Addressing misconceptions on the performance of the energy market in Texas
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/addressing-misconceptions-on-the-performance-of-the-energy-market-in-texas/598436/April 15, 2021
...While much remains to be learned about the causes behind the failures in Texas this past February, it is obvious that some combination of the following occurred:
There was insufficient installed generation capacity to meet load requirements, resulting from inadequate reserve capacity and generation outages that were not adequately planned for or managed.
The amount of energy that could be imported from neighboring regions was limited.
Generation equipment (thermal and wind) was not sufficiently "winterized", despite Texas' experience with such failures just 10 years prior. Following the crisis in 2011, FERC/NERC had recommended "the adoption of minimum, uniform standards for the winterization of natural gas production and processing facilities." Unfortunately, these recommendations were only issued as voluntary guidelines in Texas: most companies failed to adhere to these guidelines.
There were insufficient resources with alternative fuel supply (e.g., diesel) despite knowledge of the uncertainty of natural gas supply during extreme weather events.
Too many resources were out for maintenance.
A failure to coordinate the operational requirements of natural gas pipelines with load shedding protocols — power was cut to compressor stations leading to a cascading set of problems....
