The Texas Electric Reliability Board does not meet its bill.
Although warning signs go back a decade, America’s only independent electric service was not prepared for the Arctic cold winter storm that leveled the Lone Star State.
Homeowners in Texas simultaneously increased the heat to stay warm, which created the demand for energy that exceeded the supply of the electrical grid and resulted in millions of power outages.
Texans were under record-low temperatures, they bundled themselves in blankets and burned wood to ward off the extreme cold, and boiled water, and in some cases snow, to hydrate.
By Friday morning, 200,000 people were still without lights and electricity, and millions did not have enough drinking water.
At least 37 people have died as a result of widespread weather-related deaths, the majority in Texas.
Borrowing electricity from other states would have accelerated the end of the energy crisis.
Now comes the central point – Texas has always wanted to stand alone.
The electrical network system is divided into three parts in the mainland of the United States: Western Interconnection, Eastern Interconnection and ERCOT.
Those covering the western and eastern U.S. connect local grids in those states so that they can function independently and also exchange power with each other.
ERCOT owns only 90 percent of Texas, a state with 29 million inhabitants.
‘The independence of the network is good and bad. It gives us the freedom to make decisions based on how we want to do it, ”said Michael Webber, an energy professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “But it’s also bad when things get tough and we can not rely on our neighbors for help. And that is what we are currently suffering from. ”
Texas found its way to independence from electricity and power in the late 1800s when utilities formed primarily to generate electricity to power compressors for ice sheets, according to a promotional video on ERCOT’s website documenting its history.
“They were just starting to generate excess electricity from the process of selling ice to businesses and people around ice plants,” said Kent Saathoff, former vice president of network operations and systems planning, in the ERCOT video, adding that electrical utilities are gradually starting to grow.
The idea for energy independence began in World War II because more power was needed on the Gulf Coast, according to the ERCOT video.
From there, separate electricity services gathered across the country and increased their interconnection so that excess generation could be brought to the Gulf Coast in Central and North Texas.
The cause of the case was also the passage of the Federal Power Act to regulate the interstate activities of electric power in 1935.
The law gave the federal government the power to regulate power companies that trade between the countries. In response, several aid programs in Texas have vowed never to allow power outside the state, thus avoiding federal regulation.
“The utilities in Texas were smart, and they came together and made a deal,” Donna L. Nelson, then chair of the Texas Public Utility Commission, said in the ERCOT video.
The decision decades ago left Texas alone to deal with the current energy crisis, as it cannot borrow energy from the local transmission organizations from which 48 states get their electricity.
In Texas, extreme weather disrupted water services to more than 12 million residents, forcing many of the more than 680 water systems across the country to issue boiling water notices.
“If most Texas know nothing about ERCOT, it’s really good because it means people are doing their job seamlessly,” Nelson said in the ERCOT video long before the crisis.
That does not appear to be the case.
As the independent system operator, the Texas power grid is a network of nearly 46,500 miles of transmission lines that transport electricity to electricity companies for distribution.
The network can generate 82,000 megawatts of electricity that is delivered to more than 26 million consumers.
Federal regulators warned ERCOT a decade ago that its power grid is vulnerable to a 2011 eclipse caused by similar extreme cold conditions, although it is not necessary to act on the recommendations.
ERCOT, a non-profit organization overseen by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature, was founded five years after a major power outage left millions of people in the northeast for hours in 1965 for hours.
The disruption led to a national policy change that led to the formation of trust councils across the country to improve operational and planning practices, according to the video on ERCOT’s website.
In Texas, ERCOT becomes the country’s first independent electrical system operator.
The organization has since invested in renewable energy and other innovations, its supporters said in the documentary.
But his primary duty remains the duty he failed this month.
“The most important task ERCOT does is to match the supply of electricity and demand at all times to ensure that the stability of the network is not affected and that everyone’s lights are on,” Nelson said in the documentary. said.
The White House said this week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has supplied generators to Texas and is ready to move diesel to the state to ensure the availability of backup power to critical critical infrastructure, including hospitals, reports NBC News.
Webber said some solutions for Texas are to invest in energy supply and interconnections with other states.
“But they are not going to happen by themselves, and we must not pretend that this is not a possibility,” Webber said.
He said he foresees another power outage if nothing is done.
“Absolutely (it) will happen again in the future,” Webber said. “It has happened before, and it will happen again.”