AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on Texas legislators to make winterizing the state’s power generators a top concern, saying they must find a way to prioritize and pay for the improvements.
But while the state requires power generators to plan for extreme weather, it offers best practices that serve as guidelines only — not requirements.
Without mandated state standards, Texas does not penalize power plants that are ill-equipped for severe cold. In fact, state utility regulators have only ever issued three fines related to inadequate weather planning by power generators, The Dallas Morning News found. The fines, which amounted to just $25,000 in total, were issued for not submitting plans on time — not for failing to properly weatherize equipment.
State utility regulators say generators have incentives to be ready for extreme weather because they lose money for every hour they’re offline. But these incentives are not working, experts said.
The state’s power generation system was ill prepared for the extreme freeze that hit Texas this week. If lawmakers want to avoid past mistakes, energy experts said, requiring winterization measures may be necessary.
This will be especially important since climate change means deep freezes like this may become more common here, said Varun Rai, a professor and director of the Energy Systems Transformation Research Group at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Winterization of energy infrastructure is like keeping your house prepared for an emergency,” like stockpiling extra food and water, flashlights and warm clothes, Rai said. “It’s not rocket science or necessarily expensive and you don’t need it often, but when the time comes, it can be life-saving for your family and you.”
This week’s winter storm knocked generators of all types offline, highlighting vulnerabilities across Texas’ entire system. Critical components of the energy supply chain froze, from natural gas wellheads, to power plant equipment and wind turbines, according to officials who manage the grid.
A big winter storm in 2011 similarly brought snow and frigid temperatures that knocked power generators offline and forced rolling blackouts. An inquiry by federal regulators found many of the problems stemmed from frozen equipment that had not been sufficiently winterized.
In response, the state began tracking how well prepared Texas’ electric grid is for extreme weather. Power generators must submit emergency plans that include details on what they will do in the event of extreme heat or cold.
But power generators are not required to take specific steps to winterize their equipment, like adding de-icing machines on wind turbines or insulating valves and sensors. The state has laid out best practices — including maintaining insulation on vulnerable instruments and properly training staff — but these do not need to be followed. They are simply recommendations.
“Take steps to ensure that winterization supplies and equipment are in place before the winter season, that adequate staffing is in place for cold weather events, and that preventative action in anticipation of such events is taken in a timely manner,” the state’s recommendations read.
And while power generators must file emergency plans, most are confidential; many plants decline to disclose them, citing rules that allow them to withhold trade secrets from competitors. The News reviewed a handful of plans submitted last year that are not confidential and found a huge gap in how different generators planned for extreme weather.
One power generator, for example, laid out which staff needed to work during a weather emergency and how to evacuate the plant if necessary. But it did not include any specific winterization measures.
Another plant submitted a detailed plan requiring employees to check freeze protection panels and insulation on pipes and sensors. The facility also had a separate, and more detailed, emergency plan if the temperature dipped below 45 degrees and, another, if it went below 28 degrees.
It’s unclear whether either of these plants remained online this week. The state has not released a list of which power sources failed and which weathered the storm.
The nonprofit entity that operates Texas’ grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT, reviews about 100 weatherization plans a year and may make general suggestions. Just last month, it said most plants were following their weatherization plans.
But ERCOT spokesperson Leslie Sopko told The News it does not have the ability to fine or penalize generators if plans have shortcomings: “We’re not a regulator. We don’t have any authority to require generators to take any specific weatherization measures.”
The Public Utility Commission, whose three members are appointed by the governor, requires energy generators to attest twice a year that they have followed their weather plans. In 2018, the commission fined three companies a total of $25,000 for missing a deadline by nearly two months.
But those penalties didn’t address the actual content of the plans. Asked by The News, a spokesman said the commission has never penalized a power generator for failing to prepare ahead of time for a winter event.
The agency has fined companies after the fact because they could not supply the power they were obligated to provide during the winter storms. In 2011, one company was fined $750,000 and another $25,000, commission officials said.
Both the utility commission and ERCOT officials said this week that while companies haven’t been penalized for failing to weatherize their equipment, they pay in other ways. Namely, when they can’t produce and sell power during bad weather, or when they must buy energy at sky-high prices to meet contractual obligations.
“While it may not be a cudgel in the hand of government, it is a massive incentive to be fully prepared for any weather effect,” commission spokesman Andrew Barlow said.
That incentive is obviously not enough to ensure power generators are prepared for extreme weather, energy experts said.
“The power generators were not prepared for the cold snap, even though it has happened many times in the past,” said Michael Webber, a professor of mechanical engineering and the Josey Centennial professor in energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin.
“It’s like we have learned nothing,” he said.
The News asked the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil and gas in the state, whether it has any cold-weather standards that natural gas pipelines must meet.
Spokesman R.J. DeSilva did not answer that question. Instead, he pointed to the commission’s production, transportation and safety rules and its efforts to restore full operations.
“The (Railroad Commission) has strict enforceable rules in place to ensure safe production and transportation of oil and natural gas in the state. Rules and standards are in place to prevent leaking or other release from wells, pipelines and equipment to prevent pollution and protect human health,” DeSilva said.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, a nonprofit agency that sets standards for power plants and electric grids, is working on a proposal to require generators to carry out a winter weather plan. Power plants could be penalized if they don’t comply.
NERC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have already planned an inquiry into the recent winter storms in Texas to see what happened and possibly make recommendations, as it did in 2011.
Kenneth W. Anderson Jr., who was a commissioner on the Public Utility Commission from 2008 until 2017, said state leaders need to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
A major part of that difficult job will be figuring out how to weatherize plants in Texas. Power generators here cannot simply adopt methods used in cold weather states, he said, because they won’t work in a state with 100-plus degree weather in the summer.
Winterization requirements need to be specific to the type of power generator — wind, solar, coal or gas — and to the location of the generator. Windmills in Amarillo need vastly different anti-freezing mechanisms than gas pipelines on the Gulf Coast, for example.
This week, Abbott asked the Legislature to prioritize the mandatory winterization of the state’s power generators. Next week, state lawmakers will begin to hold hearings to address this and the broader questions of what went wrong and how to avoid this in the future.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who authored the 2011 legislation requiring emergency plans when he was a state senator, said lawmakers need to decide what kind of an energy grid they want and how much they’re willing to pay for it. If Texans want an energy supply chain that can weather another severe deep freeze, the state must be willing to acknowledge the cost.
“That cost will eventually be passed on to taxpayers and customers, which is something lawmakers will also have to weigh as they address this issue,” Hegar said.
When asked who was at fault in what happened during this year’s freeze, Hegar was blunt.
“It doesn’t solely reside with one entity and one individual,” he said. “My suspicion is there’s enough blame to go around.”
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(Dallas Morning News staff writers Allie Morris and Krista M. Torralva contributed to this story.)
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