The Texas Blackout – A story of Energy Injustice

Executive Summary:

Electricity is back bone of modern energy infrastructure. A modern energy infrastructure is highly integrated and interdependent. A reliable electricity system is essential to provide basic needs to the citizens. An electricity system is interconnected with other key sectors which includes, transportation, health, water and heating. A 24/7 reliable electricity is not a luxury but necessity for people to sustain a normal healthy life. Therefore, electricity from policy makers eyes must be seen as a social commodity and not only a techno economic commodity. As free electricity market model flourish across the globe, ethics and justice have been ignored during designing of such markets and economic effectiveness of such markets are more emphasized. The design of these markets forgets the fundamental of its invention, to provide service to all citizens under its umbrella. The event of February 2021 in Texas, where the electricity provider had to shed massive load to keep the power system functioning is a prime example of energy injustice. This paper, from an Energy Justice (EJ) angle will critically analyze the February 2021 events in Texas. It will provide policy recommendations to design electricity system in a more ethical and just approach. Commoditization of electricity has its own advantages but in times of crisis it is an unfair mechanism. The paper through fundamental approach of EJ portrays the possibility of designing a fair electricity market system, where even the most vulnerable are provided necessities to lead a normal life even during drastic events.

Introduction:

Winter storm Uri hit Texas in February of 2021. At its peak the storm left 4.5 million Texan homes without electricity [1]. Approximately 10 million Texans were deprived of electricity for days during the winter storm [2]. The electricity outage forced people to seek shelter in crowded spaces when COVID 19 was still prevalent. Households could not access running water as water network is connected to electricity network. Medical and emergency facilities were also impacted resulting in casualties [3]. 111 souls lost their lives due to winter storm Uri as per official numbers, but unofficial numbers are much higher [4]. The reason of the blackout was shortage of supply against the demand. Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) which controls 85% of Texan electricity supply was unable to cater for the increasing demand due to extreme weather, at the same time electricity generators also failed because they were unprepared for extreme cold weather [5]. It was an overall failure of the power system, generation, transmission, distribution and demand response were all severely impacted resulting in days long blackout. Though 4.5 million Texan homes were affected, the blackouts disproportionately affected low income and minority communities [6].

Understanding Texas (ERCOT) Electricity Grid

The US national electricity grid is formed of three interconnections. While all the other states are interconnected through either western or easter interconnection only few parts of Texas are connected to the national grid. ERCOT which controls 85% [7] of power supply in Texas is not interconnected to rest of the US national grid. Basically, 85% [8] of Texas power grid is an island grid which generates, transmits and distributes electricity within itself. ERCOT currently manages more than 1000 generators and approximately 53,000 miles of transmission lines [9]. More than 40% of total electricity generation comes from natural gas plants, with wind, coal, nuclear and others contributing the other 60% [10]. The governor appoints board of director of Public Utility Commission (PUC). ERCOT answers to PUC and manages the state power grid which consists of generators, transmission lines, distribution lines, wholesale market and retailers. The policy makers in Texas learned a good lesson from major northeast blackouts of 1965, as a result ERCOT was formed to manage reliable electricity in 1970 [11]. ERCOT is not 100% island grid as it has some interconnection with Mexico and has imported from Mexico to meet demand in the past. The intriguing question here is, ERCOT is accepts electricity import from Mexico but is hesitant to fully interconnect with rest of the US power grid. Here a lot of questions are raised on the intention of policy makers, why is avoiding federal regulation more important than energy security. People’s lives depend on reliable electricity supply, as was exposed by the winter storm Uri and the Texas freeze [12].

What exactly happened on February 2021

Multi facet disruption hit the Texas power grid during winter storm Uri and the freeze that it caused. The cascading [13] effect of the winter storm Uri was so severe that 10 million Texans lost power at its peak. The devastation was so extreme, Texans described it as “end of the world” feeling [14]. The complexity of the modern energy system and its reliability on each other also contributed to the blackouts. As ERCOT curtailed power [15], electricity generators slowed power to natural gas plants which rely on electricity to transmit fuel essential for heating homes. At the same time, demand side did not help. Due to extreme cold weather Texan used all kind of heating mechanism which were not very energy efficient, therefore causing higher than normal demand. Power was also slowed to drinking water pipeline plants as ERCOT was unable to meet demand, which reached 76 GW [16] without loadshedding, it was higher than ERCOT’s forecast of worst-case scenario. Most natural gas plants were not weatherized to handle this level of temperature therefore their production capacity decreased significantly. Though there had been recommendation by experts to weatherize all natural gas plants for these extreme situation, financial and policy level obstacles hampered the weatherization of these plants [17].  

Many deaths are attributed to hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning. But cascading effect on Texans is far greater. Texans died of many reasons which could be directly attributed to the freeze and the blackout. Inaccessibility to health care facilities, road accidents and several others, which are not counted in the official death count. Texans used unsafe sources of energy to keep themselves warm as temperature decreased to 10 degrees as they were left with no electricity and heating [18]. They had no choice. As more light is shed on the event, it is clearer that poor and minorities were affected most adversely by the Texas freeze and the blackout that followed [19]. The paper, through EJ lens will delve deeper into the issue, connecting policies which leads to misappropriate distribution of resources. It will at the same time recommend policies to reduce inequality which has been witnessed during winter storm Uri.

Everyone is a stakeholder

Reliable supply of electricity is an integral part of a safe society today. As several other life dependent services are interconnected with supply of electricity, policy makers should set their priorities on appropriate and just distribution of resources in all events to all citizens. As this paper focuses on electricity supply from an EJ angle, the entire spectrum of policy makers, bureaucrats, energy management institutions, private sector and energy users are responsible for a fair and just system.

Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) [20] with some mix of Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) [21] is suitable to approach this policy problem. Sabatier’s focus on policy subsystem and involvement of multiple actors who are willing to change policies to solve a problem best suits Texas electricity policies rethinking for a just and fair distribution of resources in all events. Kingdon’s theory of “window of opportunity” and how policies could be implemented faster if extreme events occur which opens up window of opportunity can be related to the Texas blackout of February 2021. After this event all stakeholders, policy makers, policy entrepreneurs, policy implementors and end users should be aware of catastrophe which could be brought by an unfair system. Texas legislature, governor, PUC, ERCOT, private sector (generators, transmission, distribution, retailers) and end users all should work cohesively to make sure such events do not occur in the future, and even if they occur, they should make sure it is managed much more efficiently.

Literature Review

The event of February 2021 is a textbook reliability issue, in the past these events were never analyzed from a justice perspective. As extreme weather events are getting frequent, Texas blackout of February 2021 will occur more frequently now than in the past. Therefore, it is of great importance to be able to dissect the issue from an EJ lens. The paper builds on Sovacool et al’s concept of the new energy justice framework which can be implemented as a decision-making tool [22]. It also builds on Tarekegne’s idea of just electrification [23]. The paper analyzes the energy injustice through three types of injustices, distributional, procedural and recognition. The paper also takes an approach to use energy justice as a decision-making tool using some of Sovacool’s principles mainly – Affordability, Availability, Good Governance and Intragenerational Equity.

The Texas blackout event and policy intervention required to solve these kind of issues are very complicated. The paper adapts Walker’s [24] adaptive policy making framework because of the uncertainty and cross sectoral dynamics which needs to be addressed through policy intervention. Adaptive policy is designed to manage unpredictability and is designed as a modular policy tool.

The Texas freeze and blackout – from an Energy Justice lens

Texas is largest energy producing state in the United States. It produces more ~ 24% of the total energy production of the country [25]. Stories of people losing their lives due to inadequate energy services is prevalent in many parts of the world. But for Texas to face this kind of devastation is unprecedented. The energy rich state, we would presume, would be ready for to handle any kind of disaster. But 100s of lives were lost, a heart wrenching chaotic scenario unfolded. Yet during all this, companies like energy transfer made 2.4 billion dollars [26]. Normal citizens were hit with energy bills worth thousands of dollars which they will take a lifetime to repay [27]. Law makers passed a 2.5 billion dollars bailout bill to help the energy sector [28]. Texans died due to lack of electricity, which cascaded and created several other dire situation. ERCOT as its name suggest was founded to always provide reliable electricity to all. The most vulnerable communities were left without electricity for days [29]. The discrepancy was visible as downtown buildings and posh neighborhood stayed lit against a darkened shadow of freezing neighborhoods. Minorities suffered four times more in the Texas blackout [30]. EJ looks at the energy system not only through economic and technical indicators but through issues of equal access, affordability, sustainability [31]. The paper further investigates the crisis from two core dimensions of energy justice dimensions.

Distributive Justice

Distributive energy justice emphasizes equal distribution of cost and benefits of electricity amongst all members of society regardless of color, ethnicity, income, race or gender [32]. Equal distribution of electricity is most necessary in emergencies. Access to electricity, heating and water was deprived from most vulnerable communities during the Texas blackout. Life saving devices depend on electricity, therefore it is right of member of the society and not just a commodity which is traded in the market [33]. The unequal distribution of suffering amongst communities and profit/loss amongst energy stakeholders provides a basis to rethink and strategize policies. Minorities suffered more than other communities and at the same time utility companies lost astounding amount while large generators made billions [34]. Affordability and availability [35] both equally adversely affected certain members of the Texas community vs the others.

Procedural Justice

Procedural justice represents a call for fair and unbiased involvement of all stakeholders in decision-making [36]. Almost 100% of those who suffered, members of the community and companies do not part take in the policy making process. It is a very top-down [37] dominated process where only a handful get to decide on the fate of millions [38].

A complex policy problem needs to be resolved through coalitions of all stakeholders by forming policy subsystems [39].  All stakeholders should be empowered to part take in policy discussion to improve comprehensibility in the process [40].  Customers who received high electricity bills were unaware of the reason they received such high bills.  The outstanding amount of electricity bills from the crisis is so large it won’t be recovered in decades. The impact of which will be borne by the customers in terms of higher electricity rates in the future.

Energy justice has its limitation when applied to electricity markets. But it is very essential to strategize policy making considering the energy justice as an integral part of the policy implication.  By applying energy justice in the policy making process a fair electricity distribution system can be established. A system which caters for the people for whom the system is designed for and not only for techno-economical purposes. Keeping this mind the paper will recommend policies based on several criteria’s which can aid in future events where electricity supply has to be curtailed due to extreme weather or for any other reason.

Policy Options Assessment

A good policy must be just from every angle.  In this case, the purpose of the policy enables the system to always provide reliable electricity to all members of the community. In case of dire situations at least provide bare minimum power to keep lives safe. The paper will assess policy option through four different criteria’s, 1. Economic Effectiveness 2. Political Feasibility 3. Equity 4. Technical feasibility.

1.    Economic Efficiency –Economic efficiency requires that social marginal benefits and social marginal costs be equal at the selected output level [41]. From an energy justice angle economic efficiency is one of the most crucial factors.  Economic efficiency basically targets a zero-waste strategy and improves a situation without harming any other.  Providing reliable electricity should not come at any other cost – harming the environment, unfair financial burden to others. Therefore it is imperative that the policy recommended be assessed from economic efficiency angle.

2.    Political Feasibility – Adoption of a policy is one the most critical aspect for its success. If a policy is not owned by policy makers than it has higher chances of failing. Policies to implement a technology or service which does not utilize much public fund and is financial self-sufficient tends to garner more support from policy makers. In case of reliable electricity supply – technically there might be multiple options to solve this problem for example, large generators for capacity usage only but will it be supported by the market in commercial terms and would policy makers support the public investment into the technology

3.    Equity – A policy should not have inequities amongst demographic group. It is about equal allocation of responsibilities and advantages. Any policy which changes distribution of responsibility and benefits to society is not equitable. In this case, there has been an unfair allocation of benefits to certain community vs others. Therefore, it is very essential to analyze the proposed policies through an equity angle. Both process equity – procedural justice and outcome equity are important factors of policy analysis.

4.    Technical Feasibility - The proposed technology through a policy should be technically reliable. Technical feasibility should also go hand in hand with economic efficiency. While proposing a technology the policy makers should also keep in my the availability of resources for the technology to be successful. For electricity supply, technical feasibility is a very important criteria as electricity generation, transmission and distribution depends on viability of the technology and availability of resources to make sure the technology proposed operates efficiently.

Possible Policy Options and Analysis

Below table presents the possible policy options to address how to manage blackouts in the future. The first two policy options (1 and 2) are low hanging fruits which can be achieved without much debate, technical and financial planning. The major policy proposals 3,4, and 5. These proposals will take longer time and planning to formulated and implemented. Therefore, the paper will mostly focus on the three proposals.

1.    Mobile electricity units and warm shelters – In case of emergency ERCOT should have adequate mobile electricity units to save people’s lives. There should be enough provisioning for warms shelter. ERCOT does not need to build new infrastructure for shelters but can convert existing infrastructure into shelter in case of severe emergency. A policy which will mandate ERCOT of such provisions could help save many lives in the future events.

2.    No curtailment zones – critical facilities - A policy which will prohibit ERCOT from curtailing load of critical facilities like water treatment plant, hospitals and other facilities which are essential for saving lives. This policy will enable critical facilities to run during blackouts thus saving many lives.

 3.    Energy resilient communities – Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) – A policy which will identify the most vulnerable communities and equip them to deal with events like winter storm Uri and cascading blackouts/freeze by providing them the technology/finances to manage their own energy. There are several models in which these kinds of projects can be executed, details to be discussed on latter part of the paper. For technical and financial success of this policy – several other sub policies are required

 4.    Residential load rationing – A policy which will prohibit ERCOT from 100% curtailment of power to residential homes. Instead in case of an emergency, load rationing to residential homes which will at least enable them to operate the most critical load during load shedding.

 5.    Strategic interconnection with other states – As discussed above on the paper, the nature of ERCOT island grid is incapable of importing power from neighboring states even in case of emergency. A policy to enable import and export of electricity to neighboring state without affecting autonomy of ERCOT to federal regulations could be a huge specially during emergency. ERCOT could also export excess power to its neighbors, but this topic is too vast to be covered on this paper.

 Assessing policy options

Advantages and drawbacks of proposed policy options

Recommended Policy Option and Justification

Energy resilient communities – Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)

All five recommended policies will help ERCOT manage extreme situation as it faced during winter storm Uri in February of 2021. Due to extreme weather ERCOT faced a huge deficit of supply against the rising demand due to the freeze. It was forced to curtail a huge percentage of its load, causing human casualties as well as huge economic loss. Out of the five recommended policy, the policy that is most suitable from multiple angles is implementation of community-based BESS with solar energy as its primary power and grid as secondary source of power. Community BESS can be designed in two different ways, one with batteries at each household and other with a community battery which feeds of all household’s power generation. BESS can bring great benefits if combination of policy, financial model, technical model can be designed. The declining cost and technological advancement of BESS makes it an attractive solution in a modern electricity market [42]. BESS combined with adaptive policy making which is very future oriented could be a game changer [43]. Community BESS can help solve the energy injustice crisis that occurred in February 2021 but at the same time help ERCOT in modernizing the electricity market.

What makes community BESS an attractive option

Reliability (Equity) – During blackouts BESS can give the much-needed reliability and help operate basic requirement of residential homes. If the system is designed correctly, with adequate autonomy period, it can play an important role during blackouts. If community BESS are installed in strategic location where there is a high chance of blackouts during extreme events, it is not only reliable solution for the community but for ERCOT as well. ERCOT would not have to worry about sending power to those areas as it knows these areas are installed with BESS helping them manage supply and demand better.

Investable technology (economic efficiency, political feasibility) – BESS’s sole purpose is not only reliability. It does not sit idle during days when power supply is not interrupted. With right set of policies, BESS can provide multiple services which is essential for smooth operation of a modern electricity system. BESS has multiple revenue stream therefor is a financially feasible system decreasing public expenditure.

Renewable and Battery hybrid in the whole sale market (Technical feasibility) – BESS along with solar rooftop could participate in wholesale market through Virtual Power Plant mechanism. 100s of community BESS could be converted into VPPs and participate in wholesale power market. It would yield good return making community BESS lucrative for investors and the community.

 Ancillary Service Provider (Technical feasibility) – BESS through VPPs can provide much need ancillary service to ERCOT which will be more pertinent in the future as Variable Renewable Energy’s (VRE) contribution to the energy mix increases

 Supply demand management (Technical feasibility) – As BESS can store energy, it can help ERCOT manage peak load by utilizing BESS through VPPs in times of need.

 Reduce large investment (Political feasibility) – In order to build capacity for extreme events huge infrastructure must be built in form of gas plants or other generators, BESS through VPPs can help solve this issue.

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