Inside Clean Energy newsletter reporter Dan Gearino does a great job of summarizing the good and bad lessons that can be learned from Texas’ massive power outage during the winter of 2021. These lessons are applicable for all electric power systems.
“Overhead power lines Texas” by shannonpatrick17 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Here is an outline of the content of the report.
1. Our power system was built for summer peaks, and that’s part of the reason why things went haywire in Texas.
2. Just about everything failed, so be careful blaming any one power source.
3. Just below the surface of Ted Cruz’s scandal was an important message. (The rich will find ways around climate crises, while moderate and low income folks will suffer most.)
4. We don’t focus nearly enough on reducing demand. ( Learn more about that here. )