Busted Pipes causing power plants to go down would make sense.
But it doesn’t match what has been reported thatthe “grid was overloaded”.
According to the article: not only did two plants shut down, additional reserve plants did not come on line as expected.
Those reserve plants are fueled by natural gas, and low pressure in the supply (also reportedly caused by the cold weather) kept them from starting up to meet the need.
“According to ERCOT, the outages were necessary because of a shortage of available power after some plants were knocked offline due broken water pipes at the Oak Grove and Sand Hill plants. Natural gas power plants that should have provided back up had difficulty starting due to low pressure in the supply lines, also caused by the cold weather.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said this event was something that ‘should not happen’ and that the demand placed on the Texas grid was nowhere near peak capacity. He said he was frustrated by the situation ERCOT said energy conservation is still critical during peak demand hours this evening between 6 and 10 p.m.”
“According to ERCOT, the outages were necessary because of a shortage of available power after some plants were knocked offline due broken water pipes at the Oak Grove and Sand Hill plants. Natural gas power plants that should have provided back up had difficulty starting due to low pressure in the supply lines, also caused by the cold weather.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said this event was something that ‘should not happen’ and that the demand placed on the Texas grid was nowhere near peak capacity. He said he was frustrated by the situation ERCOT said energy conservation is still critical during peak demand hours this evening between 6 and 10 p.m.”