Texas prides itself on its individuality, and its energy system most certainly matches that characterization; cut off from the Eastern and Western U.S. power grids, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, runs 90% of Texas’s power independently. Save for El Paso and small swaths of North and East Texas, 26 million residents of the second-largest state exclusively get their power from this energy provider. While Texas’s system is exempt from federal regulations because it does not cross state lines, it is also vulnerable due to that same reason because it cannot import power when the state needs it most.
In February of 2021, as Winter Storm Uri ripped through America, Texas had a surge in energy demand as residents tried to heat their homes in freezing temperatures. ERCOT’s electrical system could not keep up with the demand for power, and as the electrical system was minutes away from catastrophe, ERCOT implemented rolling blackouts in the state, leaving millions without power for days at a time and an estimated 700 people dead. At the time, non-weatherized equipment was mainly to blame, as ERCOT had not expected winter temperatures to drop to record lows, as Texas cities experienced colder weather than Anchorage, Alaska. But even if Uri hadn’t devastated Texas, the system still could never work in the long run. Texas’s independent attitude may be a hallmark of the state, but this independence made its electrical system fail, and with politicians refusing to recognize the problems, change doesn’t seem to be on the horizon.
The problem with ERCOT is its independence that Texas Republicans champion. By separating its grid from the rest of the United States, Texas is unable to import power when it is most needed. Proponents of this system claim that the benefits of avoiding federal regulations, namely the regulation of transmission and sales of natural gas and electricity by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, outweigh the drawbacks of rolling blackouts and a strained system. Yet, if Texas had been connected to a national electricity grid when facing the onslaught of Uri, experts say the state would have endured much less severe blackouts and power outages.
Another problem lies in the free-market nature of ERCOT. When Texas deregulated its power grid, it created a market-based system in which energy providers compete for their profit. Unlike the rest of the country in which the national government runs a monopoly system for the electric grid, Texas runs a system in which energy providers make their profits from scarcity of energy. This creates fatal flaws such as a lack of incentive for power companies to have emergency generators and spend money to winterize equipment. While this may increase efficiency, as the grid only runs what is needed, their energy systems are far more susceptible to volatility in demand. Deregulation may have granted energy providers more freedom in their services, but it has also left the state unprepared with non-weatherized equipment and a lack of safeguards such as extra running generators for extreme heat or cold.
The impact of the power crisis may have also been mitigated with renewable energy, but it is underutilized in the state. The winter storm majorly affected non-weatherized gas generators, but Texas’s wind turbines demonstrated greater resilience. This, however, didn’t improve the state’s perception of renewable energy in the state, given their heavy reliance on the oil and gas industry. Republicans were quick to blame frozen wind turbines and the Green New Deal for the massive power outages. Despite the fact that Texas is the largest producer of wind energy in the country, it fails to take full advantage of renewables in order to bolster and enhance its antiquated grid. By connecting to the national grid and increasing solar and wind energy production, Texas can not only avoid the mass devastation of its infrastructure in the future but its excess production can be used to achieve large energy sales.
With non-weatherized equipment, a lack of connections to the rest of the country, and a stigma around renewable energy, the current system is designed to fail and will fail again without change. In the aftermath of the 2021 winter storm, Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed two bills into law, one overhauling the structure of ERCOT administration and the other requiring electricity providers to winterize their equipment. These do not solve the problem Texas faces, though. There are ways to prevent another large-scale blackout like interconnection and increased regulation, but Texas politicians need to be able to make vast changes to the way the ERCOT operates, and in some cases, go against the fundamental belief of independence that the state prides itself in.
This issue has not been fixed and 82% of Texan voters are concerned about the state of the electric grid. The Democratic nominee for Texas governor and former Representative from El Paso Beto O’Rourke has firmly campaigned on the failures of the energy grid. His policies include connecting ERCOT to the national grid, weatherizing equipment to withstand cold and hot temperatures, and increasing energy-efficient programs for heating and cooling homes. These policies, while not increasing Texas’s power supply, would mitigate potential blackouts in the event of record-high demands in energy. But whether or not his policies are put into action, as O’Rourke falls behind in the polls, and border protection takes precedence in the statewide debate, is yet to be seen.
What killed the Texas grid in February 2021 is Texan culture itself: independence, deregulation, and oil and gas supremacy. While quick fixes like winterizing power plants may help in the future, the state requires policy-based and legislative support to connect the Texas grid to the rest of the country and incentivize Texas power companies to run extra generators. Summers will be hotter and winters will be colder in coming years, and the matter of keeping the lights on matters more than whatever party is in power.