energy markets

Published on: February 11, 2022

Winter Storm Uri: The causes of the massive Texas power failure detailed in UT report

We’ve seen much posturing and finger-pointing from politicians on who is to blame for power failures during Winter Storm Uri last February. UT’s Austin Energy Institute has issued a report: The timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts, laying out the facts on what happened. The POWER Committee of the Austin Energy Institute, chaired by Dr. Carey King, issued this report. Dr. King does research related to how energy systems interact within the economy and environment, and how policy and social systems can made decisions and trade-offs among competing factors. The report clarifies how much the reduction in natural gas supply contributed to the disaster.

Summary from the report:

Factors contributing to the electricity blackouts of February 15-18, 2021, include the following: Continue reading →

Published on: August 4, 2021

Abbott and Legislature Get Blowback on Fix of Texas Grid

By John McFarland

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 that as many as 700 people died from the freeze.

At least part of the blame lies with the Legislature’s deregulation of the state’s power sector in 1995 that was supposed to save ratepayers money. According to a Wall Street Journal analysis, customers in deregulated areas have paid a surcharge of $28 billion over the last two decades, whereas customers in areas that remain regulated–including El Paso Electric, Austin Energy and CPS Energy in San Antonio–enjoy cheaper electric rates than those in deregulated areas.

Continue reading →

Published on: May 19, 2021

Winners and Losers from Historic Winter Storm

By John McFarland

From the Houston Chronicle:

This makes absolutely no economic sense to me.

Published on: May 4, 2021

Texas Legislature’s Overhaul of ERCOT Board Would Replace Experts With Political Appointees

By John McFarland

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 taxpayer-funded account for those improvements.

Published on: March 3, 2021

What Happened to the Texas Electric Grid?

By John McFarland

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.