(02-24-2021, 08:17 AM)mikesez Wrote:

(02-24-2021, 06:08 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: Here is an interesting opinion piece on the failure of the electric grid in Texas. 
  
According to this expert, in spite of all the finger-pointing, it wasn't deregulation that was at fault, and it wasn't use of renewable energy that was at fault.  It was simply a failure to winterize their system.  



Texas goes it alone on electric power. That's actually a good thing

Quote:
It is not Texas' independent grid design that caused this electricity crisis. Nor is it deregulation, which is simply a market structure that gives customers more choice in electricity plans, similarly to how you pick a cell phone service provider. For more than 20 years, Texas' deregulated market has kept energy prices low, and sparked incredible growth in wind energy.


Our system's power failure wasn't caused by frozen windmills as our governor falsely claimed on Fox News, or Texas' inability to pull electricity from other states -- so-called interconnectivity. Texas wind is indeed a remarkable success story -- it provides about 40% of our total energy capacity and is a direct result of our deregulated market. But we don't rely heavily on Texas wind this time of year.

[font=CNN,]The overwhelming majority of last week's generation failures were due to failures in natural gas power plants.[/font]

End Quote

That author is being too specific with the word deregulation.
He's right that the competitive market Texas created is not the problem.
And he's right when he says the problem was failure to winterize.
But both of those are regulatory issues.
Regulations force winterization all the time. Like most states, Texas enforces a frost line depth in its building code. This was a blind spot for them.