Austin American-Statesman
Last month s plea for Texans to conserve electricity despite seemingly typical mid-June weather was triggered by breakdowns at some of the same power plants that failed during February’s winter freeze, when extended blackouts contributed to dozens of deaths and millions of dollars in property damage.
The repeat problems are heightening concerns about the reliability of the state s power grid and whether state leaders have done enough to shore it up.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state agency that operates the grid, last week released a list of generators that had unplanned outages in June meaning they were unexpectedly removed from service by their owners for repairs or were forced to operate at reduced output.
Failing power plants, rolling blackouts and a spike in demand as Texas is hijacked by a harsh February winter snowstorm this was the scenario exactly a decade ago as blackouts rolled through Texas.
A post-mortem at the time including a key finding that state officials recommended but did not mandate winter protections for generating facilities has renewed relevance as Texas is roiled by a record storm that has left millions without power for at least three days amid plunging temperatures.
Those 2011 findings, as well as reports from the state grid operators that generators and natural gas pipelines froze during the current calamity and American-Statesman interviews with current and former utility executives and energy experts, suggest a light regulatory touch and cavalier operator approach involving winter protections of key industrial assets.