Why do millions of Americans in the country’s most energy-rich state go without power and heat for days amid the extreme winter? “The people who fall short when it comes to energy are private power generation companies,” explained Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Ah yes, blame the private energy companies. . . that are regulated by the government.
The Republican sounds like California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who criticized private companies for blackouts during a heat wave last summer. Electrical networks must be able to withstand extreme weather conditions. But, in both reference states, state and federal energy policies created market distortions and reduced network reliability.
Mr Abbott blamed the extensive power cuts in his state on freezing generators on Monday morning, noting that “this includes natural gas and coal generators”. But cold temperatures and ice conditions have hit most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas deal with them while other states did?
The problem is Texas’ over-reliance on wind power, which has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of the wind turbines froze last week, causing the wind’s share of electricity to drop from 42% to 8%. Energy prices in the wholesale market soared and network regulators on Friday warned of blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators have increased to fill the supply gap, but have failed to meet the growing demand for electricity – on which half of households depend for heating – even with so many families fueling their gas ovens. Then, some gas wells and pipelines froze.
In short, there was not enough base energy from coal and nuclear to sustain the network. Base load power is needed to stabilize the grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there is not enough base energy, the grid is unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid depends on intermittent renewable energies, such as wind and solar, the more base energy is needed to sustain them.