Before last week, the Texas electricity market had been widely regarded as one of the best in the country. Then, on Monday, the 15th of February, electricity firms were faced with disaster. Waves of Arctic conditions devastated Texas, causing the demand for heat, and subsequently the demand for electricity, to skyrocket. In the early hours of Monday morning, the demand for electricity exceeded the available supply. This forced ERCOT, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, to answer a simple question: Do we cut power to certain areas of the state, or risk the whole statewide grid being destroyed? The answer was obvious; ERCOT decided to start rolling blackouts to keep the grid alive long-term, even if it meant major power outages for the time being. At its worst, approximately 4 million homes in Texas had lost power. Fortunately, since Thursday the power has begun to come back on. Still, what happened in Texas has happened before on a smaller scale, and with climate change on the rise, many are left with questions they feel must be answered.
Why was the power system in Texas so unprepared for an Arctic storm? This is one of the main questions Americans concerned with the damage are asking. The answer can be explained in one word: negligence. In particular, the state government and power producers were negligent to the possibilities of severely cold conditions.
Texas was uniquely vulnerable during last week’s crisis because of what the state’s wholesale power market prides itself on: having a laissez-faire system which rewards providers that sell power at a low cost while still covering their expenses. While having a cheap electricity bill is a benefit of a Texas’ system of little government intervention, there are downsides. The main downside is best demonstrated by what Texans have been through the last week, a catastrophe they weren’t prepared for.
What counts as a catastrophe? Well, according to Leslie Scism from the Wall Street Journal, there has been about $18 billion dollars in damage from burst pipes and collapsed roofs alone. Although this figure is based on the damage which has been done over a variety of states, it is still shocking. The storm has also caused Texas to have to close COVID vaccination sites, and it has caused a severe lack of clean water. Unfortunately, even after the power turned back on for most residents, an estimated 14.6 million Texans didn’t have safe drinking water, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Knowing these devastating results, one may find it shocking that power producers were able to get away with not being prepared for the worst. However, the simple reality is that the people of Texas trusted their energy producers enough to not impose harsh regulations upon them.
This confidence in the system is demonstrated by the fact that Texas state officials have fought to preserve unique aspects of the energy production system in Texas which make it immune to government regulation. The best example of this is that the Texas power grid doesn’t ship power across state lines, making it immune from federal oversight. Policymakers in Texas have previously argued that there is no need for regulation on producers of power due to the market incentives. When it comes to natural disasters, the simplified argument from Texan state officials was that power companies would prepare for natural disasters, like snowstorms, because they could make extra revenue during them, due to much higher demand, if they are able keep the power on. In this instance, entrusting public safety to market incentives seemed to not have worked.
Aside from the lax regulations against power producers in Texas, the argument that Texas was negligent to the possibility of severe cold weather is also supported by the logistics of why Texas lost power. This is because many of the power plants and wind turbines that shut down may not have if modern technology had been used to prepare them for winter. For example, many of the power plants in Texas are not designed with protections against the freezing of pipes, sensors, motors, and other components. These types of protections include heat tracing cables for pipes which keep them warm, portable heaters for rooms, thermal insulation for equipment, and wind breaks which shield critical devices from cold winds during storms in the winter. The failure of power plants due to the cold is significant as, according to Ercot, two-thirds of the power that went out was generated by gas and coal burning power plants.
The remaining one-third of the power that went out was due to failed wind turbines. The issue with wind turbines is that, while they can withstand cold temperatures, they shut down if the temperature dips below negative four degrees Fahrenheit. Even if they don't shut down, ice buildup on the blades can slow them down. Luckily, there is current technology that can be used to prevent these issues. For example, in colder countries such as Canada, there is antifreeze technology which can be built into the turbine when manufactured or installed into a currently operational turbine. Such technology includes electric heating elements, coatings, forced hot air, and aerial applications of antifreeze fluids as seen in the diagram.
Given that these technologies for power plants and wind turbines already exist, there isn’t a great excuse for why power suppliers haven’t applied winter protection technologies to their products yet. One could argue that Texans couldn’t have predicted this; however, that argument is made weaker given that in February of 2011 and January of 2014, there were rolling blackouts in Texas during the winter for short periods of time. It is important to note that the blackouts in 2011 and 2014 were much shorter in duration. This may have caused leaders to have heightened confidence that a longer blackout was impossible. While this confidence can be seen as reasonable, it can also be perceived as negligent to the potential dangers of a changing climate.
The good news is that the struggles of Texans have not gone unnoticed by Americans across the country. On Saturday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for Texas which makes additional federal resources available to the state. This move from Biden has received general approval.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott called the federal aid “an important first step” but also said that it was only part of what he requested. The Republican governor had requested individual and public assistance for all 254 counties in Texas, whereas the Biden team only approved individual aid for 77 counties and public assistance for all counties. Regardless, the important takeaway is that Texans are receiving aid from the government, and slowly but surely, everything will return to normal.
Once the state recovers, the question remains of how Texans will prepare for the possibility of future environmental disasters. With a practically universal consensus that climate change is ramping up, it is reasonable to assume that harsh and unpredictable storms won’t be going away any time soon. No matter what happens, one thing is certain: The week of February 15, 2021 is one that Texans will never forget.
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