AUSTIN, Texas — On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent letters to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Railroad Commission of Texas Chairman Christi Craddick calling on their agencies to investigate Atmos Energy gas outages during last week’s freezing weather.
As temperatures dropped below freezing on Friday morning, Atmos Energy customers in Central Texas and North Texas reported no gas service. Many residents, including those in Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander, did not have heat due to the outages.
"Atoms Energy is absent. No communication, they are closed," a viewer texted KVUE. "One person got through on the emergency line and was told that demand is too high and it will resolve itself when it warms up."
The City of Leander said the Dallas-based company was experiencing all-time high gas demands, leading to low pressure and loss of service.
"Leading up to, and during the winter event, State of Texas agencies worked around the clock to mobilize resources and assist utilities in any way possible," reads one of Abbott’s letters sent on Wednesday. "At no time did Atmos Energy request assistance. Atmos’ conduct is unacceptable and concrete action must be taken... to ensure it is not repeated the next time that winter weather engulfs our state. It is for these reasons I request [your agency] to investigate Atmos Energy. Because we are just beginning the winter season, and because customers of Atmos deserve to have reliable natural gas service during this winter, there is an urgency to have [your agency's] investigation concluded in a matter of weeks."
The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) said in a Friday night update that gas pressure had improved in the affected areas and that Atmos brought in CNG for its systems.
"We're in constant contact with Atmos to ensure that affected residents stay safe and warm," the RRC said in part.
In a further update from the RRC on Saturday, the agency stated that Atmos has restored gas pressure in the affected local areas and it had returned to normal as of early afternoon Friday.
"Pressure continues to hold this morning [and] technicians continue to remain in the area to monitor the system," the RRC explained.
Following the governor's letter on Wednesday, the RRC said it sent a request to Atmos asking for the following information:
- a detailed account of the number and location of customers whose service was negatively impacted and the duration of such impact
- detailed explanations of the cause of low pressure or other issues negatively impacting natural gas service in each location
- status and data of pipeline and system capacity to meet demand growth in the areas
- Atmos’ plan to address the issues so that interruptions to natural gas service will not occur again in the future, with estimated costs and timeline to remedy the cause
Atmos Energy issued the following statement on Wednesday:
"We take seriously our responsibility to provide safe and reliable natural gas services as well as to be a trusted partner in the communities we serve. That responsibility includes undertaking operational planning and preparation to provide such safe and reliable service all throughout the year.
"Despite those preparations, last week, we fell short for some of our customers who experienced interruptions in their natural gas service. That is not acceptable. And though we worked to restore service as quickly and safely as possible, we apologize for that service disruption.
"We are committed to working with our regulators and key stakeholders to address those issues in order to provide reliable natural gas service to all our customers."