A Texas Electric Reliability Council official said Tuesday afternoon that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy, mostly wind, was offline. Almost twice as much, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from heat sources, which include gas, coal and nuclear power.
“Texas is a gas state,” said Michael Webber, a professor of energy at the University of Texas at Austin.
While Webber said all of Texas’ energy sources share the blame for the power crisis, the natural gas industry produces significantly less energy than normal.
“Gas is failing in the most spectacular way right now,” Webber said.
Dan Woodfin, senior director at ERCOT, echoed that sentiment on Tuesday.
“It seems that much of the generation that went offline today was primarily due to issues with the gas system,” he said during a call Tuesday with reporters.
However, some have focused their blame on wind energy.
“This is what happens when you force the network to rely in part on wind as an energy source,” said R-Houston, US Representative Dan Crenshaw. posted on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. “When weather conditions worsen as they did this week, intermittent renewable energy, such as wind, is not there when you need it.”
He continued to observe the shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Bay City due to the cold and finally got to what energy experts say. the biggest culprit, “Reduced natural gas supply: ERCOT planned 67GW of natural gas / coal, but could only get 43GW of it online. We did not run out of natural gas, but we ran out of the ability to get natural gas. Texas doesn’t use cold insulation – so things were freezing. “
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, known for his right-wing Facebook posts that have spread misinformation and amplified conspiracy theories in the past, also posted a naughty picture of wind power on Facebook: “We shouldn’t build never another wind turbine in Texas. ”
In another post, Miller was even more direct, but also misleading, “The insult added to the injury: the ugly wind turbines there are among the main reasons why we face power outages. Isn’t it ironic? … So much long for the unsightly and unproductive, which robs the energy of Obama Monuments. At least it shows us where idiots live. “
While wind power skeptics have said that the frost of the week means it cannot rely on wind energy, wind turbines – like natural gas plants – can be “wintered” or modified to operate at very low temperatures. Experts say many power generators in Texas have not made the investments needed to prevent equipment outages because the state does not regularly experience extreme winter storms.
It is estimated that of the total winter capacity of the network, about 80% of it, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and little nuclear energy. Only 7% of the winter capacity forecast by ERCOT, or six gigawatts, was expected to come from various sources of wind energy across the state.
Natural gas production in the state has decreased due to freezing conditions, which makes it difficult to obtain the fuel needed to operate the plants. Natural gas power plants do not usually have much fuel storage on site, experts said. Instead, the plants rely on the constant flow of natural gas from pipelines across the state, from areas like oil and natural gas that produce the West Texas Permian Basin to major demand centers like Houston and Dallas.
Government Greg Abbott said fossil fuel sources were contributing to the network’s problems when describing the situation on Monday afternoon.
“The capacity of some companies to generate energy has been frozen. This includes natural gas and coal generators,” he wrote in a statement. tweet.
Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said opponents of renewable energy are trying to divert attention from failures in other parts of the system and slow “the transition to a clean energy future.”
“It’s a shame to see the longtime antagonists of clean power – who attack them whether it rains, snows or shines – engage in a politically opportunistic charade that deceives Americans into promoting an agenda that it has nothing to do with restoring power in Texas communities, “she said.
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