ERCOT's review of the February 2011 cold weather event

During the first week of February 2011, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), an independent system operator that manages approximately 85% of Texas' power usage, experienced unusually cold weather conditions. The severe conditions led to generation losses which affected over 3 million electric customers [1]. This paper describes the weather conditions experienced and summarizes the chronology of ERCOT's operational events.