“That is not the case in Texas, so the unprecedented cold weather over so much of the state made it hard for the equipment to perform.” Power planners in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest, by contrast, generally enclose their plants because they “expect to have to perform in cold weather conditions,” said Susan Tierney, a former Department of Energy official who now works as a consultant. But it can leave power plants vulnerable to cold weather, as a 2019 NERC report examining a 2018 cold snap in the southeastern U.S. Leaving key power plant infrastructure outside prevents excessive heat build-up during warmer periods. Many power plants in the southern United States are not enclosed inside a building, with boilers and turbines exposed to the elements.

The Texas system was simply not prepared for the cold, despite having experienced freezing temperatures in 2011 that saw gas wellheads lock up and coal plants seize up. The sheer number of plant outages points to the largest difference between ERCOT and its counterparts. That sum includes plants that were already offline for scheduled maintenance.

Last night, ERCOT officials said some 43 GW has been forced offline. The grid operator forecast nearly 14 GW of plant outages during an extreme winter weather event. Energy Information Administration data shows that ERCOT demand reached a forecast peak of 75 GW on Tuesday morning.Īt the same time, the number of plant outages for ERCOT’s grid is far greater than expected. predicted winter demand in ERCOT would peak around 67 GW in an extreme weather event. In its most recent winter reliability assessment, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. Instead, Gilbert argued the United States needs to take a holistic approach to energy planning that includes other factors, such as energy efficiency and development of clean technologies to complement wind and solar.Īnother item on that list is planning for extreme weather events, an area where ERCOT has fallen short. Most coal plants in the United States are older and utilities are investing less in them now, two factors that increase the probability of forced outages during extreme weather events. “For me, looking at SPP and MISO south, there are other planning reasons involved, but they have a more diversified mix and that is definitely helping them.” “One of the big lessons here is gas is treated as a firm resource, but it is not because it relies on just-in-time delivery,” said Alex Gilbert, a fellow who studies energy systems at the Colorado School of Mines’ Payne Institute for Public Policy. Many gas wells also produce water and distillates, which can freeze during cold spells. It also leaves the state vulnerable to disruptions in gas supplies. Gas also serves heating needs, meaning demand for the fuel surges during a cold snap. For one, it is more reliant on gas for electricity generation than its neighbors, which still boast sizable coal fleets. It also highlights the challenge facing the Biden administration and climate activists as they seek to decarbonize America’s collection of electric grids.ĮRCOT’s challenges are several. The differences point to some of the key failures that have forced the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s primary grid operator, to enforce sustained blackouts since Monday. Yet those outages were limited in duration and scope compared with what unfolded in Texas. Both were forced to sever electricity to customers in a bid to stabilize their grids.

Neither MISO nor SPP was able to completely avoid the grips of the cold. It was a similar situation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), a 15-state system going from Louisiana to the Canadian province of Manitoba. Wind output, meanwhile, followed a normal pattern of declining throughout the day before picking up again later Monday. But generation from coal and gas plants there held steady and even increased. Temperatures were even colder in parts of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a 14-state electricity system stretching from North Texas to the Canadian border. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. Texas power plants were only able to muster up roughly 51 GW of electricity, leaving millions without power and shivering in the cold. And natural gas generation, the cornerstone of the Texas grid, plummeted 25% over that six-hour period.īy the time the sun rose over Texas around 7 a.m., energy demand on the state’s primary electric grid had surged to about 71 gigawatts. Energy Information Administration figures. On Sunday night, as a burst of Arctic air swept southward across the Great Plains, power plants in Texas started flicking offline.

Gas windfall during texas freeze