Texas Power Outages Renew Grid Resiliency Concerns

Heat Energy Reliability

(Credit: Pixabay)

by | May 18, 2022

This article is included in these additional categories:

Heat Energy Reliability

(Credit: Pixabay)

Rising temperatures across Texas last week resulted in high energy use and caused six power facilities to go offline, prompting the state’s energy council to ask users to take conservation measures and evoking memories of a winter storm that took power offline while raising questions regarding grid resiliency.

With weather and natural events continuing be a concern in many places, highlighted once again by issues in Texas, potential outages and energy reliability remain a significant business concern.

In Texas, the six power facilities that went offline on May 13 accounted for 2.6 gigawatts of energy. Despite the loss and the call for conservation measures, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has said the grid wasn’t in danger.

“It wasn’t that we were in a dangerous situation, it was that we were doing everything possible to keep the grid reliable,” ERCOT CEO Brad Jones said in a KCEN-TV report.

Still, the outages raised concerns about the state’s electric grid, especially after the February 2021 winter storm left millions without power. Concerns from that event and other natural impacts such as wildfires or hurricanes on grid resiliency have led to the issue becoming one of significance for many businesses.

In 2021 there were 20 weather and climate related events that with losses exceeding $1 billion in the United States, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Last year, a Cervest survey of 800 executives revealed that nearly 90% of them understood the risk for natural events to disrupt their businesses, but less than half had integrated plans into their financial risk management. The survey also found 88% companies had an asset impacted by weather over the past five years.

In terms of energy resiliency, a primary focus has been on microgrids. The market there is expected to grow by more than 16% through 2026 and be valued at more than $40 billion, according to Research and Markets.

Texas-based microgrid provider Enchanted Rock has added to that growth with a utility partnership program to help critical industries, such as healthcare, grocery stores and water providers, with reliable backup power. In another area impacted by power concerns from natural events, New Orleans electric utility Entergy started a relief fund for commercial and industrial customers to add energy resiliency after Hurricane Ida.

Energy volatility in general across the globe has forced businesses to explore a diverse mix of tools to make reliable transitions. Investing in energy storage and improved infrastructure are seen by many industry leaders as a key to addressing problems, according to the World Energy Council.

The Austin Statesman reported last week’s call for conservation in Texas was an effort to manage the grid more proactively to avoid another situation like the impactful winter storm. The Statesman says that Texas is expected to use a record 77.3 gigawatts of power this summer, but that ERCOT has a capacity of more than 90 gigawatts available to combat that demand.

Additional articles you will be interested in.

Stay Informed

Get E+E Leader Articles delivered via Newsletter right to your inbox!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Share This