NBC 5 Research is learning a lot more about what the state power grid operator, ERCOT, did in the days and hours before the massive outages that endangered millions of people.
ERCOT is now at the center of a political firestorm, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) blames the organization for not recognizing that the impending storm could bring down so many power plants.
At a press conference Friday morning, ERCOT backed down and said it saved Texas from a much more catastrophic collapse, which was perhaps just seconds away.
ERCOT operations messages detail what was happening in the ERCOT control room in the chaotic minutes before much of the state fell into darkness.
At 1:12 a.m. Monday, drivers issued an alert saying “rotating cuts may be necessary.”
In just 13 minutes, this alert jumped to level 3, the highest level, as ERCOT ordered utilities to turn off power to millions of homes.
“We don’t act, we don’t do anything, we could have a much worse event. And I know it’s hard to imagine a much worse event now, ”said Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT.
Magness described how his team quickly implemented controlled outages that occurred within minutes or seconds of an uncontrolled cascading power outage that could have paralyzed Texas much longer.
“We would be talking about when we could estimate, in weeks or months, that we would see the power system repaired and that we would still see people suffering disruptions,” Magness said.
But while Magness spoke of heroism to avert a wider catastrophe, Abbott reiterated Friday that ERCOT was to blame for the disaster that ensued.
“They said that five days before the winter storm arrived – ERCOT – assured us that, to quote, we are prepared for the cold temperatures that are coming to us,” Abbott said.
Records from ERCOT’s message of operations show that it first alerted power plants to the impending February 8 storm, issuing a warning of an “extremely cold weather system approaching” and told plants that “reviewed and implemented wintering procedures”.
ERCOT then sent three short weather warnings to the plants over the next four days before the storm arrived.
But then ice and cold destroyed more than a third of the state’s power generation equipment.
“I mean, it was a massive scale. That was a 40% failure and that’s amazing … it’s probably over ten million people who didn’t have electricity at some point, “said Daniel Cohan, an energy expert at Rice University.
Cohan said the extent of the failure showed Texas power plants need stronger winter protection.
“Natural gas systems work well in Alberta and wind turbines work well in Antarctica, Denmark. and therefore anything is possible at a price, ”Cohan said.
The governor is calling for new laws forcing plants to do more to protect themselves from the cold, and next week the legislature will interrogate ERCC officials and executives at hearings in Austin.
“If there are things we could do differently or better, we want to know, because we also don’t want any events like this to happen,” Magness said.
Ironically, new federal regulations that would require power plants to take specific measures to protect themselves from the cold weather are being considered right now. Currently, plants are required to have an emergency operations plan, but there are no applicable rules that require specific protection against the winter weather.
Federal authorities from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) have also said they will investigate.
NBC 5 Investigates spoke with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the group that the FERC has commissioned to enforce federal standards.
The organization said one thing it would consider would be what has been done to protect power plants in Texas since the 2011 winter storm that caused shutdowns.
After this storm, recommendations were made to improve them. But the question is to what extent these recommendations have been implemented in the last ten years.
On Friday morning, ERCOT returned to normal operations, which means there is now enough electricity to meet demand.
The remaining falls are probably due to equipment problems in local areas.