![]() Grid expert and energy consultant Doug Lewin said his examination of ERCOT data found that there was a 1,000-megawatt drop in wind output right after 7 p.m., even though wind speeds didn’t go down. But wind turbines in South Texas were generating power that night - the state’s grid just couldn’t move it to where it was needed. In a statement late Thursday to the San Antonio Express-News, ERCOT continued to partially blame what it called low wind generation for Wednesday’s emergency. If it does, it would require ERCOT to cut generation in South Texas, he said, “exacerbating ERCOT’s scarcity concern.” Plenty of wind power “ERCOT has observed high loading on this same transmission element in similar circumstances over the past few weeks and is concerned that a post-contingency overload could occur again,” he wrote. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said the emergency was entered after an “overload” on transmission equipment in South Texas. It was the most serious grid emergency since the February 2021 winter storm that left millions of people in the dark for days and more than 200 dead.ĮRCOT said that taking that step this week allowed it “access to additional power reserves needed to restore and maintain frequency.” But those issues with the transmission line also “restricted the flow of generation out of South Texas to the rest of the grid.”Īmid its continuing struggles to keep the state’s stand-alone grid operating, ERCOT on Thursday also sought and received declaration of a federal electric reliability emergency, which allows it to waive some air pollution limits so generators can produce more power. It hit as supply was tightest because of the decline in solar power that comes every day at sundown. That, combined with tight supply, sent the grid into what ERCOT calls a level 2 energy emergency. When the transmission line bowed out, it created a sudden drop in the frequency at which power travels through the grid, a condition that can damage equipment and cause plants to shut down. ![]() ERCOT said Thursday problems moving power from South Texas to other parts of the state Wednesday were to blame for the grid’s first emergency since a deadly winter storm in 2021. The control room of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, is seen in this 2018 file photo. WHAT HAPPENED? : What led to the Texas power grid’s emergency? Even the experts have questions for ERCOT. … And, like a highway, when you have a lot of cars on the road, there’s more likely to be an accident.” “There’s only so much power it can move before it gets full. “There’s only so much traffic a highway can carry, and the same is true with what a transmission line can carry,” said Michael Webber, a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin. “Limitations,” grid experts said, could either mean a transmission line failed or that a pathway for power became so overloaded during the evening’s high-demand period that it ceased being able to function.
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