3.7M views · Mar 23, 2021 · 16:48 · 6 HN recommenders · 11 mentions · discussed 2021–2026
Practical Engineering's explanation of the February 2021 Texas winter storm and the resulting power grid outage. It lays out the facts about ERCOT, the grid's isolation, and how generation across fuel types failed in the cold.
Why Hacker News points people here: Whenever Texas grid failures come up, HN people link it as the calm, technically informed account that cuts through political blame.
“The best low-emotion, technically informed analysis of "Snowpocalypse" is probably this one from "Practical Engineering”HN comment, 2022
“For a really good overview of what happened in Texas I'd highly recommend practical engineering's video.”
Technical overview explaining why the Texas outage happened
For a really good overview of what happened in Texas I'd highly recommend practical engineering's video. He provides a technical overview of the entire situation that really helps explain why what happened, happened. this video
“Practical Engineering made an outstanding video on this”
Outstanding video on the Texas grid outage
Practical Engineering made an outstanding video on this: "What Really Happened During the Texas Power Grid Outage?" this video
“Here is a good video explaining what happened”
Explains what happened in the Texas grid failure
Ok, i'll bite. You know nothing about the operational details of power grid infrastructure in Texas and what lead to the problems encountered. Here is a good video explaining what happened: this video Just FYI, Grady from Practical Engineering channel who made the video is a civil engineer. I also recommend his entire series about power grid (well, actually all his videos are great). )
“A better analysis of the February grid failure is here”
Better analysis of the February grid failure
So, I've lived in Texas since the late 90's. There are certainly things that need doing. But this is not really a great analysis. A better analysis of the February grid failure is here: this video Long story short: 1) the population has gone up a lot, so all infrastructure (traffic, electricity, water, housing, etc.) has had to increase rapidly 2) the mix 10 years ago was a lot of coal and oil, now it is much more natgas, wind, and solar. These can be reliable, but they are very different than coal and oil, and therefore a lot of new lessons have to be learned. 3) a big reason for the surge in renewables is the way the market is designed, which lets them pocket big bonuses at peak demand times. Since this _normally_ is in the summer during the day, this makes solar a lot more competitive financially. Natgas certainly failed in February, but all three of wind, solar, and natgas had big problems, it was just that the natgas and wind were unexpected while the solar was not (in the winter at night). Thus far, the power grid is holding this summer, even though there is all-time record demand. We certainly do need to increase capacity, but that is mostly due to the surge in population, not any huge mismanagement. I'm sure it could be done better, but it's not unusual for record demand and a new mix of sources to put the system through a learning curve.
“The best low-emotion, technically informed analysis of "Snowpocalypse" is probably this one from "Practical Engineering”
Low-emotion, technically informed analysis of the Texas winter storm outages
So, I wouldn't know, because I haven't watched Fox News in many years. The best low-emotion, technically informed analysis of "Snowpocalypse" is probably this one from "Practical Engineering", made by a San Antonio-based engineer: this video The outages were not from any one "main cause", except perhaps "Texas doesn't get cold that often and wasn't ready". But, wind icing up was certainly one of several major causes, along with natural gas pressure dropping so that natgas-powered electrical plants could not keep operating.
“Practical Engineering has a great review of their outage in February 2021”
Review of Texas February 2021 outage
This is the natural outcome from their anti-government politics. Any legislation that would increase their reliability is shot down as ideologically "wrong". Practical Engineering has a great review of their outage in February 2021: this video
“Grady has a good explanation and the writeup is interesting reading too.”
Good explanation of how close Texas came to total grid failure
The power grid absolutely can fail catastrophically and is a lot more fragile than people think. Texas nearly ran into this during their blackout a few years ago -- their grid got within a few minutes of complete failure that would have required a black start which IIRC has never been done. Grady has a good explanation and the writeup is interesting reading too. this video link
Cited as source that cold hit both gas and wind
Yes, the loud politicians have always been painting this as a Green/Wind vs Fossil problem as soon as the storm hit and that the solution is Fossil. It's frustrating because unlike other debates - the underlying truth is quite clear. Cold temperatures affected both Natural Gas & Wind bringing both power types[0]. Winterizing both can be beneficial. Wind can operating in those temperatures just fine[1]. It wouldn't be cheap, but winterizing gas lines isn't either. It's being turned into a left vs right issue by those who choose to ignore facts and outright lie to push their own agendas. It actually saddens and frustrates me because a non-partisan issue is being turned into one. Our country has become hyper partisan and this one doesn't need to be. [0] this video [1] link
I heard the following quote in a youtube piece† outlining what happened, and thought it was interesting and relevant to this disaster: "Energy providers are paid for what they produce, not how reliable their production is." This kind of policy benefits solar and wind power, which are not reliable (without storage), but it hurts the consumers when abnormal weather hits. And with how the Ercot energy market works, being unreliable can actually be profitable, since it drives the prices of what you are producing up past the generation shortfall. Quite the mismatch between what behavior is needed, and what is rewarded. † this video EDIT: Accuse wind and solar of not being reliable on HN (even with the storage caveat), and you're punished. But it's true. It happened here. Wind turbines were shut down. Solar panels were covered in snow. They didn't have storage attached to make up for these shortfalls. Even a nuclear power plant went down due to problems with its water supply.
“See at 7:50 here”
My understanding is that this is incorrect, and it was coal power plants that weren’t properly winterized that failed. Of course you had a lot of people claiming the opposite, without evidence. EDIT: Okay there was some loss in capacity in wind power, but the greatest loss in capacity was natural gas plants, which lost 15GW of capacity. I confused natural gas with coal as I don’t consider either to be climate friendly. Wind lost about 3GW of capacity. See at 7:50 here: this video
“Practical Engineering: * What Is A Black Start Of The Power Grid?”
It goes back a ways to when power companies couldn't offer power in adjacent states. NPR's podcast: The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout link ... and the files for that appear to be missing... (if you have Apple Podcasts link ; Spotify: link ; Amazon music: link ). I especially suggest listening to the episode "The Fallout" Texas set up an energy market that was to eliminate waste and in doing so set up their grid so that it was constantly almost at load shedding (as that has the least waste). The problem is there were minutes away from a black start in which Texas would have been without power for an extended period of time - not days but weeks or months (and that the black start generators were also failing). Practical Engineering: * What Is A Black Start Of The Power Grid? link * What Really Happened During the Texas Power Grid Outage? this video And that when that happens, given the way that the Texas grid is set up, the rest of the country would be unable to help. And as that "hip to hate on Texas by costal elites"... utilities were trying to charge Minnesota for the part of the cost of the Texas outage ( link --- link ).
