Officials with Texas' power grid operator pleaded with residents Monday to limit their electrical usage amid soaring temperatures and a series of mechanical problems at power plants.
Officials with the nonprofit group, which oversees 90 percent of Texas' energy production, asked residents to set their thermostats higher, turn off lights and avoid using larger appliances until Friday.
A spokeswoman for the group told reporters that the outages accounted for more than 12,000 megawatts, enough to power 2.4 million homes.
A senior official with ERCOT, Warren Lasher, said it wasn't clear why there were so many unplanned outages.
But he said that the group is "deeply concerned" about the plants that are offline and that a thorough investigation is being conducted to better understand the problems.
Officials "need to know why across the fleet are we seeing unplanned, unscheduled mechanical issues," Lasher said.
One critic told the network that it was an "overstatement" to call new $5,000-per-day penalties for noncompliant companies "a rounding error. »
