FERC Report On Texas Grid Ignores The Elephant In The Living Room
A new report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) lays most of the blame for last February’s power blackouts in Texas during Winter Storm Uri on the natural gas production and delivery system in the state. As it did following a similar event in 2011, FERC recommends that Texas regulators formulate firm winterization requirements not just for natural gas but for all generation types, rather than mere suggestions and guidelines like those that were issued in 2011.
As Texas media outlets always eager to slam the state’s oil and gas industry leapt to echo FERC’s slant on the matter, the industry and those who regulate it pointed out the report’s flaws. While there is no question that lack of winterization of generation and delivery systems has been a chronic, ongoing weakness on the Texas power grid that everyone has been aware of for many years now, the FERC-compiled map above clearly illustrates that the issue in February was far from unique to natural gas.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright expressed his concern that the report gives short shrift to one of the main causes of freeze-ups at natural gas production and pipeline facilities, which was the fact that those facilities would continue to flow had the state’s grid operators at ERCOT not shut off power to them. “On weatherization, if a natural gas production facility or pipeline is flowing, it will not freeze,” he told me. “Cutting off electricity causes pumps to freeze and gas to stop flowing.”
Electricity was cut off to many natural gas facilities because their operators had failed to complete an annual form designating their facilities as critical infrastructure for the power grid. Todd Staples, President of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said that companies have been working diligently to ensure that situation does not recur this winter. “Communications improvements have been made among stakeholders up and down Texas’ electricity grid,” he said. “Many operators proactively implemented winterization measures and reported that loss of power was the predominant reason for lack of production during this historic storm.”