The Patriot Post® · Cali-Style Blackouts Deep in the Heart of Texas?

Texans dodged a bullet of rolling blackouts by about 15 minutes last week, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, better known as ERCOT.

In a state that uses a lot of air-conditioning energy in the summer due to temperatures regularly exceeding 100 degrees, it was a perfect storm without rain: scorching temperatures, slight breezes that rendered wind turbines all but useless at a third of their average output, and a time of day when the viability of solar panels diminishes due to the low sun angle. These aren’t uncommon during a Texas summer, but there was also an issue with an overheating transmission line and natural gas backup plants, which contributed to the problem.

Lone Star residents are conscious of the prospect of rolling blackouts. They well remember the outages of February 2021, when a severe winter storm led to problems with both the wind turbines and natural gas lines; both froze up due to rare bone-chilling weather and deep snow. Since then, there’s been a call to spend billions to improve the grid but not so much thought to adding more all-weather solutions like producing electricity with coal or nuclear power.

On the former point, the Wall Street Journal editorial board weighed in: “The Legislature is asking voters in November to approve a special fund to issue low-interest loans and grants for building more backup power sources — namely, gas plants. So now Texas taxpayers are being asked to subsidize gas power to back up solar and wind that are heavily subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”

While Texas is still sitting on a sea of oil, many residents might be surprised to find out that renewables can supply up to 40% of their energy needs. Areas with plentiful and strong sunshine make Texas a good solar state, and the wind out on the plains can generally keep those turbines a-turnin’. But these benefits are based on favorable weather conditions, and last week they weren’t favorable.

“The reason we’re here today is the wind has dropped down a bit,” said University of Houston energy fellow Ed Hirs. “Everyone knows the hottest days in Texas are those when the wind doesn’t blow. Number two, we had power plants break. It doesn’t take but two or three to break to put us into a deficit situation.” Hirs added that those backup plants had been running more or less constantly since May, so issues were to be expected.

In situations like this, ERCOT has a set of procedures to follow, beginning with a conservation alert that’s nonbinding. If that doesn’t work, ERCOT can follow through with cutting power to various industrial customers who have agreed to shut down their operations in such an emergency. The final step is rolling blackouts.

And while these issues are expensive for consumers as utilities pay through the nose for electricity, the power-cutting agreement has become a lucrative source of side income for one power-hungry industry. According to Matt Houston of WFAA-TV, during August, Texas paid one bitcoin mining company nearly $32 million not to operate. Bitcoin mining operation Riot even told its shareholders it made more money off conserving power than it did mining cryptocurrency.

While average ratepayers currently can’t get in on the bonuses that companies like Riot accrue, ERCOT has partnered with Texas A&M University to study how including consumers in demand response programs may work. As ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas put it, “We can understand the magnitude of what it could represent and what potentially the cost would be if we were to invest and incentivize the development of that.”

With fall right around the corner, Texas will soon get a much-needed reprieve from its annual oven-like summer heat. But the respite would be a good time for consumers to demand a more reliable system — and for utilities to begin building it.