3 minute read • Graham Lumley • Last update December 2024
In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri brought record-breaking cold temperatures to Texas for nearly a week. This storm exposed a crucial vulnerability in the state’s power and water infrastructure. For up to six days, Texans were without heat, power, and water, trapped in their homes by frozen air and icy roads that were too dangerous to traverse.
The grid failed so spectacularly for several reasons:
These issues fell upon each like dominos, leading to power outages for millions, the deaths of hundreds of Texans, and billions of dollars in damages. This catastrophe highlighted the need for swift and sweeping upgrades and protections against future extreme weather events.
Every year since 2021 when winter draws near, Texans wonder whether recent improvements to the grid were substantial enough to keep them safe in the face of another storm like Winter Uri.
In this article, we’ll dive into the specific legislation enacted by the Texas state government in response to the disaster and explore whether the relevant parties have done their part to winterize the Texas grid.
In March 2021, just a few weeks into the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, Texas lawmakers introduced and passed significant legislation aimed at upgrading the state’s power infrastructure and preventing repeated failures. The bill, Senate Bill 3 (SB3), included many measures such as:
In the Railroad Commission of Texas’ May 2024 document regarding guidance for weatherization practices for gas supply chain and pipeline facilities, they laid out a couple dozen solutions for preventing harm to the grid from severe winter weather.
These solutions include (but are not limited to) the following:
The question still remains—have these updates been implemented? According to Daniel Cohan, professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, power plants across Texas have installed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weatherization upgrades to their facilities.
In ERCOT’s January 2022 winterization report, they stated that 321 out of 324 electricity generation units and transmission facilities fully passed the new regulations.
Utilities, power generators, ERCOT, and the PUCT have all made changes to their operations and facilities since 2021 to be better prepared for extreme winter weather. Are these changes enough? Has the Texas grid officially been winterized?
At this point, it’s not possible to say for certain. Since Winter Storm Uri in 2021, subsequent winter storms have paled in comparison. Temperatures have not reached the same lows, there has been less snow and ice, and instances of winter weather have not lasted for as many days.
If another winter weather storm arrives, blanketing nearly the entire state with several inches of ice, we are likely to at least experience many localized outages. When tree branches cannot support the weight of the ice, they can snap and knock out power lines to neighborhoods across the state. In the instance of a downed power line, we must rely on regional utilities to act quickly to restore power.
The only true way for Texans to know if the grid is ready for another storm is for Mother Nature to unleash another test. If the grid can better withstand, we’ll have our answer, and vice versa.
