Convenience Big Store: 3 lessons learned from the Texas grid powering through the freeze

January 17, 2024

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Good morning, Houston.

Hey Houston, it's Wednesday. Did you see sea smoke in the Houston area this week? The bone-chilling air mass that moved into the Houston area early this week resulted in the rare wintertime phenomena. Here's what to know about the science behind it.

⛅ Temperature check: High of 47; low of 45. Justin's insight: Some of this week's wintry precipitation remains as ice. We have two ways to rid ourselves of ice Wednesday: melting and sublimation. Read more here.

Yasmeen Khalifa, Audience Engagement Producer

yasmeen.khalifa@houstonchronicle.com

Best of the Bayou

Today we're talking about lessons learned from the Texas grid...

If you read one thing: Winter Storm Heather will not go down in history like 2021's Winter Storm Uri or 2022's Winter Storm Elliott, a sign the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has improved. But Texans need to avoid learning the wrong lessons from this success, writes business columnist Chris Tomlinson.

Why did ERCOT ask Texans to conserve energy?

When ERCOT called for Texans to conserve electricity, it blamed cold temperatures and lower-than-normal wind power. But that's not the whole story; reducing reliance on renewable energy is not the answer, writes Tomlinson.

The wind in West Texas was unseasonably low, reducing the electricity produced by those turbines. But wind along the Lower Gulf Coast and South Texas blew like the dickens. The problem was not a lack of power but a lack of transmission lines, Tomlinson writes.

What do transmission lines do?

When wholesale electricity was selling for $300 a megawatt hour across most of the state, it was selling for $20 in Corpus Christi and Brownsville. Transmission is the secret sauce to building a reliable grid that does not overheat the planet with greenhouse gas emissions, Tomlinson writes.

An example of the right move is Pattern Energy's Southern Spirit transmission line, which is currently hung up by locals in Louisiana, Tomlinson says. The high-voltage, direct current line would bring nuclear power from Mississippi to Dallas when needed and allow Texas to export wind and solar when we have extra.

Tomlinson first wrote about the project in 2017, but it's only now getting built, demonstrating the need for permitting reform. The lines will carry direct current, which, along with other factors, will allow the Texas grid to remain outside federal regulation while adding backup power, Tomlinson says.

What does the oil and gas industry say?

The oil and natural gas folks argue Texas needs more fossil fuel power plants to avoid another near miss. But that's a sales pitch by people who want to lock in a 40-year supply contract; there are a half-dozen cheaper ways to guarantee reliability, Tomlinson writes.

Batteries provided 1,200 megawatts of backup power, enough for 240,000 homes, during the Tuesday morning crux after winds died down and the sun was still rising, according to ERCOT. That much power could have prevented the cascading blackouts in the first hours of Winter Storm Uri, Tomlinson writes.

Read Chris Tomlinson's full column here.

Stay in the Loop

Photo by: Susan Barber

📰 Need to Know

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💼 Business

ERCOT, power grid sailed through the worst of the freeze with ample supply. The amount of solar resources powering the grid set a record Tuesday morning, despite cold temperatures.
Talos bulks up in Gulf of Mexico with $1.29B QuarterNorth deal. QuarterNorth, an offshoot of Fieldwood, boasts new, productive wells that Talos said could strengthen its position in the Gulf of Mexico.

🚗 Outside the Loop

During the holiday freeze, Texas City bird count still drew a crowd. Volunteers took to the Texas City Prairie Preserve to count the wintering birds that took flight in spite of the foul weather and as grassland species suffer.
Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office training facility construction is underway. The facility will be among the most advanced regional training complexes in the metropolitan Houston area and the largest in Fort Bend County, a statement from the agency said.

Point of View

Photo by: Yasmeen Khalifa

Texas' grid has held steady during freeze. Who deserves credit?

ERCOT's inaccurate power demand forecasts are forcing residential consumers to conserve energy when it might not be necessary, writes the Editorial Board.

HISD board president: More school days, more NES schools. Houston ISD's low performance shows the need for more school days and more schools following the New Education System, writes HISD board of managers president Audrey Momanaee.

Houston vs. All Y'all

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Photo by: Getty Images

Taylor Swift's custom jacket went viral. Simone Biles has one too.

Kristin Juszczyk is blowing up for her design of Taylor Swift's puffy Travis Kelce jacket. She also created a similar one for Houston's Simone Biles.

Solomon: DeMeco Ryans' simple plan has the Texans ahead of schedule. Ryans said he wanted a team that Houston could be proud of, and that has been the case as the Texans face the Ravens in playoffs, writes sports columnist Jerome Solomon.
No. 5 Houston hosts No. 25 Texas Tech: What to know. The Cougars are looking to break a two-game losing streak while the Red Raiders are moving up in the rankings.
Rockets at Knicks: 5 things to watch as road trip concludes. New York center Isaiah Hartenstein poses another challenging matchup for Alperen Şengün.