Freezing weather in Texas led to a chain of unprecedented events, leaving 4 million customers without power and raised the demand from state's electric grid operator. US President Joe Biden declared an emergency, unlocking federal assistance to Texas, where temperatures ranged from minus 2 to minus 22 Celsius.
The cold snap sweeping Texas reached the northern part of neighbouring Mexico as well and left almost 4.7 million customers in northern Mexico without power. Mexico’s government-owned utility, the Federal Electricity Commission, said its operations were left short as the winter storm froze natural gas pipelines. It said some private power plants, that supply 80% of power in northern Mexico also began shutting down Sunday night.