The post Great Winter Storm of 2021 Will Live in Grid History appeared first on POWER Magazine.

It will be some time before we know every detail that aligned to cause the tremendous number of sustained power outages in Texas, or the spiking power prices across all markets in the central states.

Some things we do know. Some natural gas supply was frozen in. Some wind turbines froze up, and ice damaged some power lines and caused congestion. 

COMMENTARY

Even coal and nuclear were not immune to the carnage. Some units cycled down on Feb. 15 and have been slow to recover. During the early hours of the storm’s approach, all 254 counties in Texas, and all 77 counties in Oklahoma, were under winter storm warnings.

With the winter storm bearing down on Texas, record peak demand was forecast for the early morning hours of Feb. 16, exceeding 76 GW. With the generators already shutting down, power output fell to around 45 GW and remained at about that level. During…

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