Unplanned power plant outages fall sharply during 2025/26 winter storms: FERC-NERC report

The power grid held up much better during this winter's cold snaps than it did during past storms. A federal report from FERC and NERC found that unplanned power plant outages during January's arctic weather totaled about 49,700 megawatts across the eastern two-thirds of the country, down from 90,500 megawatts during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022. In Texas, outages peaked at about 19,420 megawatts, well below the 35,300 megawatts seen during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, the storm that caused deadly, days-long blackouts. This time, despite record or near-record electricity and natural gas demand, there were no planned outages in Texas or the eastern grid.

Grid operators credited better cold-weather preparation by power plant owners, along with the ability to move electricity between regions when one area was short on power. During two separate storms, Florida both exported and imported power depending on which state needed help. The Department of Energy also issued emergency orders allowing grid operators to call on backup generators at large power users, like data centers, though none actually had to use that authority.

For homeowners, this is broadly good news: it suggests a lower chance of the kind of extended, dangerous winter blackouts Texas saw in 2021. Officials note more work remains, including better coordination between electric and gas systems and more natural gas storage, to keep that improvement going in future cold snaps.