Texas suffered one massive failure from his electrical system during the past week, after the state was whipped by a devastating winter storm. As of last Tuesday night, 4 million electricity customers had lost energy, nearly a third of the total 12.4 million users. Most of these customers have recovered electricity, but the partial shutdown lasted several days and the winter season is not over yet. This article will review the reasons for the power failure in Texas, including disruptions in natural gas deliveries; generation units that could not stand the cold; the lack of generation capacity requirements or a capacity market in Texas; and the isolation of Texas from other network systems in United States which could have provided complementary electricity.
The power outage took place within the area served by the Texas Electrical Reliability Council, or ERCOT, which covers most of Texas. ERCOT is an “independent system operator” that manages the electricity grid and is responsible for matching the supply and demand of electricity within its service area. ERCOT does not generate energy on its own, but provides instructions to energy producers on how much energy is needed to meet electricity demand. The problem arose when electricity demand skyrocketed on Monday 15 February due to the intense cold and ERCOT could not find enough energy production to meet that demand.
According to ERCOT, “extreme weather conditions caused many generating units, of all types of fuel, to be disconnected and no longer available.” Consequently, ERCOT declared emergency conditions on February 15 and initiated rotary cuts, that is, cutting off energy to groups of different customers for short periods. However, as more and more generation units were disconnected, temporary outages became a waste of energy in large areas for extended periods. So why did this happen?
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A more important problem was the interruptions in the natural gas supply of Texas. In 2020, natural gas provided the most electricity if any fuel source is compared: 45.5% of Texas electricity came from natural gas, 22.8% from wind, 17.9% from coal. , 10.9% of nuclear energy and 2.9% of other sources. But because of the freeze, there was not enough natural gas available to deliver to power plants with the constant pressures they need. Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at ERCOT, stated on February 16, 2021 that “it appears that much of the generation that has been disconnected today is mainly due to problems in the natural gas system.” Reasons included competition with other users, including residential users, who needed gas for heating; frozen gas wells, pipes and valves; and frozen processing equipment.
Another major problem was the inadequate protection of cold generation facilities. Many conservative commentators in the United States blamed the frozen wind projects of the energy crisis. It should be noted that ERCOT’s seasonal planning relied on this type of energy for only 7% of the total electricity supply during the period December 2020 to February 2021, although wind projects provide much more electricity. in other parts of the year. some wind projects yes they froze last week due to lack of thawing capacity used in wind projects located in cold weather, but it continued to work long enough to come close to winter forecast figures. the power plants using gas, coal and nuclear power, which were expected to provide much more electricity supply during the winter months, also suffered from the cold, for example, instrumentation systems that froze.
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Texas also suffered from the absence of capacity requirements or a capacity market, which include mandates or payments to energy producers to have the generation resources ready to function properly, even if those resources are not being used. currently using. Most jurisdictions in the United States have these requirements or markets that provide an insurance policy regarding the adequacy of resources. But ERCOT does not. Instead, it allows prices to float freely, so the possibility of extremely high prices provides a sufficient incentive for energy producers to create capacity. The problem is that these price spikes can be very costly for electricity consumers. Many analysts believe that floating prices are an ineffective strategy compared to capacity requirements or markets to ensure there are sufficient resources.
Finally, Texas is not connected to the two major grids in the rest of the United States that could have provided extra electricity when Texas encountered an inadequate generation. This was a conscious decision by the Texas government, as the interconnection with other U.S. networks would have given that country’s federal government regulatory jurisdiction over ERCOT and its network. Texas stands firm in avoiding federal regulation. In fact, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry believes the Texans would be willing to have shutdowns of more than 3 days instead of accepting federal regulation. Former Gov. Perry’s comments were received with outrage by his political opponents, as the suffering and likely deaths that would result from the failure of Texas’ electrical system could have been avoided if Texas had been connected to other networks. ‘United States.
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What happens now? The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, Has already requested that the ERCOT be investigated. At the same time, he admitted that he, as governor, has a responsibility to ensure the proper functioning of ERCOT and has promised reforms.
On the reasons for the power outage, the Texas legislature is likely to now require new protections for the electricity system and gas supply system against the cold weather. However, these protections are costly and there will certainly be a debate about who should pay. Following a previous Texas freeze in 2011, a report from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that more protections were needed against the cold weather. But ERCOT was unable to make these protections mandatory and the FERC / NERC warning was virtually ignored. With increased volatility in climate patterns, the severity of the storm that has just hit, and a growing political backlash against Texas political leaders, it is possible that this state will take more aggressive action this time around.
On the issue of requirements or the capacity market and the interconnection of Texas with other U.S. networks, there will surely be an intense debate on how to proceed. The failure of the Texas power system will pressure Texas to assess whether it is time for a change of direction on these issues, but it is too early to say how the debate will unfold.
John McNeece is a Senior Fellow in Energy and Commerce at the Center for Mexico-United States Studies at the University of California, San Diego. You can be contacted by email at [email protected].