Texas Electric Reliability Council Massive winter blackouts Earlier this year, data released showed that as of Wednesday, there have been 1,280 unexpected summer power outages so far.
The list shows that there were fewer than 90 unplanned outages in May, while in June the number soared to about 1,100—a more than ten-fold increase in a month. Although the data release showed which power plant each failure occurred, it did not analyze the data or provide the potential reasons behind the power failure.
Weekly newspaper Contacted ERCOT for comments, but did not respond to publication in time.
May is an unusually cool month in Texas, but June is another matter, as most parts of the state are experiencing heat waves. In the week of June 14, electricity consumption reached 69,000 megawatts, close to the highest level in history, and there were several unscheduled power outages.So, ERCOT started Urge Texans To save electricity. ERGOT stated in a press release in May that they expect the power grid to reach 89,000 megawatts this summer.
One day after the data is released Texas Governor Greg Abbott Announcing that he has written to the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC) requesting immediate improvements to the statewide power system. This letter ordered several improvements to ERCOT, which controls approximately 90% of the electricity in Texas.
Abbott’s letter included “simplification of incentives within the ERCOT market to facilitate the development and maintenance of sufficient and reliable sources of electricity such as natural gas, coal, and nuclear power”. He also called for the development of maintenance plans for natural gas, coal and nuclear power generators, “to prevent too many power plants from going offline at the same time.”
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Abbott’s letter also included an order to “allocate reliability costs to power generation resources that cannot guarantee its own availability, such as wind or electricity.”
“It is expected that generators will provide enough power to meet the needs of all Texans. If they cannot do so, these generators should bear the cost of failure,” Abbott wrote, which sparked the perception of some critics, namely The governor of Texas’ order is a short-sighted focus on non-renewable fossil fuels.
Daniel Cohan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University, said on Twitter: “Governor Abbot’s letter to PUC will actually make Texas electricity more expensive and unreliable. It will also bias the competitive environment in favor of aging thermal power plants rather than new renewable energy sources.”
Earlier this year, when Texans suffered an unprecedented power outage, ERCOT was widely criticized.The power outage in February of this year caused 151 dead During the coldest winter storm in Texas in decades, grid problems prevented millions of people from accessing electricity and water.
Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT, published a apologize On February 29, they said they “could have done better”. At least five board members resigned. The company faced multiple lawsuits after a power outage in February.
