How ice beat electricity - Inside El Paso Electric’s cold blackouts

The damage at El Paso Electric’s Newman power plant was substantial. Columns of thick icicles hung from cooling towers. Water valves were cracked in two, rendered useless. Workers used torches to thaw the pipes.
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So how can a heat-producing power plant freeze? And how did it get so bad that the company was forced to cut service?

On Friday afternoon, Andy Ramirez, EPE’s vice president of power generation, said the plant was simply not designed for single-digit, subzero temperatures.