A brand new Electricity Supply Chain Map of essential infrastructure reveals the place the state’s energy is created, delivered and saved, as Texas officers try to get a greater maintain on electrical energy technology and the way it strikes all through the state.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas held a public assembly Tuesday to offer common information on the map’s elements however mentioned the precise map is not going to be made public for safety causes.
The map consists of the places of compressor stations, processing vegetation, underground storage, and transmission and distribution pipelines – all essential to the state’s electrical energy provide chain. Other layers embrace Texas Department of Emergency Management areas and districts, electrical transmission and distribution strains, substations, electrical producing vegetation and real-time climate information, mentioned Therese Harris, program specialist within the Infrastructure Division at PUCT.
Harris added that it’s a “living” map that can be refined and up to date a minimum of twice a 12 months — earlier than winter and earlier than hurricane season.
“We’re confident that the map will be a useful tool as Texas faces future emergency conditions,” Harris mentioned.
The creation and constructing of the map was directed by state legislators following the lethal and expensive 2021 winter storm the place a close to collapse of the state’s electrical grid left thousands and thousands with out water and electrical energy for days amid freezing temperatures. It was inbuilt collaboration between the PUCT, the Railroad Commission, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
State electrical energy leaders mentioned state emergency administration officers will use the map throughout climate emergencies and disasters to pinpoint the situation of essential electrical and pure gasoline amenities and supply emergency contact information for these amenities.
The map was formally adopted in late April, about 4 months forward of the Sept. 1 deadline.
“The idea behind this is whenever there is the need, whether there’s an emergency — obviously tomorrow we start hurricane season … — the information on this map will be extremely important to the folks in the state operation center as they endeavor to get us through those crises,” mentioned Thomas Gleeson, Public Utility Commission of Texas govt director and chairman of the mapping committee.
Gleeson added the committee will proceed to carry annual public conferences on updates made to the map, previous to the beginning of every hurricane season. Hurricane season runs from June 1 to the top of November.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an above common hurricane season this 12 months. It is forecasting a possible vary of 14 to 21 named storms, or storms with winds 39 mph or larger, with six to 10 of these turning into hurricanes. In addition, it’s predicting with 70% confidence that three to 6 of the storms can be deemed main hurricanes — of class three or larger.
Agencies are additionally working to ascertain weatherization requirements to be adopted by the PUCT fee by the top of summer season with the hopes they might be applied by summer season 2023. The requirements would make sure that essential amenities, already situated by means of the map, are higher ready for excessive climate situations.
“Weatherization and [the] map go hand-in-hand in terms of [preparation], response and recovery from emergencies,” mentioned RJ DeSilva, communications director for the RRC. “From a regulatory agency perspective, not only do we know where these critical facilities are, we know they’re weatherized and they’re much better prepared for the extreme weather conditions that may come.”