Outages such as we have been experiencing this past week had not occurred to the same degree in the past. We had outages in 1989 and in 2011, primarily related to weather-related failures of thermal capacity. Three events in 30 years is a difficult scenario to plan for and would incur costs that likely would prove to be impolitic. Yet, the problem is getting worse as climate change exacerbates these extreme weather events. So, what may have been a once in a decade, “manageable” scenario, may prove to be a more frequent unmanageable disaster, such as we are experiencing this past week.
As this well-reasoned article (see link below) points out, “…data from the state’s grid operator makes it clear that the majority of outages were caused by gas supply constraints corresponding to a major spike in demand. Though no power resource performed perfectly, power sector experts dismissed the idea that renewables alone were to blame for the outages.”……contrary to the finger-pointing of those we thought to be intelligent state legislators, and Governor Abbott. So let’s not hide our heads in the sand and start “tilting at windmills.” The solutions to our problems may be complex but they will not go away. In the meantime, lives will be lost and no amount of political grandstanding will diminish the sheer negligence of failing to confront the challenge.
This article by Catherine Morehouse appeared in “Deep Dive” in February 18, 2021 Utility Dive. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/power-experts-cite-gas-constraints-as-main-cause-of-ercot-outages-but-syst/595255/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202021-02-19%20Utility%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:32550%5D&utm_term=Utility%20Dive