Energy Alliance Policy Director Bill Peacock isn’t surprised that grid operators are blaming frozen wind turbines in West Texas for power that has been offline due to unusually cold weather.
“Beyond the weather, environmental policies that have been pushing renewable energy across the country and in Texas for a long time are largely keeping the Texas grid from providing reliable power,” said Peacock.
As widely reported, freezing rain, cold weather, and snow have caused power outages across the state, which are expected to continue through Tuesday.
“What's contributing is the fact that we're relying on wind and the turbines are frozen as well as the fact that we're relying on solar and there's no sun shining,” Peacock told the Lone Star Standard. “We could have a reliable natural gas backup in place but we don't. All three of those are related to the renewable energy policies in Texas and in the United States.”
The Houston Chronicle reported more than 2 million people are without power, along with grocery stores and airports.
“California has already had this problem last year when they had some outages and their wind played a role in those as well,” Peacock said in an interview. “The more wind and solar you get onto the grid, the more problems you're going to have with reliability.”
The state of Texas generated some 28% of all U.S. wind-powered electricity in the past two years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“It's a generation issue because the generation has to match the load,” Peacock said. “If somebody is not reliably producing the energy needed, then you're not going to be able to meet the load.”
The state’s average spot price for power exceeded the price cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour price cap today, according to the Dallas Morning News. Peacock explains that the state of Texas isn’t built for extremely cold weather.
“Up North, everybody is using oil to heat their homes and so the demand for electricity is much less on the East Coast when you have this weather,” Peacock said. “In Texas, it’s either electricity or natural gas and the demand for electricity goes way up in these all-electric homes. That really is what is driving a lot of the demand.”
In order to minimize future outages, Peacock advises a three-pronged approach.
“We need to stop renewable energy subsidies, eliminate excessive regulation by the Texas Public Utility Commission and let the market work,” he said. “Then, we will have a system that we can rely upon.”
