Texas electric grid upgrade#
Texas electric grid Offline#

But Texas has deliberately isolated itself, refusing to meaningfully connect its grid to any other outside the state. Texas’s “Go-It-Alone” Grid Left It Isolatedīut even with those failures, the blackouts might not have been so widespread if Texas could draw emergency power from neighboring grid systems. So, power generators ignored the lessons from 2011 and left vulnerable a power grid that millions of people rely on. Weatherizing costs money, and, in regulation-averse Texas, state leaders did not empower its grid operator (called ERCOT) to require these upgrades.

Texas electric grid upgrade#

After 2011, federal and state regulators recommended that utilities upgrade their infrastructure to avoid future failures – insulating power plant pipes and turbines, for example, and increasing reserve power ahead of storms.īut Texas power generators chose not to prepare. Texas regulators knew a winter storm could leave the state’s power grid vulnerable, as cold snaps in 19 also triggered devastating blackouts. And yes, some of their wind turbines iced up, too, but they were a much smaller part of the problem. The result? Sixty percent of their natural gas, coal, and nuclear power froze up and went offline. Let’s start with the weatherization issue.ĭespite more than a decade of warning, Texas’s power generators never made their infrastructure resilient to extreme weather. Either of these factors alone would have been problematic last month. The Texas grid failed for two primary reasons: It did not build its power sources to withstand cold weather, and its isolated grid can draw only limited power from outside the state.

But we can still learn from the Texas crisis – especially as we look at the future pressures our grid will face because of our changing climate. New England is no stranger to ice storms, of course, and the Texas power grid is very different from ours. Sadly, it could have been avoided had state power generators heeded the lessons from similar winter disasters in years past and taken needed precautions. Millions of people across Texas faced the same untenable situation, one that cost at least 80 lives. Stanizzi felt stunned by the cascade of system failures that left him stranded for days without power or water and with dwindling food supplies. Temperatures inside his apartment dropped into the 40s, and he had to find clever ways to keep warm.

Texas electric grid Offline#

Without power, his local cell tower was knocked offline and the nearby hospital had to relocate patients. Over the next few days, things got worse across his neighborhood. But what he didn’t know was that Texas was totally unprepared for conditions that would have been just another Monday morning back home. Having grown up in New Hampshire, he wasn’t daunted by the snow forecasts or cold. Photo Credit: Shutterstockĭuring February’s unusual winter storm, Justin Stanizzi’s Austin apartment lost power. After the power grid failure in Texas, people lined up for hours to find non-perishable food.