Texas Heat Wave Highlights Issues with Power Grid Congestion, According to Reuters

By Marcy de Luna

HOUSTON – A recent weekend advisory urging Texans to limit their air conditioning and appliance usage revealed a significant vulnerability in the state’s power grid: congestion on its transmission lines.

Power grid reliability has been a pressing concern since the severe winter freeze of 2021, which resulted in over 200 fatalities and caused widespread blackouts and soaring electricity prices that led several power companies to declare bankruptcy. In response, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) implemented mandatory standards aimed at enhancing the reliability of utilities and preventing future outages.

However, the most recent advisory was not the result of fuel shortages or frozen generation plants, but rather an operational issue where six power generation facilities, totaling 2,900 megawatts, unexpectedly went offline.

The resulting wholesale electricity prices exceeding $4,000 per megawatt-hour in Houston, alongside negative pricing reported 150 miles away, indicated that electricity could not be transmitted to meet demand in other areas, according to energy experts.

"A transmission issue could explain the pricing discrepancies and negative prices," noted Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at the University of Houston.

Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin, further emphasized that the likelihood of multiple power plants being offline for unrelated reasons is extremely low.

ERCOT has not provided any official commentary regarding the cause of the generation plants’ outages and assured the public that there will be enough power available for the state during the summer months.

Neal Dikeman, a partner at Energy Transition Ventures and a former director at a smart grid company, warned that congestion could continue to be a challenge as temperatures rise this summer. "During the summer, increased air conditioning use can lead to congestion as transmission lines reach their thermal limits," he explained.