The sultry high temperatures in Texas put tremendous pressure on the grid that failed during the deadly winter storm in February.
According to the latest data released by the Texas Electric Power Reliability Commission, a total of 1,280 summer power outages The entire state. In addition, a total of 224 unscheduled power outages occurred in 97 power plants between June 14th and 18th. According to KHOU, two-thirds of these 97 factories collapsed during the storm in February.
According to KHOU’s survey, plants that use natural gas were the most affected, accounting for 49% of all production cuts. Between June 14 and 18, the natural gas plant reduced 8,894 MW. The station found that, in contrast, wind power could not provide 4,271 MW, and solar power was reduced by 2,098 MW.
Republican governor Greg AbbottHowever, it is not a proponent of alternative forms of energy. In a letter on Tuesday calling for improvements to the Texas power system, he supported “adequate and reliable sources of electricity, such as natural gas, coal, and nuclear power,” but ordered the state’s utility commission to “assign reliability Power generation resources cannot guarantee their own availability, such as wind or solar power.”
On Wednesday, ERCOT spokesperson Leslie Sopko (Leslie Sopko) Weekly newspaper On why the power outage happened so fast.
“The unscheduled power outage during the week of June 14 was mainly due to mechanical failure. We did send a request for information to the power generation owners, and their response will be returned later this month. We hope to better understand the problems caused by the supply chain Unplanned downtime caused by problems or delays in routine maintenance caused by the February winter storm,” she said.
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Due to the February winter storm, which killed 151 people, ERCOT came under fire for improper handling of the power outage. Many senior ERCOT members, including board chairman Sally Talberg; due to strong opposition, vice chairman Peter Cramton, finance and audit chairman Terry Bulger, and human resources and governance committee chairman Raymond Hepper resigned from the board. ERCOT CEO Bill Magnes apologized to other board members at a meeting in February.
“Of course I can do better, emphasize what is about to happen, and communicate more deeply with the board. So I understand your frustration,” Magnes said.
Another area of concern is that some power plants check “other” when they are required to submit documents about power outages. An ERCOT spokesperson said that the power plant submitted more information, but the details are confidential.
An ERCOT spokesperson said in a statement: “We will not disclose the notes to the manual because most of the information contains critical infrastructure and other highly sensitive information.” “ERCOT shared the transparency and accountability reflected in the PUC order And responded by using the existing data extraction system to quickly report unplanned outages.”
Weekly newspaper ERCOT has been contacted for further comments on ongoing grid issues.
