Analysis: One way or another, Texans will get the bill for fixing the electric grid
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/10/texas-ercot-fixing-power-grid/MARCH 10, 2021
...Some of the changes would be pricey, though it’s next to impossible to estimate costs until you’ve got a working to-do list. But if “weatherizing†or “winterizing†the electricity grid was cheap, the companies in that food chain would have done it years ago.
Just one piece of that puzzle — weatherizing natural gas wells — merited a chart in a long report after a freeze and blackouts in 2011 in Texas written by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. To get 50,000 gas wells into winter-fighting shape would cost between $125 million and $1.75 billion — a huge range dependent on the extent of the weatherizing.
That’s before you even get to electric generation, transmission and distribution.
And if it was cheap, the Texas Legislature would have required weatherization after that February 2011 storm. That same report from FERC/NERC recommended such a requirement, along with enhanced weather planning: “… The task force recommends that planning take into account not only forecasts but also historical weather patterns, so that the required procedures accommodate unusually severe events.
Statutes should ideally direct utility commissions to develop best winterization practices for its state, and make winterization plans mandatory.â€
Instead, the Texas Legislature required the Public Utility Commission to collect reports from electric companies detailing their weatherization prep, or the lack of it. Weatherization wasn’t required, but reports about it were....
