At least 69 people have died
nationwide from winter storms or frigid conditions that began February 11. The winter storm s effects were most acute in Texas, but many
states were hit hard in a storm-batter region that stretches to Ohio. The damages will be significant and insurers could suffer
record first-quarter catastrophe losses after this historic winter storm.
DIDN T THIS HAPPEN BEFORE?
Yes, but not to this extent. In 2011,
3.2 million Texans lost power due to a winter storm that dipped into single-digit temperatures. After the 2011 winter storm, two agencies, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, conducted a
ERCOT, which manages 90 percent of the power grid Texas uses, received intense criticism from state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, for leaving some four million residents without power during a severe winter storm. But ERCOT President Bill Magness insisted that the situation could have been much worse.
With Texas nearing its worst-case scenario, Magness said they had to order transmission companies to quickly reduce power. According to a report from
The Texas Tribune, ERCOT had to make the quick decision to employ what was intended to be rolling blackouts given the energy that was dropping off the grid.
“It needed to be addressed immediately,” Magness told the newspaper. He also said Texas would have suffered months-long blackouts had they not enforced the rolling outages. Had they not taken that action, Magness claimed state officials would instead be talking about when the entire power grid would be repaired.
In Texas and California, blackouts highlight the challenge of balancing reliability with cost
Freezing rain icicles hang from power lines (donald gruener/
Getty Images Signature/Canva)
Over the past year, the United States has endured two major “load shedding” events in which electric system operators instructed transmission owners to reduce demand by rotating blackouts across service regions. The first event occurred in California last August, when the Western United States was gripped by an oppressive heat wave that caused a surge in electricity demand and limited power imports into the state. The second event stretched over Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana this February, as a historic cold snap froze generating units, constrained gas supplies, andpushed electric heat demand to unprecedented levels. In both cases, a carousel of blame ensued, and customers were left wondering how an entire region, or a state the size of France, could run out of electricity.
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Texas didn't heed expert warnings that its power grid was unprepared for extreme weather. Climate scientists know the feeling of lawmakers ignoring such warnings.