Could what happened in Texas happen to the rest of us?

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-electric-grid-failure-warm-up/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Noel

21 hours ago, birdguy said:

Could what happened in Texas happen to the rest of us?

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-electric-grid-failure-warm-up/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Noel

I think an important factor that contributed to the massive outage last Winter in Texas isn't being considered: population growth.  Texas' population has increased by about 9 million over the past 20 years, almost a 50% increase.  It has gone up by 4 million since 2010.  This results in significantly increased demand on the electric grid in a relatively short period of time.

It is also worth considering that severe freeze events in Texas, especially in south Texas, like the one last Winter are quite rare.  Texas is usually hot, so the industry focuses on preparing for hot weather.

I'm not making excuses for the utility industry in Texas.  It is clear that they dropped the ball and failed to adequately prepare their plants and infrastructure.  The natural gas failed because some of its infrastructure relies on electricity to operate, and when the electricity went off, so did the gas.

Unfortunately, some folks try to exploit this unfortunate incident by relating it to climate change or the fact that fossil fuel sources failed.

Texas is the world's 5th largest producer of wind energy.  West Texas is an ideal place for wind power generation as it sparsely populated and is sufficiently windy most of the time.  Wind energy now surpasses coal energy in Texas, 23% from wind and 18% from coal.  Most of Texas' electricity comes from natural gas plants, about 46%, but that percentage is falling as Texas builds out its solar power.

Hopefully, they've learned their lesson and will be better prepared for winter storms and/or freezing temperatures in the future.

Dave