Power outages in Texas: Why power outages hit as temperatures drop

Texas’ power grid was on the verge of failure after a cold moment brought low temperatures, snow and glowing eclipses across the state. Millions of Texans were without power, and some people questioned why a state that provides the most power in the US could not turn on the light. Incorrect information about the eclipse also started spreading online, falsely placing the blame on wind and solar energy.

About 4 million people in Texas had to deal with interruptions most of the week as generators and natural gas pipes froze, paralyzing the state’s production capacity. As a result, the Texas Electric Reliability Board (ERCOT), which manages the state’s power grid, controls rolling blackouts to avoid a network outage. ERCOT ended the state of emergency on Friday because no more interruptions were needed.

ERCOT operations have returned to normal and we are no longer asking for energy savings. Thank you for helping the network in this very difficult time.

– ERCOT (@ERCOT_ISO) 19 February 2021

Here’s what you need to know about the power outages in Texas.

What has become of the power in Texas?

This past weekend, a winter storm came to Texas and brought icy cold into the state. When temperatures began to drop in the teens on Monday morning, generators across the state began to freeze and go offline, leading to a significant decline in energy production. At the same time, the demand for power increased as people turned on the thermostat.

Nearly 50% of the power generated by Texas comes from natural gas, with the other half under coal, wind, nuclear and solar power. However, due to the cold, gas can not even get through the pipes from the ground. ERCOT says 46,000 megawatts were offline as of Wednesday. One megawatt is enough to power about 200 homes a year. As of Wednesday, there are 70 to 80 power stations on the road, out of 680 across the country. Thermal energy – natural gas, coal and nuclear power – accounted for 28,000 megawatts while the other accounted for 16,000 wind and solar power.

“The production capacity of gas generators, especially with full production, is affected by the freezing point on the natural gas supply,” Bill Magness, ERCOT president and CEO, said during a live stream on Wednesday. “So this is the most important solution to get the resources back to get people back their power.”

About 40% of the generators are offline due to the cold weather. The significant drop in power generated led to eclipses by the state as ERCOT tried to keep a balance between supply and demand to prevent a “catastrophic” eclipse. This made the interruption last much longer than ERCOT expected.

Dan Woodfin, senior director of systems operations for ERCOT, says national standards are being considered, but it should still be mandatory.

“These are voluntary guidelines for the individual generation businesses to decide to do those things,” Woodfin said. ‘They have financial incentive to participate in the market to follow it [regulations] and stay online, but there are no regulations at this time. ‘

He further explained that generators in the north of the country are usually located in buildings that help protect them in the winter. However, Texas is keeping generators out to fully utilize them during the summer months when energy needs are high, with more homes using air conditioning. Having the generators indoors can increase the heat and prevent them from being used at their full capacity. According to Woodfin, there are best practices for keeping generators online during cold weather, but this was not enough with the extremely low temperatures.

Texas has its own independent power grid and is not connected to the eastern interconnection and the western interconnection networks that cover the rest of the country. The state can draw power from neighboring states and Mexico, but the amount available is limited. Nor has it helped that neighboring states need all their electricity to keep up with demand.

The sound of a meeting of ERCOT officials on February 9 suggested that they may not have taken the winter storm as seriously as they could have, local news agency KSAT-12 reported Friday. During the two-hour and 28-minute meeting, the upcoming winter storm was discussed for less than 40 seconds, KSAT-12 said. Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT, commented: ‘I think that was the first thing I mentioned when I started informing the board … there was definitely a lot of communication from us, and if that’s what I said , indicated that we were not worried, I was really just trying to let the board know that this is something we need to keep an eye on because it’s coming to us. ‘

What’s the matter with people blaming wind and solar power?

Confusion over the cause of the blackouts began to spread on social media on Tuesday, especially from government officials.

“The reason for blackouts is complicated, but in summary: Texas has taken too many lessons from Cali, too much subsidized renewable energy, and emitted the base tax energy like natural gas,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas tweeted Tuesday.

A similar sentiment comes from fellow GOP Texas Ronny Jackson, who said on Facebook on Tuesday, “We need to immediately put our trust in renewable energy.”

But on Tuesday, the Texas government, Greg Abbott, also a Republican, pointed out that natural gas must be frozen as part of the problem.

“The reason there is no power available to your viewers is because the generators froze and their equipment was unable to generate power. On top of that, the natural gas flowing in those generators was also frozen.” Abbott told Houston’s ABC-13.

On Tuesday night, however, Abbott went on Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News and gave a different account of what happened.

“Our wind and solar power shut down, and that’s a combined 10% of our power grid, and that put Texas in a situation where the country did not have power,” he told Hannity. “As a result, it appears that fossil fuels are needed for the state of Texas.”

However, according to ERCOT officials, the majority of the power lost comes from thermal energy, which consists mainly of natural gas, and not from wind or solar energy.

‘From 9am,’ the organization said in a press release on Wednesday, ‘about 46,000 MW of generation of the system was enforced during this extreme winter version. Of this, 28,000 MW is thermal and 18,000 MW is wind and solar power. ”

Abbott appears to be returning his comments during a news conference in Austin on Wednesday.

“I was asked a question about renewable energy in one TV show, and I answered the question,” Abbott said. “Every force in the state of Texas is at risk.”

When will the power go on again?

On Wednesday, ERCOT did not give a specific time for recovery, but the best case scenario was Thursday morning. On Thursday, it is said that the lights have been switched on again by the majority of the customers and that the network remains constant. On Friday, normal conditions were restored.