How to Engineer a Disaster. 101

Provides a great lesson to the rest of the country. But is anybody paying attention?

Don't let amateurs design/dictate your power grid.

The Texas disaster of 2021.

A single source media blurb I read presented the idea it was more about price points and automated shedding than it was about the ability to produce electrons. Suggesting the staggering unregulated price spike triggered computer algorithms that communicated no demand to the producers, and the production systems shut down to base load. The unregulated distributers wanted nothing to do with eight or nine thousand dollar mega watt hours when its hard enough to make it at twenty two bucks a mega watt hour like a few days earlier.

Instead of losing a LOT of money; they just shut down.

I think I am a doubting Thomas on this account.This sounds highly speculative and more evidence is needed.

I suppose that's possible, but failures like this often are a result of cascading failures because the grid did not have sufficient reserve capacity on-line to handle the high demand due to the cold weather and the unexpected loss of wind power and one of the two reactors in south Texas.

Maybe they can establish a 9/11 commission to investigate this too.

Or we could just look at financial statements from ERCOT and is board and managers. Might see something there.

You might remember this is not unusal. PG&E did the same thing to California, only in that case it was fire caused by substandard equipment.

It should be easy enough to look.

IMHO:

For any question beginning with "Why do (did) they ,or Why don't(didn't) they..?" the answer is always MONEY.

Always.