Texas Crisis Shows Need for More Balanced Grid, Analyst Says

Feb.16 -- Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects, speaks on Bloomberg Television about the energy crisis crippling Texas’s power system.

[skyak]

Look at the comments and you can see the problem -everyone is more concerned about directing blame than making critical systems reliable.

[chuckroast]

This is pure BS, I have worked in the electric utility industry for more than 42 years. Many years ago when Texas was building out their grid, they made a decision to limit their grid connections to the rest of the country. They being Texas did not forsee any connectivity problems ahead. The Texas grid has very limited connections to bring in extra power to their grid in an emergency situation such as just happened.The few connections limits the amount of power they can absorb on the grid at any given time Their short sidedness is what has created this problem!

[jptrainor]

Homes need back up heating of some sort. I know this living in Canada. Lose power in winter and your home will be unlivable within 24 hours, or less, in sub freezing temps. Wouldn't have expected to see this develop in Texas, but I've lived through it in Canada. In many locales backup is as simple as a small generator to power your furnace and installation of a transfer switch.

[normansiwasch]

Just imagine the chaos of millions of electric vehicles charging on the electrical system

[LLee]

Ultra-High Voltage Transmission Line (UHVTL, using over one million DC volt) is the only solution! It allows us to cheaply transmit a large amount of electricity over a few thousands miles (e.g. from CA to TX). This will provide us the greatest degree of grid flexibilities!

UHVTL must be an integral part of any renewable solutions. The guest in this interview should have been more aware of this matter. How dare she said that "renewable engery is getting in the way of grid flexibilities"! How naiive that is!!

[georgemaximus]

This when the federal government needs to step in and help protect Americans in Texas who are suffering and in crisis now, send help, food, fuel, national guards. Texas is in a crisis now and needs help. Where is the federal government? All those taxes paid to the government, where are they when you need them? Same thing when California was burning up everywhere forrest fires and small towns were burned down, where was the help from the federal government? This is the time to spend money when people actually are in a crisis and needs help urgently not massive stimulus package checks to teenagers so they can bid up stocks and bitcoins.

[ronaldmcdonald]

We've known for a long time about the vulnerabilities of the grid. Also the lack of sufficient electrical supplies. As we dash headlong into electrification of every thing. There will be a lot more "Oooopps" moments before we get it through our thick skulls that we need real engineering grade planning instead of sloppy promotion of green ideologies.

[stevekluesner]

This report was posted 2 weeks ago now, the reports coming out more recently indicate that the outlook expressed here is not accurate in terms of its belief as to what generation methods were failed and resulted in the degree of outages which occurred. Texas ; as one might expect has a fairly small percentage of power generated by green systems ; not nearly enough to amount to the shortfall which occurred . Gas wellheads froze and supplies ran short, coal plants were not sufficiently protected against the affects of cold and we're shutdown, as well as numerous other problems occurring . Why would windmills fail when they operate in much colder conditions in many places around the world (poor planning) . Maybe the question to be asking should be could this problem have been better mitigated if they had had more well designed green energy ???? Wasn't the wind still blowing???

[dontjustbeanotherbrickinthewal]

How come this never happened before this is not the first winter in Texas

[may]

Wow, thank you captain obvious. Germany learned the same lesson. Hey guess where the blades of the windmills end up? LANDFILLS!

[Itchyknuckles]

I think you want the freezing temperatures to go up.

[ItsSOMSon]

They just need to upgrade the facility it shows green will freeze oil and gas if used in a facility up to date will be more reliable.

[harlandfazardo]

I say we turn off the heat at the White House and let the Biden administration feel the affects of their energy policies

[curiouslymavismade]

The days of reliance on fossil fuels is coming to an end.

[ReviewBoard-uynv]

Where is Ted Cruz at? People are dying in their homes

[willrose]

how did native Americans survive this weather?

[onceANexile]

USA= ANOTHER BANANA REPUBLIC
USA= ANOTHER BANANA REPUBLIC
USA= ANOTHER BANANA REPUBLIC
USA= ANOTHER BANANA REPUBLIC
USA= ANOTHER BANANA REPUBLIC

[coupdegras]

Watching the South struggle is hilarious. I hope this lasts another week.

[kevinlim]

please help. i am a us citizen and the republic of korea has me captive and started a torture on a government level. they have denied me of all access to human rights and is depriving me of food and water and living quarters. please do an ip tracking and help me get out of this country

[jayrusty]

i thought Trump wanted to MAGA by investing in infrastructure?! what happened to America 1st?!