Name: Texas's power disaster is a warning sign for the US
Uploaded: 2021-03-04T18:05:05.000Z
Duration: 7 min 6 s
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usually contained up north in the Earth's jet stream,

It's called a polar vortex, and it's pretty common.

It's what brings the coldest air to the US during the winter.

What was unusual, is for it to dip as far south as it did.

In Texas, where February is typically fairly warm, temperatures dipped dangerously low.

Many wouldn't get it back for nearly five days.

By then, pipes had frozen. People were melting snow for drinking water.

And dozens had died from the cold in their cars and in their homes.

The state's entire electrical grid was within “seconds and minutes”

of a failure that would've lasted months.

But even though this storm hit this huge area,

it was really just Texas that had major loss of power.

And it should be a warning sign for the rest of the US.

When you flip your lights on, you're getting your electricity from the power grid.

And that grid is getting the electricity from a bunch of different energy systems.

Like nuclear power plants, or wind farms, or natural gas facilities.

In the US, these places are generally run by private energy companies,

which directs the electricity around the grid and into your home.

That power utility is overseen by a government commission,

who sets things like prices and safety standards.

And the grids most Americans are on aren't just big. They're huge.

The entire east coast, from Canada to Florida, is on one grid.

And the entire west coast is connected in another.

It's kind of a remarkable engineering feat.

It's probably the biggest machine humans have ever built.

While most power tends to stay local, this grid allows electricity to flow

Like, in New York City, power comes from energy plants in New York,

but also from neighboring states, and even Canada.

This huge grid also means that, in emergencies,

Like in Oklahoma, which was also hit bad during the February winter storm.

They needed more power. And instead of completely losing it,

they were able to get electricity from neighboring states through the grid.

But it's not so seamless to send it to Texas.

Texas opted out of the big grids, back when they were being built,

Since they covered several states, it meant the federal government could regulate them.

It's a very uniquely Texas-type thing to do.

It means they don't have to follow the same regulations as the rest of the country,

But it also means when it lost power in the storm,

it couldn't easily get electricity from other states.

But it wasn't the reason it went dark  in the first place.

Being on its own, Texas has to make all their own power.

When the storm came, it affected every one.

Several coal plants stopped operating, as coal piles froze.

One of four Texan nuclear plants went offline.

Some wind turbines stopped working in the freezing cold.

But the biggest failure, in terms of its magnitude and its impact,

Natural gas, which actually contains water vapor, froze in storage wells and pipelines.

Every one of these systems failed, in part.

And it had nothing to do with the type of energy,

and everything to do with these companies not being prepared for the cold.

Clearly, you can run an energy system in cold temperatures.

There are wind turbines operating in Antarctica,

So this is not a technology-specific issue.

It was more a failure to anticipate that this is something

that could even occur in Texas at this length and severity,

and to prepare for extreme cold temperatures.

But it should have been anticipated. Because this has happened in Texas before.

In 1989, the same kind of arctic storm caused natural gas plants to have the same problems,

And both times, federal commissions recommended that utilities

"ensure reliability in extreme weather conditions."

And specifically, for the state government

to create winterization standards for these energy sources.

The Texas utility commission did make those standards -- but also made them voluntary.

Private companies like these don't have an incentive to spend their money

preparing for unpredictable and infrequent events without being required to.

But this problem is not limited to Texas.

The particular vulnerability to the extreme cold may be a uniquely Texas thing.

But I think what it shows, is you need to check your blind spots.

This is a chart of the last 40 years of severe weather disasters in the US.

Here's the Texas winter storm in 1989, and the one in 2011.

These costly disasters are becoming more frequent --

not just in Texas, but nationally, and globally.

Most of this grid was built 60-70 years ago,

And some studies point to nearly 100 facilities, like power plants,

in immediate danger of flooding and storm surges.