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The big outage exposes the weakness of the Texas network: it is not capable of withstanding extreme and extreme weather events.
Power outages don’t just happen in Texas. Power companies from Minnesota to Mississippi have had to rotate outages to ease pressure on overloaded grids due to high demand in recent days. Power outages are also fairly common in California’s summer and fall, in part to reduce the risk of wildfires.
Yet the blackout of more than three million Texans in freezing cold, in a state that prides itself on energy production, underscores the severity of an ongoing problem in the United States with increasing frequency.
People line up to buy LPG after cold weather caused power outages in Texas on February 17. Picture: AP.
The cold has caused Texans to raise heaters, many of which consume a lot of electricity. Energy demand increases to levels typically seen only on the hottest days of summer, when millions of air conditioners are operating at full capacity.
Texas is a state that has a temperate climate, with a warm climate in summer but not too cold in winter. That’s why the state produces around 86,000 MW in summer, but drops to 67,000 MW in winter, when some power plants that shut down for maintenance for months tend to have less demand and little electricity. They come from wind and solar power.
But power planners for this winter had not anticipated a drop in temperatures to freeze natural gas pipelines and stop wind turbines from spinning. On February 17, Texas lost 46,000 megawatts of capacity, of which 28,000 megawatts came from gas, coal and nuclear power plants, and 18,000 megawatts were from wind and solar power, according to the Texas Electricity Assurance Council (ERCOT), the operator of the state network.
“All power supplies cannot function at full capacity,” tweeted Daniel Cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Houston. “Each source is vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events in different ways. No source is capable or prepared to withstand all types of extreme weather and conditions.”
The large gap between power supply and demand in Texas also caused electricity prices to skyrocket from around $ 20 / MWh to $ 9,000 / MWh in the state’s free wholesale electricity market.
That raises the question of whether some generators are deliberately profiting by shutting down operations to boost electricity prices rather than buying more gas to run the power plant.
“We can’t speculate on someone else’s engine that way,” said Bill Magness, ERCOT’s chief executive, saying the generators assured him they were doing everything they could to provide electricity.
Gas and wind turbines can protect against extreme winter weather, but this is typically done in the colder northern states. In 2011, the freeze in Texas also caused power plants to shut down and cause power outages. A national electrical industry group has developed guidelines for dealing with winter weather, but they are completely voluntary and also requires an expensive investment equipment and other necessary measures.
Dan Woodfin, an ERCOT official, said the plant upgrade after the 2011 incident helped limit power outages during a similar cold snap in 2018, but this week’s freezing weather was “more severe.”
However, Ed Hirs, an energy specialist at the University of Houston, dismissed ERCOT’s claim that this week’s situation was unpredictable. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “We see really bad winters every eight to ten years. This is no surprise.”
In California, regulators last week ordered the state’s top three utilities to increase supplies and could upgrade plants to avoid a supply shortfall that occurred in California six months ago, leaving some 500,000 people without power during some hours.
“The big difference is that California leadership realizes that climate change is happening, but Texas officials don’t seem like it,” says Severin Borenstein, professor of business administration and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. . studying power supply problems for more than 20 years, he says.
The network operator said Alternating power outages are a reluctant measure when demand exceeds supply and threatens to collapse the entire system. When performing rotary cuts, areas with hospitals, fire stations, water treatment plants and other important facilities are exceptional.
In theory, when there is a rolling blackout, no residential area should experience a long blackout, but that was not true this week in Texas. Some areas do not lose energy at all, while others lose energy for 12 hours or more when the temperature drops deeply.
The rotary interrupt is activated when the power reserve falls below a certain level. In Texas, as in California last August, network operators ordered utilities to download the entire system, and it was the companies that decided how.
Ice on a freeway sign in Killeen, Texas, on February 18. Picture: AFP.
In Texas this week, network operators and utilities caught up on severe weather forecasts at least a week in advance. Last weekend, they called for reducing electricity use, and ERCOT tweeted that residents should “unplug new appliances they purchased during a pandemic, but only use them once.”
However, residents did not appear to heed that call, few were informed in advance when their home was without power. When the power outage began, some utilities were unable to say how long the situation would last.
To avoid alternate power outagesWhen a power company or grid operator warns of an overload, residents should turn off the heaters and avoid using appliances that consume a lot of electricity. Of course, that is easier said than done, especially at a time of record drop in temperatures.
However, Texans may be more willing to turn down the heaters if regulators enforce a system that charges higher electricity rates during peak hours and lower rates at other times. “A lot of people are still indifferent to heating their heaters because there is no financial obstacle to do so,” Borenstein said.
Experts also say that more expensive structural changes are necessary. Generators must take steps to insulate pipes and other equipment. Investing in electricity storage and distribution would be a useful measure. Setting stricter building standards could also make homes in Texas better insulated from cold weather.
Texas, which has a network system that is virtually separate from other states to avoid federal regulation, may have to rethink a “go it alone” strategy. The state could require generators to have some spare plants to service peak hours, a move they have refused to take for years.
“The system is not up to the standards we want to see,” said Joshua Rhodes, an energy researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. “We need to do better. If we need to spend more money to ensure a more stable supply, we have to consider that.”
Phuong Vu (Follow, continue AP)
