Stop studies; we must weatherize grid now
Remember when Texas braced for a winter freeze event? Weather forecasters predicted sub-freezing temperatures for much of the state. The state’s regulators and electrical reliability organization assured us and each other that they were prepared.
Then the storm moved in, and we saw electrical generation and fuel supply, largely natural gas, issues. These systems rely on each other. If natural gas stops flowing to an electrical generation plant then the plant can’t function, and if electricity goes out at a natural gas facility then equipment can’t operate.
Does this sound like a familiar story? I’m actually describing what happened in the 2011 cold weather event in Texas. It happened exactly the same way as what we just experienced in 2021.
In February of 2011, The Federal Electrical Reliability Commission and the North America Electric Reliability Corporation (FERC and NERC) formed a joint task force to study the 2011 freeze in the Southwest United States, and they provided a 330 page report in August 2011, six months after the storm.
The task force identified specific weaknesses with Texas energy infrastructure and suggested pragmatic measures to mitigate the effects of future extreme weather events.
And what happened after that 2011 report was issued? Nothing. Between 2011 and 2021 Texas enacted no enforceable mandates and our electrical energy infrastructure remained vulnerable.
In contrast, the electrical infrastructure in our neighboring states did not fail during Winter Storm Uri. They all got cold just like we did in Texas — but New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana had all invested in infrastructure and followed federal recommendations and they all stayed online during the storm.
After Winter Storm Uri, the Texas Legislature came back to work, and many members filed bills to address different aspects of the disaster. I filed a suite of bills aimed at improving infrastructure and increasing accountability. My bills were not granted committee hearings.
The speaker’s office set up a slate of high-priority bills, some of which should be helpful. For example, House Bill 11 addresses electrical generation facilities. But HB 13 and HB 14 are setting up committees or councils with no solid requirements and no accountability measures or mandates.
HB 14 was announced in the speaker’s press release on March 8 and is still on the Speaker’s website as a bill for “Weatherizing Natural Gas Facilities.”
But HB 14 as passed by the Texas House was re-captioned “Texas Electricity Supply Chain Security and Mapping Committee.” This bill somehow went from being about weatherizing our natural gas facilities to being a bill to set up a committee to study our electricity supply chain.
If we are to solve Texas energy security, we must act now not just plan. We need to address natural gas facilities as well as electrical generation facilities. And we must break the critical codepency of gas and electric so that if one starts to fail it doesn’t cause the other to instantly fail also.
Senate Bill 3 is potentially a good vehicle to address electrical generation and distribution as well as natural gas. This bill was passed by the Senate and was referred to the House State Affairs Committee, but has not yet been taken up by the House.
HB 14 does nothing to harden our systems even though it was intended to weatherize natural gas facilities. It’s now a repeat of an exercise that was done a decade ago, except this time it will be with far less resources and fewer experts.
The bill is built on the narrative that Texas natural gas production was fine until they lost electrical power, but that is false. Texas natural gas facilities had freeze-offs, equipment failures and maintenance access issues unrelated to electrical supply. HB 14 aims to designate gas production facilities as critical infrastructure so that they won’t have electrical blackouts but that alone will not solve the problem.
As a mechanical engineer from the oil and gas industry who specialized in subsea production systems, I know about moving oil and gas in very cold pipes. Our product moves all day, every day, and we know how to ensure our systems work.
The people of Texas expect us in the Legislature to act to harden our energy infrastructure, and HB 14 will not accomplish that. We should have acted in 2011. In 10 years, let’s not say the same thing about Winter Storm Uri when another freeze hits.