Farmersville says warning of blackouts was false alarm, miscommunication with ERCOT

A warning about blackouts posted on social media from Farmersville police and fire department was a false alarm and the result of miscommunication, Farmersville City Manager Benjamin L. White said in a statement.

White posted on the police and fire department Facebook pages that the warning, which said Farmersville would see rolling blackouts at the request of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, “caused alarm.”

Famersville police said on their Facebook page that power would be cut to “random homes” for about an hour at a time, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA reported. When power was restored to one set of homes, another random group would lose power for an hour, until ERCOT believed the threat of an overload was gone.

But ERCOT said that wasn’t true.

“This is definitely inaccurate reporting and absolutely not ERCOT driven. Our team is making efforts to correct this immediately,” said ERCOT in a statement to WFAA.

White apologized for any inconvenience in the statement, posted to the police Facebook page.

Farmersville is located about 45 miles northeast of Dallas.