What Happen In Texas?

What Happened In Texas?

2/18/2021

Texas, Texas freeze, texas winter storm, Texas snow storm, Texas power failure, Texas grid, texas wind turbines, renewable energy, non-renewables, oil, coal, solar, wind, gas, greed, infrastructure, electric grid, texas electric providers, sustainability, power plants, utility companies, Texas untility

I have been asked and I have been receiving the very question structured above for today’s GoingTrueGreen blog title by many GTG members.

First, I wish to level the playing field. Unlike other electric utilities that I have worked for or visited and had first hand information about many operations, I do not have first hand knowledge of every detail that contributed to the failures in the power grid infrastructure for Texas. Therefore, I must reserve the right to correct any verbiage in this blog due to the fact that despite reading and confirming some reliable information on the subject, “Sensationalism” prevails and real “Journalism” is squelched.

So what happened with the power grid in Texas? Seems to me that a poor management decision was made due to money justification. The temperatures were dropping and the demand for electricity was spiking. Additional Megawatts were needed and a decision was made not to bring on more production from gas, oil or coal power plants. After all, perhaps an innocent assumption was made that this was Texas and the weather will be warm again in a day or two. In addition, the decision makers had to justify the cost for bringing on line additional generators.

So again we have the real problem: Assumptions and Money. This A & M is a contagious disease that crosses all spectrums of power production. End result, there wasn’t enough power to meet the demand and the grid started to shut down as designed for safety protocol. Rolling blackouts were put into action until additional generators could be brought on line. A 100% shut down was avoided, but 85% of that Grid took a hit because of humankind’s decision.

So the lost of power wasn’t an act of God, but a humankind assumption floundering in money justification and that is the problem with all energy production. Both Renewable energy and Non-Renewable energy are plagued with this A & M disease. Case and point:

Why did the power grid supply fail?
There is a rare winter storm in Texas, a state that saw no reason to spend “money” on winterizing their energy production.

Solar panels have no system to clean snow off, because those systems cost money. (Even I have a way to clean snow off my solar panels. I had to come up with some method, because my area does get snowfall every year. I have a very simple and safe way, that had a very small investment. However, I must put in the time since I could not afford an automatic system. My time makes me money as I am able to produce Kilowatts once the sun is shinning again.
BTW: I do not go up on my roof. My previous GTG blog posts on solar explain more.)

Texas Wind Turbines and Gas Lines froze because they never had the money spent to winterize their operations. Oil and coal could not meet the demand because of human error in decision making. (System automatically starts to shutdown as a safety precaution when demand can’t be met.) In total, an 85% system shutdown.

If Texas had invested in winterizing all electrical generating systems, this one storm would have provided payback and possible profit. Now, this storm is costing them far more than any winterizing investment. Additionally, we need to ask the following: Did the government and electrical utilities provide helpful information on the news to inform the public of alternative ways to keep warm as well as how to drain most of the water out of their pipes? All the frozen and broken water pipes may become a legal matter now costing the utility more money, because while the storm can be labeled as an act of God, the system’s failure was due to poor decisions made by humans.

The irony is this, the two political sides blame each other and fail to see that they are both to blame, because the little that they do, is all about making money for themselves. Let it be for renewable or non-renewable energy production.

Next week, Texas’ weather will be around the sixty degree mark, while most of northern United States will have another week in and out of the twenty degree zone, but the power remains on.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

19 Comments

Tom Roccanova

2/19/2021 04:31:54 pm

The pitfall to green energy is that we still need fossil power generation plants to back up green energy when Mother Earth doesn't cooperate.

Bill link

2/19/2021 05:08:00 pm

Thanks Tom for your input. Sadly in this case, ALL energy generation needed a backup. A backup of "human intelligence" not affected by greed and would have taken the action to winterize all sources of energy production a long time ago.
Bill, GTG

Jon

2/19/2021 04:53:30 pm

I can't speak to any of the technical aspects of this storm but I will confirm that what you're saying lines up with what I've been hearing from all the PSAs and situation reports by the Governor and relevant engineers/employees here in Texas. This in addition to the FERC report from 2011 urging the need to winterize equipment that everyone keeps pointing to as neglect on the part of the power companies for ignoring.

I'm sitting here (in Mueller, Austin) thinking over the past week it happens to be 40 degrees and sunny and half of the ice has melted. Earlier this week, all the trees from here to downtown were visibly white instead of the usual mix of green and brown. Even as recent as last night most of the branches in the park next door were slouching due to the weight. Thankfully, I only lost water but my friend (and his cat) are crashing at my place because he lost power earlier in the week. Even now, only half of his apartment complex has power and the other half has no idea when they'll be getting theirs back. He does research and has been walking to campus each day and the University sent out a notice only yesterday that they must pause any ongoing research due to the weather conditions.

Getting proper information was definitely a problem. Anecdotally, I saw one news channel was telling people to let their faucets drip to prevent pipe freeze and the next channel was telling people to close their faucets because there is not enough pressure in the system. Both are reasonable but you can't do both. The most useful information I got was how to find warming stations that were set up for people who had no heat. I'm not sure if we were supposed to get any of the urgent warning alerts you usually get for flash floods and amber alerts but I still haven't received any. At best, my apartment complex was giving information about what was going on in our building and even they weren't able to get a straight answer about the situation. Originally, my water went out because of an "issue with the fire suppression pipes". Still haven't gotten any kind of follow-up if that was truly the initial cause but as it sits right now our building (along with many others) is on fire watch and without water due to the outages. I have friends walking distance with both heat and warm water (half pressure at least). It felt like either no one wanted to make the wrong suggestions or no one wanted to accidentally let out exactly how bad the situation was but none of the people I would have looked to for guidance or information were providing anything concrete/helpful.

All in all, this week has been a trip. Nothing like I've experienced in the northeast due to a combination of lack of information, lack of experience, and lack of infrastructure to handle what came at us. Right now, it seems like the cold is behind us and the electric situation is improving across Austin. The next problem we will encounter is turning the water back on. We still don't know whose pipes have been busted since the water has been turned off. I haven't heard anything about when any of that is going to happen.

At least the sun is shining and we can relax through the weekend.

2/19/2021 05:29:41 pm

Hi Jon,
Thank you so much for sharing your situation in Texas. We are sorry to hear about all the difficulties you are dealing with, but we hope power and water will return to normal sooner than later.
You spoke of the 2011 FERC report, which probably had a production cost that was paid by Texas tax payers, and the action was status quo: Winter preparedness not mandatory for Texas power plants, despite the 2011 results from the report.
Sadly, money rules over intelligence. Best wishes and keep us posted on your progress.
Bill, GTG

Brian

2/19/2021 07:45:35 pm

Really well written and helps explain it. I didn’t realize all of that.

2/20/2021 01:05:37 pm

Brian, Thank you for your input. Much appreciated.
Billl,GTG

steve

2/20/2021 05:34:11 pm

Thank you for the impartial report regarding this affair. I do not see how cold weather would cause power plants to shut down. What does "winterizing all electrical generating systems" entail?

2/20/2021 11:57:47 pm

Hi Steve,
Thank you for your comment and questions. We work hard at being impartial, because that is the only way to work together as a team for truth and solutions. So I greatly appreciate you stating that detail about us.
The Governor of Texas now wants their energy grid retrofitted to withstand freezing cold temperatures. Previous thinking held the belief that prolonged subfreezing temperatures in Texas were rare and the cost to winterize the electric infrastructure caused power companies to skip these actions.
The system went down for several reasons, ranging from frozen gas wellheads to no backup storage. During the crisis several gas-fired plants didn't have enough fuel to create electricity. Preventing wellheads from freezing would be an action with relatively low costs.
On the green side, retrofitting the wind turbine blades with special coatings and / or heating elements will also have a relatively low cost. Some estimates are less the 10% of the total cost for a turbine.
Bill @ GTG

Brett Franckowiak

2/20/2021 06:04:05 pm

It really is mind blowing that America's energy doesn't get the focus that it deserves from the people in leadership roles or just the national conversation in general. There's nothing genuine about whatever you want to call our current energy discussions whether it be climate change or ridiculous green new deals. The conversation has been totally corrupted by people looking for power by playing on people's fears or adding their own agendas to the energy conversation. Those aren't genuine conversations and they certainly aren't going to solve or fix any flaws in our energy sector that touches everyone in America every day. Whether you're on the side of green energy, fossil fuels, or somewhere in between, I don't believe we as Americans fully appreciate that energy creates everything from the most complicated live saving ideas and equipment to the plastic doll that makes my 2 year old daughter so happy every day. I'm sure it has something to do with this being the greatest time to be alive in the history of the world with all the advancements that make all our lives so much easier than anyone has ever had it. Unfortunately this makes politicians very complacent and downright dangerous when they take energy for granted while at the same time pandering to people that we need to drastically change everything energy related in a blink of an eye. Very few people understand the consequences on how important energy is in all facets of everyone's lives and just assume it will always be there no matter what when we need it. Energy should be a top 5 issue in the national conversation and in voters minds. Unfortunately what our "leaders" currently offer up doesn't have much substance behind it so it doesn't get the critical thinking it deserves in a lot of situations which clearly occurred in Texas this past week. Go Bills!

2/21/2021 12:13:14 am

Thank you Brett for your input. One of our goals is to create conversations that puts all factors on the table and lead to real solutions that are best for everyone. Much needs to be realized, taught and appreciated so that we can all do our best within our own budget of time and money. Perhaps then, we can be proud of our accomplishments that will help our children's future. We the people are the solutions, not politicians, corporations, celebrities or power companies.
Bill @ GTG

Kathy’s Nicchi

2/20/2021 08:36:12 pm

Thank you for the very informative Information Bill. I have a friend in Texas that just had cervical neck surgery and is recuperating for the past week with no electricity. To this moment her situation is not fixed because now they found out the transformer on her block is bad. Why is it that Texas has its own grid and couldn’t borrow energy from neighboring states?

2/21/2021 01:58:03 pm

Hi Kathy,
So sorry to hear about your friend recuperating without electrical power. Please extend our best wishes and prayers from us at GTG to her.
As for your question... Texas is not connect to any outer state grids and thus, can not borrow power from neighboring states.
Their standalone electric grid is deregulated and the majority of the power is controlled by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The market is competitive pricing, trading on supply and demand.
Thank you for sharing and asking your question.
Bill @ GTG

Rich

2/21/2021 04:34:05 pm

Your article goes much too easy on the anti-green people. Politicians all over were saying; see "clean energy isn't the answer when there is a crisis", the governor even said on Fox News that the failure of wind energy caused the problems. Although at news conferences he admitted that the frozen gas lines were the problem. From what I read and heard:
You are correct, the main cause of the crisis was the failure to winterize both gas lines and wind turbines (both work fine up north when winterized). But the weather in Texas is usually warm. The power generating plants are even outside exposed to the weather! Everywhere else they are inside buildings.
Texas actually should be congratulated that they are a leading state in clean energy, I have read various reports that somewhere between 10 and 20 percent is wind energy. But they didn't winterize the wind turbines!
In Texas they have an independent power grid. It is not regulated by the Federal regulations because they do not sell power across state lines. They are the biggest energy producing state in the US! They probably just cut corners. In NY, we are part of the east grid which spans from Canada to Florida so we can help each other out.
In case of emergency, Texas is hooked-up to neighboring states, but their neighbors were in the same deep freeze so they had no power to spare.
I can just hear the anti-global warming nuts saying; see there is no global warming with such cold temperatures. This is, of course, related to climate change.
They just need to wake-up to climate change and spend the money to winterize their systems just like coastal regions need to protect against the rising tides.

Bel

2/21/2021 06:52:11 pm

What a difference to read just about the facts and not a blame game done by all with alternative motives. Perhaps now, without finger pointing, real solutions can be accomplished.

2/28/2021 04:50:50 pm

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
Bill @ GTG

Joe Lauto link

2/22/2021 04:41:12 pm

I agree with the expressed opinions and facts provided in this blog. Our country is truly blessed by the relevant content and accurate information provided by the highly respected environmental scientist Bill Lauto of GTG. God bless GTG and God Bless The United States of America.

2/28/2021 04:53:18 pm

Joe, Great to hear from you. Thank you!
Bill @ GTG

Maria Ariss

2/28/2021 03:46:22 pm

Excellent blog Bill. You have created a blog where you present the facts, state openly when you may not know all of the details and created a forum where all viewpoints are welcomed and respected. You clarify misconceptions and misinformation with facts. This straightforward means of communication is what we seek today in government and in journalism . Thank you. I am very impressed.