El Paso Electric’s Report Details Winter Storm Preparations, What Went Wrong

The El Paso Electric Co. has submitted a report to the Texas Public Utilities Commission on the weather event that caused eight of its local power generators to go down due to below freezing temperatures.

Because local power generation was lost, EPE depended on electricity from out of town to supply El Paso and EPE also instituted rolling blackouts in El Paso and Las Cruces.

In the report, EPE stated it, “Maintains an extensive weatherization checklist for each of its local units. Prior to the beginning of the winter weather season, around September and October, the Company goes through its weatherization checklist and confirms that items on the checklist have been completed. For example, the Company verifies that all heat trace circuits, heat lamps, and heat strips are functioning, and that all enclosures are tight and sealed. The Company also ensures that all insulation is properly installed. In the 48 hours before the cold front arrived in EI Paso, the Company, as a precaution, confirmed that all items on the checklist were in place and properly functioning. … Among the more important items on the checklist are ensuring that heat tracing circuits, heat lamps and space heaters are on and operating. A heat tracing circuit is cable that spirals around boiler instrument sensing lines, water pipes, key sensor equipment and other instruments, which produces heat that, along with insulation, keeps the boiler sensing lines, water pipes, sensor equipment and other instrumentation from freezing. All heat tracing circuits were in place and operational before the extreme weather arrived.

“During the emergency, EPE employees and contractors, operating in extremely harsh weather conditions, and working throughout the day and night, sought to protect critical equipment and sensors from freezing; and after critical equipment and sensors had frozen, worked throughout the emergency to thaw out and repair the frozen equipment and sensors. For example, employees and contractors, standing on different levels 10 to 15 feet apart from each other and working with blow torches, sought to warm sensing lines that run 50 to 80 feet long from the steam drum (the water/steam reservoir at the top of the boiler) down to the level transmitter.”

EPE stated in the conclusion of its report that it had done all it could to prepare for the weather but the weather was just too cold.

“During the days of February 2 to February 4, EPE was challenged by recordbreaking cold temperatures. EPE had planned and prepared for the forecasted weather, and continued to do so as the arctic cold approached, but unfortunately EPE’s system was simply not designed to withstand such extremely cold and sustained temperatures. When the emergency developed, EPE followed its Emergency Operations Plan and reasonably managed its available resources as best it could. EPE’s employees put in many long hours, including those employees who were in the field working in the bitter cold throughout the period, in an effort to maintain and restore service. While the emergency event was not painless because many of EPE’s customers experienced controlled outages, EPE was nevertheless successful through the diligent efforts of its employees in managing its available resources and preventing a much worse situation from developing, such as a system blackout.”

Read the full report El Paso Electric Report To Public Utility Commission On 2011 Winter Storm Event

Read the report on the El Paso Electric Winter Storm 2011 Infrastructure Checklist