TEXAS — A federal report is warning the state's electric grid is still vulnerable to extreme winter weather.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) notes the grid remains almost as susceptible as when it nearly collapsed during last year's deadly storm.

State utility regulators say the analysis is flawed, but even FERC's updated version of the agency's assessment released late yesterday drew the same conclusion.

According to the document, the ability of the ERCOT grid to handle extreme winter weather appears only marginally better. That's despite more than a year of effort to make it more dependable.

Energy expert Doug Lewin said that the grid is somewhat better off now than it was in February 2021. But the slight progress won’t be enough if Texas faces another extreme winter event.

“The fact remains that there is a lot that has not been done,” said Lewin. “We have not made energy efficiency improvements, we’ve only made marginal improvements to weatherization of gas supply. So that means if we had another Uri-like event, we’d likely have prolonged outages.”