ERCOT’s weather data shows the Dallas/Fort Worth area was at or below freezing for more than 140 hours. That’s 40 hours longer than the 2011 winter storm which caused rolling power outages.

This time, demand for power hit an all-time record high while all types of power plants – and even natural gas delivery lines to some plants — shut down in the cold forcing ERCOT to order outages to prevent a far worse collapse of the entire power system.

One chart presented at the meeting shows Texas was less than five minutes away from a blackout that might have crippled the power system for weeks or months.

Magness expressed frustration at the meeting about how long it took to bring some power plants back online. The graphs shared today showed for days many were not able to re-start and that’s what turned this into such a devastating crisis with lives lost and homes damaged.