Texans Asked to Not Use Their Washing Machines as Weather Tests Grid

Texas residents were asked to avoid using large appliances such as washing machines to conserve energy as frigid temperatures threatened the state’s power grid.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates 90 percent of the state’s electric load, urged residents to conserve energy ahead of “tight conditions” as bitterly cold conditions hit the Lone Star State on Monday.

Nearly the entire state was under some form of winter weather advisory, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and the conditions were expected to last through Tuesday. The cold weather was likely to lead to high demand for energy, and an ERCOT webpage suggested that Texans could conserve power by refraining from using large appliances.

Other suggestions included lowering the thermostat by a degree or two, turning off and unplugging nonessential lights and appliances, turning off unused lights and equipment at commercial offices and turning off the heat at commercial businesses outside of operating hours.

“With the winter storm encompassing the entire state and temperatures forecasted to be colder this evening and into tomorrow morning, ERCOT is asking Texans to conserve electricity use, if safe to do so,” ERCOT posted on X (formerly Twitter) Monday afternoon.

More than 33,000 Texans were without power amid brutally cold conditions. However, ERCOT told Newsweek on Monday that any outages were local and not related to the grid.

The cold air is a particular cause for concern in the state, considering that Texas suffered a massive power grid failure in February 2021 after three severe storms and frigid temperatures stressed the grid. Millions of Texans lost power, limiting their access to food, water and warmth. The failure proved fatal, as hundreds died because of the outage.

Despite the growing concern, the ERCOT website showed that the grid was operating under normal conditions. ERCOT previously told Newsweek that it was “closely monitoring the weather conditions moving across Texas this and next week” and that “grid conditions are expected to be normal.”

As of Monday afternoon, the NWS had issued a windchill warning, wind chill advisory, hard freeze warning, winter storm warning and a special weather statement that warned of icy spots on roadways throughout Texas.

Even the southernmost tip of Texas faced severely cold temperatures that felt as low as 10 degrees. Northern parts of Texas faced a windchill of 20 degrees below zero. In those parts of the state, the NWS warned that frostbite could occur “quickly” if uncovered skin is exposed to the air.