Thousands lose power, BEC cites high demand, equipment failure

Sub-freezing temperatures last Friday left thousands of Bandera County residents without electricity, which Bandera Electric Cooperative (BEC) attributes to faulty equipment and higher demand than 2021’s freeze.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said last week they had enough resources to meet winter demand, but local utility companies could experience issues.

BEC CEO Bill Hetherington said problems began Friday morning at 1:30 p.m. when an electrical device failed at a Medina Lake Substation.

“This coincided with record- level energy demand created by extreme cold and wind,” said Hetherington. “The energy demand seen during those hours exceeded demand during Winter Storm Uri.”

Hetherington said BEC worked to shift the load to adjacent facilities to restore power and minimize outage time, but doing so created additional overload on adjacent facilities.

“The combination of all-time loading and equipment failure created a situation where we were forced to shed load to prevent damage to additional facilities and also to reduce risk of a long outage event,” he said.

BEC announced on social media they were repairing outages beginning Thursday night and into Friday morning.

Around 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, they said they were instituting rolling blackouts to maintain the integrity of their electrical grid.

Hetherington said the load shed was not mandated by ERCOT or the state, but it was necessary to minimize damage to the BEC system.

At least 3,800 people in the county were powerless as of 9:00 a.m. Friday morning, according to BEC’s website.

BEC serves 39,590 individuals in multiple counties, 16,740 of which live in Bandera County . No other serviced county area had more than 500 power outages as of 9 a.m. Friday morning, according to BEC’s online outage map.

The Silver Sage announced Friday morning around 9 a.m. they would be opening as a warming center, but could not guarantee the power would stay on.

Hetherington said power was restored and BEC’s system was back on normal operation by 1 p.m. Friday afternoon.

“I want to thank the employees of BEC for their efforts on restoring the power,” he said. “Rest assured we are working 24/7 to keep the power on.”

Water outages and boil water notices arrived in the aftermath of the winter temperatures.

As of the Bulletin’s press deadline the following neighborhoods were under a boil water notice, according to Texas Water Utilities: - Enchanted River Estates, Green Acres, Holiday Villages of Livingston, Holiday Villages of Medina, Ivanhoe, Lake Medina Shores, Mount Herman, Pleasant Ridge, Rolling Forrest, Tower Terrace and Woodcreek Valley.

The Silver Sage worked with the San Antonio Food Bank to bring water to Lake Medina Shores on Sunday and Monday.

Silver Sage officials extended thanks to the food bank, Commissioner Jody Rutherford and Bandera County Emergency Management.