The unprecedented, though not unforeseen, blackout in Texas has a lesson for energy planners in general and mechanical and electrical engineers in particular.
Texas is a relatively warm state of the USA. But, an unusual snow storm and resultant low temperatures caused the electricity demand to rise beyond previously known peaks. Unlike colder states, where building heating systems are gas based, Texans use electricity since the heating demand is low and sporadic. A grid collapse can happen even with a 5% overload. In practice the grid managers go for a cyclic or rolling blackouts - area wise or time wise - to prevent damage to the grid and equipment. That is what was done, and it was done rather well, just a few minutes before the grid collapsed. The rolling blackouts disfavoured poor areas since they didn’t have high priority establishments like hospitals amidst them.
Texas takes pride in having its own independent grid rather than be connected to the Eastern or Western grids. If they were connected, the state could have procured power from a larger grid to tide over the crisis. They couldn’t do that.
The gas and oil equipment as well as windmills, which were designed for a warmer environment “froze”, more specifically the lubricants in them froze or became so thick and viscous that they simply shut down. The gas wells themselves “froze” thus reducing the gas output to nearly half of the regular levels.
Solar energy, a matter of pride for Texans, failed too since there was no sun and hence no output.
The overzealous alternate and renewable energy proponents had clearly not foreseen this. Renewables and alternate energy form a substantial part of the energy mix in the state. That a reliable baseload plan is unavoidable is a major lesson for all energy planners. Baseload comes primarily from coal, oil, gas, hydro, or nuclear sources, like it or not.
A permanent solution may take years coming.
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