Texas Crisis Highlights Grid Vulnerabilities

Feuer W. Some Texans use 2021 Ford F-150 hybrid pickup trucks to power homes amid winter storm [Internet]. New York City: CNBC; 2021 Feb 18 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/18/sometexans-use-2021-ford-f-150-hybrids-to-power-homes-amid-winter-storm.html.

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Yekikian N. Ford asks Texas dealers to loan out F-150 hybrids to serve as home generators [Internet]. El Segundo: MotorTrend; 2021 Feb 19 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.motortrend.com/news/ford-f-150-generatordealer-loan/.

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Bohra N. Almost 70% of ERCOT customers lost power during winter storm, study finds [Internet]. Austin: Texas Tribune; 2021Mar 29 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/29/texas-power-outage-ERCOT/.

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Death toll rises to 210 from February cold wave in Texas [Internet]. New York City: AP News; 2021 Jul 14 [cited 2021 Jul 14]. Available from: https://apnews. com/article/health-government-and-politics-texas-cold-waves-9e92c2f2b55a 19b7946ba0ed8f0bda88.

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Webber ME. The Texas power crisis didn’t have to happen [Internet]. New York City: American Society of Mechanical Engineers; 2021 Jun 15 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/thetexas-power-crisis-didn-t-have-to-happen.

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Leslie M. Transmission infrastructure challenges use of renewable energy. Engineering 2020;6(6):587–9.

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Simon M. Texas’ icy disaster makes the case for uniting the US grid [Internet]. San Francisco: Wired; 2021 Feb 25 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https:// www.wired.com/story/texas-disaster-makes-the-case-for-uniting-the-grid/.

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Krauss C, Fernandez M, Penn I, Rojas R. How Texas’ drive for energy independence set it up for disaster [Internet]. New York City: New York Times; 2021 Feb 21 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www. nytimes.com/2021/02/21/us/texas-electricity-ercot-blackouts.html.

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Natter A, Dlouhy JA. Texas was warned a decade ago its grid was unready for cold [Internet]. Mumbai: BloombergQuint; 2021 Feb 18 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/texas-waswarned-a-decade-ago-its-grid-was-unprepared-for-cold.

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Goard A. Texas’ power grid set a new winter peak demand record Sunday evening [Internet]. Austin: KXAN; 2021 Feb 14 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-power-grid-set-a-new-winterpeak-demand-record-sunday-evening/.

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Ball J. The Texas blackout is the story of a disaster foretold [Internet]. Austin: Texas Monthly; 2021 Feb 19 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https:// www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-blackout-preventable/.

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Hebner R. What the Texas-freeze fiasco tells us about the future of the grid [Internet]. New York City: IEEE Spectrum; 2021 Feb 23 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smartergrid/what-texas-freeze-fiasco-tells-us-about-future-of-the-grid.

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Blunt K, Gold R. ‘A failure of Texas-sized proportions’—state debates how to overhaul its power market [Internet]. New York City: Wall Street Journal; 2021 Apr 16 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/afailure-of-texas-size-proportionsstate-struggles-to-overhaul-its-power-market11618565415.

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Wade W, Malik NS, Eckhouse B. Why is the power out in much of Texas? Frozen instruments at power plants, not wind farms, are the main factor [Internet]. Boston: Boston Globe; 2021 Feb 16 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/16/nation/why-is-power-outmuch-texas-frozen-wind-farms-are-just-small-piece-puzzle/.

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Smith R. The Texas grid came close to an even bigger disaster during February freeze [Internet]. New York City: Wall Street Journal; 2021 May 27 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-electrical-gridbigger-disaster-february-freeze-black-starts-11622124896.

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King CW, Rhodes JD, Zarnikau J. The timeline and events of the February 2021 Texas electric grid blackouts. Report. Austin: University of Texas; 2021 Jul.

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Report on outages and curtailments during the southwest cold weather event of February 1–5, 2011. Report. Washington, DC: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; 2011 Aug.

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Sechler B, Jankowski P. Many power units that failed during Texas freeze also failed in 2011 storm [Internet]. Austin: Austin American-Statesman; 2021 Apr 19 [cited 2021 Jul 14]. Available from: https://www.statesman.com/story/ business/2021/04/19/many-power-units-failed-during-texas-freeze-also-failed2011-storm/7065899002/.

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Buchele M. Texas lawmakers passed changes to prevent blackouts. Experts say they’re not enough [Internet]. Washington, DC: NPR; 2021 Jun 2 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002277720/ texas-lawmakers-passed-changes-to-prevent-more-blackouts-experts-say-itsnot-eno.

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Wood P III, Gee RW, Walsh J, Perlman B, Klein B, Silverstein A. Never again: how to prevent another major Texas electricity failure [Internet]. Austin: Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation; 2021 Jun 3 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.cgmf.org/blog-entry/435/REPORT-%7C-NeverAgain-How-to-prevent-another-major-Texas-electricity-failure.html.

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O’Hanlon M. Leaders say Texas has power reserves to meet summer electricity demands; experts not as optimistic [Internet]. Dallas: Dallas Morning News; 2021 Jun 24 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.dallasnews.com/ news/politics/2021/06/24/leaders-say-texas-has-power-reserves-to-meetsummer-electricity-demands-experts-not-as-optimistic/.

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Douglas E. Wind power a smaller contributor to Texas electricity crisis than initially estimated, ERCOT analysis shows [Internet]. Austin: Texas Tribune; 2021 Apr 28 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.texastribune. org/2021/04/28/texas-power-outage-wind/.

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Huffman C, Trahan J. Here’s how much winterizing the Texas power grid could impact your power bill [Internet]. Dallas: WFAA; 2021 May 2 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/texans-could-see-higher-electricity-bills-to-pay-for-power-plant-winter ization-experts-say/287-5e7fd5ed-2c43-4fad-a786-a27308f9c234.

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Fletcher S, Jenkins J. As the Texas power crisis shows, our infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather [Internet]. Cambridge: MIT Technology Review; 2021 Mar 6 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www. technologyreview.com/2021/03/06/1020389/texas-power-crisis-vulnerableinfrastructure-extreme-weather/.

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Palmer J. Anatomy of a tailings dam failure and a caution for the future. Engineering 2019;5(4):605–6.

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Fountain H. Climate change drove western heat wave’s extreme records, analysis says [Internet]. New York City: New York Times; 2021 Jul 7 [cited 2021 Jul 11]. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/climate/ climate-change-heat-wave.html.