding on a large scale in 2021 when at least 2.8 million people went without power during a deadly winter freeze that killed at least 246 people.

"No one can guarantee that there won't be a load shed event," Abbott said at the press conference. "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."

The governor noted that ERCOT should have 15,000 extra megawatts of extra power during peak demand as the cold weather approaches, which should theoretically be enough to tide over the excess demand.

Since the 2021 freeze, Texas legislators have passed legislation to make the state's electrical grid more adaptable, leading the governor to declare that "everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas," actions that some experts said was not enough.

"The same thing could happen," Curt Morgan, the CEO of Texas' largest power distributor, Vistra, said in November.

Democratic candidate for governor, Beto O'Rourke, announced on Tuesday his plans to drive across the state to "listen to and learn from Texans who found a way to come through Abbott's power grid crisis."

In a statement to Insider, O'Rourke accused Abbott of failing to prepare the state's electric grid for future freezing temperatures.

"Abbott failed to prepare us for a completely preventable disaster, and then failed to make changes that would protect us from the next extreme weather event," O'Rourke said. "To add insult to injury, this governor is forcing ratepayers across the state to clean up his mess. "

In a press release from Abbott's campaign spokeswoman, Renea Eze, the campaign panned O'Rourke's planned event.

"While Beto is traversing the state rooting for the pain and suffering of fellow Texans, Governor Abbott has been working to strengthen the grid with the PUC, ERCOT, and the Legislature to ensure Texas remains a national leader in energy," the release said.