This problem has been developing over a few decades.
We’ve shut down 95,000 MWs of RELIABLE 24/7/365 baseload coal generation since 2011. We sacrificed it for UNRELAIBLE green energy that doesn’t work when the sun doesn’t shine, when the wind doesn’t blow, and when it’s too cold.
Anyone like me who’s spent 40 years in the industry isn’t surprised in the slightest. We knew this day would come.
That graph I posted tends to tell that story. Huge capital investment in windmills that did little when the going got tough.
I don’t disagree. From a very simple perspective, it seems anyone wanting to accommodate “green energy” has basically build 100% of back-up in other sources. That’s effectively doubling (or more) energy investment costs.
But it seems that for whatever technical reason, Texas’ gas and nuclear plants also were not equipped to deal with historical cold weather.
BTTT