9 months after the Texas freeze, the power grid remains vulnerable
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 3 years ago • 47 commentsBy: Mitchell Ferman, The Texas Tribune and Jon Schuppe
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
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MIDLOTHIAN, Texas — After last winter's freeze hamstrung the flow of electricity to millions of customers from one big Texas utility, the company's CEO, Curt Morgan, said he'd never seen anything like it in his 40 years in the energy industry.
During the peak days of the storm, Morgan's company, Vistra Corp., Texas' largest power generator, sent as much energy as it could to power the state's failing grid, "often at the expense of making money," he told legislators shortly after the storm.
But it wasn't enough. The state's grid neared complete collapse, millions of customers lost power for days in subfreezing temperatures, and more than 200 people died.
Since the storm, Texas legislators have passed measures to make the grid more resilient during freezing weather. Signing the bill, Gov. Greg Abbott said, "Everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid."
But Morgan isn't so sure. His company has spent $50 million this year preparing more than a dozen of its plants for winter. At the company's plant in Midlothian, southwest of Dallas, workers have wrapped electric cables with 3 inches of rubber insulation and built enclosures to help shield valves, pumps and metal pipes.
An employee of Vistra Corp.'s Midlothian Power Plant in Midlothian, Texas, adjusts the wiring of a power unit Oct. 15. Energy providers like Vistra are preparing their plants for extreme weather after the February winter storm.Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune
No matter what Morgan does, however, it won't be enough to prevent another disaster if there is another severe freeze, he said.
That's because the state still hasn't fixed the critical problem that paralyzed his plants: maintaining a sufficient supply of natural gas, Morgan said.
Natural gas slowed to a trickle during the storm, leaving the Midlothian facility and 13 other Vistra power plants that run on gas without enough fuel. The shortage forced Vistra to pay more than $1.5 billion on the spot market for whatever gas was available, costing it in a matter of days more than twice what it usually spends in an entire year. Even then, plants were able to operate at only a small fraction of their capacities; the Midlothian facility ran at 30 percent during the height of the storm.
"Why couldn't we get it?" Morgan asked recently. "Because the gas system was not weatherized. And so we had natural gas producers that weren't producing."
Twelve miles of pipes at Vistra Corp.'s Midlothian Power Plant in Midlothian, Texas, will be insulated and heated to maintain the internal temperature during extreme weather.Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune
If another major freeze hits Texas this winter, "the same thing could happen," Morgan said in an interview.
The predicament in Midlothian reflects a glaring shortcoming in Texas' efforts to prevent a repeat of February, when a combination of freezing temperatures across the state and skyrocketing demand shut down natural gas facilities and power plants, which rely on one another to keep electricity flowing. The cycle of failures sent economic ripples across the country that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
The power and gas industries say they are working to make their systems more reliable during winter storms, and the Public Utility Commission, the state agency that regulates the power industry, finally acted on recommendations that federal regulators made a decade ago after another severe winter storm.
But energy experts say Texas' grid remains vulnerable, largely because new regulations allowed too much wiggle room for companies to avoid weatherization improvements that can take months or years. More than nine months after February's storm — which could exceed Hurricane Harvey as the costliest natural disaster in state history — a lack of data from regulators and industry groups makes it impossible to know how many power and gas facilities are properly weatherized.
Many energy providers, like Vistra, are preparing their plants for extreme weather to prevent a repeat of last winter's power problems.Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune
For millions of Texans, that means there is no assurance that they will have electricity and heat if there is another major freeze.
"If we see a recurrence of the storm we saw last year, people should probably be worried," said Adrian Shelley, the director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.
The stakes are high, and not just for Texas, the country's top energy-producing state. Its winter preparedness, which affects customers as far away as California and Minnesota, is a test of the U.S.'s ability to deal with climate change, which is making weather more extreme, more unpredictable and deadlier.
"Extreme weather events, such as the one in February 2021, are unfortunately becoming more commonplace and the electricity ecosystem needs to come together to plan for and prepare to operate under more extreme, longer duration, and wide area weather events," Jim Robb, the president and CEO of North American Electric Reliability Corp., said in a statement.
Robb's nonprofit organization, which helps set reliability standards for the power industry, published a joint report with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this month that detailed the failures of both the power and the natural gas industries to protect against February's storm, despite recommendations by federal agencies after a similar disaster in 2011. That storm caused rolling blackouts across much of the state over three days — but no deaths — as then-Gov. Rick Perry asked Texans to conserve electricity.
Although the natural gas industry has blamed electricity generators for the February blackouts — claiming gas slowed only after power was cut to their facilities — the report said freezing temperatures were the main cause of a sharp decline in natural gas in Texas and neighboring states in the early days of the storm that triggered a cascade of outages.
'It's a regulatory problem'
But federal regulators have little say in how the Texas grid operates.
The main Texas grid is an island, not connected to the country's two major power grids. That is by design, the result of state leaders' actions decades ago to avoid federal regulation and encourage free-market competition. Multiple state agencies, as well as a nonprofit organization, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, govern the grid's operations, writing rules based on laws passed by state legislators.
The legislators responded to February's disaster by passing measures to improve the power system's preparedness for winter. They established weatherization mandates but left it to state regulators to implement them.
The Public Utility Commission followed with a rule enacting the weatherization requirements. But the rule allows power plants to request exceptions if they document their efforts to comply, explain why they couldn't and submit plans to do so later.
The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the natural gas industry, is working more slowly. A proposal published in September and expected to be finalized Wednesday lays out a timeline that would identify, map and impose weatherization mandates for gas producers that supply power plants by early 2023. It also seeks to prevent a repeat of a major paperwork error that resulted in dozens of natural gas providers' having their power cut off during February's rolling blackouts because they failed to declare themselves "critical infrastructure."
But the proposed rule, which the Railroad Commission said was written to reflect the language in the new state law, would allow gas companies to opt out of that classification and avoid having to weatherize their equipment. That infuriated many legislators, even though they'd voted for the law that allowed it after lobbying by the natural gas industry.
Power is transformed into usable energy at the main switchyard of Vistra Corp.'s power plant in Midlothian, Texas.Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune
The result is that Texas has done "next to nothing" to weatherize its natural gas supply, said Doug Lewin, an Austin-based energy consultant.
"We don't have a regulatory system in place that holds the industry accountable. That is the problem," Lewin said. "It's not a technology or engineering problem. It's a regulatory problem."
Natural gas fuels a majority of power generation in Texas, especially in the winter. At one point during February's storm, more than half of the state's natural gas supply was shut down because of power outages, frozen equipment and weather conditions, ERCOT said, adding that at least 20 percent of all of the outages the week of the storm were due to power plants' not getting enough gas.
The natural gas industry, which has been among the most politically powerful in Texas for generations, has donated generously to the campaigns of governors, legislators and Railroad Commission members. That contributes to a culture in which gas companies have escaped strict weatherization mandates, energy experts and consumer advocates say.
The Texas Oil and Gas Association, one of the most prominent energy lobbyist groups in Texas, defended the gas industry's image in a public relations campaign after the storm. It also has had a heavy hand in deciding who sits on an informal advisory council that legislators codified after the storm to ensure that energy and electricity operations continue during extreme weather.
Industry group: Natural gas system will be prepared for winter
Todd Staples, the president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said gas companies already weatherize to varying degrees and "are working with a sense of urgency."
The best way to avoid a repeat of February is for power companies to get access to more stored gas ahead of a storm, he said in an interview.
Staples said more than 1,000 facilities — out of more than 250,000 statewide — have filled out paperwork to be added to the list of "critical" facilities that won't have their power cut off. That's up from just 60 before the storm, Staples said.
The number will continue to rise after the Railroad Commission enacts its weatherization rule, Staples said. Because not all gas facilities immediately need emergency power during storms, Staples said, the Railroad Commission should set up a system to prioritize which get power before others.
Vistra Corp.'s Midlothian Power Plant in Midlothian, Texas.Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune
He said the industry would be prepared for winter, including having more gas in storage. "If the power is kept on, natural gas will continue at a reasonable level," Staples said
Oncor, Texas' largest electricity transmission and distribution company, which delivers power to 3.8 million homes and businesses, said that since the February storm it has received 1,061 forms from gas companies declaring their infrastructure as critical, a sign that they are likely to be weatherized and prepared to operate during a grid emergency. AEP Texas and CenterPoint Energy, which together service more than 3.6 million Texas households and businesses, said they have received 278 more forms from gas companies registering their facilities as critical.
Several of Texas' largest natural gas producers, including XTO Energy and Apache Corp., didn't respond to calls or emails seeking comment on their weatherization efforts. Representatives of BP and Devon Energy declined to comment.
And the Railroad Commission said it didn't know how many natural gas companies are actually prepared for winter. An agency spokesperson said ERCOT would have the information. An ERCOT spokesperson declined to comment.
As the Railroad Commission works on its weatherization rule, electricity companies — including Oncor, AEP Texas, CenterPoint and Texas-New Mexico Power Co. — have already begun criticizing the proposal. The companies filed a comment with the commission arguing that the proposed rule was too vague and that it "does not provide information electric utilities will need in order to efficiently and effectively incorporate natural gas facilities into their respective" emergency plans.
Virginia Palacios, the executive director of Commission Shift, an organization that researches the Railroad Commission's ties to the oil and gas industry, said the long process of creating weatherization rules has prevented Texas from preparing for this winter.
"We are not going to have any assurances that operators are weatherizing for this winter," she said. "And probably not for the next one."
Mitchell Ferman, The Texas TribuneJon Schuppe
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the next texas power grid failure is the end of abbotts political career. good riddance.
He could end up in Cancun.
...as a boat anchor, maybe.
Naw. Shit always floats.
I heard Betto ?spelling? Has a good chance against the scumbag
Obviously the political agenda of modern populists is not doing things that actually help the people of TX. They do put more money in rich people's pockets though.
Meanwhile Californians, fresh off another year of planned rolling blackouts, are already girding their loins for next years inevitable rolling blackouts.
Yippee ki yay they say ..... we love burning candles.
but, but, but, whatabout...
[deleted]
.... and a required deflection for a certain cult.
Oh the choices ... a planned blackout in CA or an unplanned deep-freeze blackout in TX.
From a once in a hundred year storm event or from shitty state management every year and into the distant future.
Hundred year storm choice please.
Lately, it has been hard to find generators here because of the blackouts.
It's not just California.
During the storm in February, 14 other states experienced rolling blackouts. But somehow that was simply due to it being the worst storm in 130 years. However once you cross the Red River, it's somehow mysteriously a political issue.
Ah, the mystical, muddy water of the Red River!
Truly amazing how that happened, isn't it?
Funny thing is, if the utilities had proposed installing the protections required to stop such blackouts for those 100 year events, the same people bitching about that blackout, would be bitching about them spending too much money.
People can be such asshats.
Rivers are mysterious things. Crossing some lead you to never-never land. Crossing others lead you to a cage.
It's an entitlement situation.
I've lived in South Florida, where Category 5 hurricanes happen basically once every 20 years or so....making them FAR more likely than the storm we had here in February. People in hurricane zones expect to lose power during a storm. The worse the storm, the longer the power is going to be out.
Most people in Texas don't live in a zone where massive storms are common, so we almost never go without power. When we do lose it, we're indignant. Like that shit's not ever supposed to happen to us.
But you're exactly right about the expense. There would have been....and still should be.... a lot of questioning the validity of protecting against eventualities that will almost surely never happen again, especially when we're struggling to expand regular capacity to keep up with growth. If we get another storm like that in 100 years time, our electric power generation will probably look as different from today as today does from 1920. Why would you spend billions on a plan that is obsolete from the start?
Any chance that "hundred year storms" will be more frequent due to climate change?
Certainly
I live in Michigan. We get weather like that multiple times a winter and our grid is hardened for just that eventuality. It still goes down from time to time but rarely for days at a time and yet, we are all prepared for that eventuality. We could get into cost/benefit analysis here but it would be lost on most. Suffice it to say as designers we rarely design for the worst possible scenario and certainly not the 100 year events.
No one could afford that. No one except for the government using our tax dollars i suppose. Oh and insurance companies ......
The math on weather patterns being what it is, there is always a chance. The question becomes "how large is that chance and does it reach a threshold to justify the expense required to insure against it?"
The further question, in keeping with your climate change theme, is "how much longer will natural gas remain a pivotal part of energy production in the Texas grid?"
At the rate we're adding wind and solar, and with a return to new construction of nuclear plants in the works, does it make sense to spend tens of billions of dollars to winterize and upgrade a pipeline system which may not matter in 25 years, anyway?
Another issue that I don't think most people outside of Texas realize is that these grid problems are not limited to winter storms. Texas is hot far more often than it's cold, and we've pretty much air-conditioned the hell out of everything.
AC compressors are massive electricity hogs, and combining that summertime energy use with the steady population growth we've seen for the last couple of decades, the grid hasn't kept up. We were on alert for possible rolling blackouts back in July and August. They never happened, but we were close.
So that adds the additional question of "do you spend money and resources winterizing one system against something very unlikely to happen or do you spend that money and manpower expanding transmission capacity you 100% know you're going to need?" I tend to favor the latter.
Jack,
It's not political from my POV, but it is a choice that Texans make by not being part of the eastern or western grid.
Our weather patterns are changing dramatically, and if we don't start to take this into consideration, there will be more heartache in our futures, collectively.
As far as I know, there are a lot of states who handle both summer and winter weather. The average high temperature in Chicago in the summer months is mid 80's. Everyone has air conditioning on at those temps. The average high temperature in the winter months is about 32. Everyone has heat on with those temps.
Ok, Texas is not likely to need a lot of artificial heating. You still need workable contingency plans. They didnt have it last time. What about next time?
It is political as long as "they" stand for independence from Federal oversight & federal regulations by refusing to
let 85% of the state participate in power sharing with the East or West grids.
The lines are there and carry direct current only so they can sell surplus ( they wish ) but the lines aren't synchronized with the other grids allowing TX to share or purchase from the other grids.
That is both a political decision and a point of pride in being Texas independent, self-sufficient etc.
There should be a failsafe or safety net in place. period
Who uses direct current? The line drop and resistance makes it unusable for any great distance. Solar panels create direct current, but they need inverters to switch it and time it with the service lines and I believe the wind turbines do the same.
Which tends to happen with an approaching Ice Age.
I report, you decide.
PowerPoint Presentation (utilityeda.com)
“The lines are there and carry direct current only so they can sell surplus”
well no wonder the texas power grid remains vulnerable, it’s running on dc power, lmao.
Ok, got it, their using DC at the junction points where inverters timed with the adjoining systems allows transmission to those grids without the need for the TX grid to match the timing. The Texas grid isn't DC.
Correct, the invertors are there to be capable of sharing, swapping selling etc
but they haven't done so deliberately since WWII.
There were a few hours in 1948 when Texas inadvertently "flipped the wrong switch" and sent power to OK
causing a "federal case" which TX won.
Who knows how old the connections are physically and whether or not they could with stand
the stress of actual connections to the SPP.
Not surprisingly, TX had no issues buying power from CENACE in Mexico during the big freeze
because no interstate borders were crossed. CENACE lost power in parts of 6 northern states for about 4
hours on 02/25/21 also suffering frozen natural gas lines
but they had reserves and policies in place to not only restore power to Mexico states but
supply excess power to Texas.
The TX PUC & Railroad Board & legislators really just hate Federal oversight
ironically to the point of accepting help from Mexico.
I realize that there is a lot of Texas history of not needing anyone and being self-reliant, but the reality is that isn't going to work if this is the future.
And yes, everyone should have a failsafe plan in place, period.
Ummmm... no.
Care to elaborate, "no" is quite definite. When I asked the question before "What do you believe are the signs of a coming Ice Age?", the first answer I got was "It gets colder.", now that answer is an assumption/speculation, well that's not science. Science goes by the evidence and the evidence I've seen that goes largely ignored is the sea level rise before an Ice Age, how does "It gets colder." explain that?
That is exactly the question and i tend to agree with you but you know what they say.
Never let a good crisis go to waste. So partisans will spin their web of disinformation to attack their hated "conservative" neighbor. Texas.
Meanwhile California is being "proactive" by operating with planned blackouts, caused not by 100 year weather but simply by the 3 P's.
Piss poor planning.
The original decision was made back in the 1930s, and it has proven to be a pretty good one.
It's a bit difficult to convince people we should change when Californians pay more than double what we do per kWh for electricity and then still have rolling blackouts for no odd reason, or when the Eastern US gets plunged into blackout every 15 years or so whether they need it or not.
Maybe.
In February, we had snow on the beach in Galveston. The last record of that happening was 1885. BTW, Galveston, Texas is further south than Cairo.
Now....we may very well be entering into an epoch where weather patterns are going to change, but 140 year storms are not likely to become 14-year storms.
If they do, the primary threat to the Texas grid will be all the Yankees moving here from the total darkness engulfing New England.
We don't have problems between 32 and 80. Let Chicago spend 60 days this summer over 100 degrees and tell us all how that power grid holds up.
That's a valid point. But looking at it objectively, natural gas (the infrastructure that froze) is not likely to be a significant part of our power generation in 40 years time, much less 120. So do we spend billions on fixing something we're probably not going to keep using much longer anyway, or do we sink that money into future technologies?
NO!
Here in the forgotten far west of Texas, we are connected to the Western grid. The rest of the state is going to be a mess.
It's no problem in Texas, since "Happiness is a Warm Gun" their guns will keep them warm.
Ala Cancun Cruz cooking bacon on a machine gun.
Sounds like there are two options:
1) Get new leadership that will shore up the power grid, preferably someone who doesn't live in the pockets of Big Oil.
2) Connect to the national power grid which I am assuming would cost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of extension cords.
Option one, please.
And the nonsense continues...
Texas senators grill power grid regulator over loophole they wrote | The Texas Tribune
The law requires nothing til 09/2022 and has a loophole where natural gas providers can opt out of being
described as critical infrastructure.
Only in Texas do the providers tell the PUC ( Railroad Board ) what they are going to agree to.
smh
cha-ching. jackpot!