Thread by @CathJSweeney

Briefing on winter storm situation from Gov. Kevin Stitt, Director of Oklahoma Emergency Management Mark Gower and Secretary of Energy and Environment Ken Wagner is just about to start. I'll be tweeting here.

Will also be hearing from Brandy Wreath, Oklahoma Corporation Commission Public Utilities Division Director.

Stitt: "We are experiencing unprecedented cold weather." We are currently preparing a request for federal disaster declaration. We're asking for personal utility assistance and for ag assistance.

Stitt: "We still need to conserve energy because we aren't out of the woods yet." Consider keeping your thermostat at 68 or cooler and not using major appliances like dish washers.

Secretary of Energy and Environment Ken Wagner: We became aware of this power situation Friday morning. We saw an unseen spike in natural gas spot market prices that were 40-times what we normally see. "That caused some concern."

Wagner: At the time, we were satisfied we had enough power to get through at least Monday evening. We had no concerns about blackouts. Saturday, we started hearing there might be a tightening of natural gas supply. Yesterday, the governor issued the request to be good neighbors.

Wagner: We saw this weekend how thousands of Texans experienced rolling brownouts. "We wanted to ensure that didn't happen in Oklahoma." Luckily, Oklahoma's controlled outages were limited.

Wagner: We're seeing freeze-offs at the wells, so the raw gas can't travel to processing plants. We're also see freezing at processing plants.

Wagner: "As of today, I know of no immediate jeopardy of immediate interruptions (controlled blackouts) on the natural gas side... but that continues to depend on you ... conserving energy..."

Brandy Wreath at Oklahoma Corporation Commission: "Unfortunately, this storm created such demand, the new peak has been testing the limits." Our grid managers did have to move into emergency response phase. "The goal is to reduce the impact to end users as much as possible."

Wreath: We've asked large commercial users to curtail use. Luckily, that has helped us stabilize the energy grid, cutting back on our need for blackouts.

Wreath: "Any outage is scary in these times." We want you to report any outages you experience. What we experienced today — with increased demand and suppressed supply — was a "perfect storm." It was impossible to model.

Wreath: We were 640 megawatts short. It was the most excited I've been all week, when I heard that the SPP said Oklahomans cut down their energy use and stabilized the grid enough to stop blackouts.

Wreath: We know we don't need controlled blackouts right now, but that isn't permanent. "This could turn around on a dime... We know that the coldest days are still coming." #okwx

Wreath: Unplug anything that you're not using. It seems like that wouldn't use much energy, but statewide, it makes a big difference. We need to reduce the use of appliances like washers and dryers and dishwashers.

Emergency Management Director Mark Gower: We continue to coordinate with local emergency management to coordinate water and heating needs.

Gower: The use of alternate heating sources during these emergencies can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. Be careful. Generators need to be at least 5 feet from your house.

Stitt: Oklahomans conserving played a huge role. The oil and gas industry helped too. "They were able to get some more gas wells online." 40 percent of our electric production comes from wind, but turbines are freezing. We need to make sure we have good infrastructure on natgas

Wagner: Icing can cause imbalances in turbines, and running them that way can cause permanent damage. These winds can hurt them too. That being said, we did still have some wind production today.

We got a question: If you knew this was going to be a problem on Saturday, why are we just now hearing about it?
Wagner: We got the conservation out when we started getting concern on Sunday. Well freeze off didn't show up til Sunday.

Wagner: Our grid managers are superior to those in other regions. We saw widespread blackouts in Texas. We saw a "minuscule amount" of them here in Oklahoma.

https://twitter.com/peytonyager/status/1361467259206664195