Winter Storm Uri The fallout from the Texas Freeze in February 2021 continues. A year later, UT’s Austin Energy Institute concluded that multiple failures of power plants, gas processing plants, gas storage and distribution facilities, and gas production all contributed to the system failures. ERCOT management was fired; natural gas…
With the recent cold snap, we’re all remembering what we were doing last February when the lights went out. Repercussions continue. As reported by Michell Ferman at Texas Tribune, Vistra corporation is in a dispute with Energy Transfer over its bill to Vistra for $21.6 million, for gas sold to…
A recent report from Deloitte provides a good perspective on the prospects for wind and solar electricity. Some takeaways: Costs of wind and solar are now competitive with coal and gas. “Power purchase agreement (PPA) prices for wind and solar power are also competitive with other resources. The weighted average…
“Electric power markets in the United States are undergoing significant structural change that we believe, based on planning data we collect, will result in the installation of the ability of large-scale battery storage to contribute 10,000 megawatts to the grid between 2021 and 2023—10 times the capacity in 2019.” EIA…
Abbott said the legislature’s response to the breakdown of Texas’ electric grid “fixed all the flaws.” News media reports and experts are questioning that conclusion. A UT Austin study concludes that lawmakers did not do enough to prevent future power failures and recommended 20 additional policy changes. It is estimated…
From the Houston Chronicle: This makes absolutely no economic sense to me.
Link here to Texas Tribune article. Not a good idea. ERCOT definitely made some mistakes in the freeze, but it had no authority to require generators to winterize. Everyone is still pointing the finger at everyone else. Another Texas Tribune article: the legislature is now considering creating a $2 billion…
The following article appeared today in The Texas Tribune: Cassandra Pollock The Texas Tribune Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:01:53 -0500 Warren Buffett group lobbying Texas lawmakers for deal to build $8 billion worth of power plants for emergency use was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media…
Here is an excellent article in which engineers discuss the crisis that almost shut down Texas’ electric grid: Texas Electricity Crisis: Engineers Explain What Went Wrong.
Here’s a great visual from visualcapitalist.com (click on image to enlarge):