A big cold snap is rolling into West Texas this weekend, and state officials are out here doing their best impression of a calm flight attendant during turbulence. According to Electric Reliability Council of Texas, there’s “sufficient generation” to handle winter demand. Which is reassuring in the same way “probably fine” reassured everyone right before February 2021 turned Texas into a popsicle.
The state is also dusting off the emergency checklist. Greg Abbott has activated basically every agency with a logo—transportation crews, the National Guard, utility monitors, wildlife wardens, and enough acronyms to fill a warming center. Texans are encouraged to stay weather-aware, check road conditions, and presumably trust the grid this time because it’s different now. Definitely different.
Here’s the fun Lubbock twist: a lot of residents are now tied into ERCOT, meaning this storm could bring outages we didn’t deal with last time. Meanwhile, folks served by the Southwest Power Pool—including many rural areas—are being told conditions are “normal,” which in grid-speak means “heads up, but don’t panic.” SPP even issued a Weather Advisory that politely says, “No action needed… unless we tell you otherwise.”
Locally, utilities are pre-positioning crews and reminding us that ice is the real villain. Lubbock Power & Light says smart meters will auto-report outages, while Xcel Energy emphasizes crew safety and its multi-state backup options. Translation: lines may go down, repairs may take time, and yes, turning off that extra lamp might help—emotionally, if nothing else.
So grab your blankets, charge your devices, and place your bets—will Lubbock get the “sufficient generation” experience, or the “character-building outage” edition?
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/01/22/lpl-xcel-energy-prepare-winter-storm-power-outages/
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/01/22/southwest-power-pool-grid-issues-weather-advisory/