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In our partisan world, I guess I shouldn't be surprised of the misinformation that is spreading like mad about the situation in TX. Yes, wind turbines that are frozen. No, this isn't the only cause of the outages and high prices. And no, this isn't a "renewables problem".
First, windmills can actually operate down to -30 degrees (see Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc). Texas chose not to install the necessary equipment probably because it made sense not to invest in something that would be used once every 10-20 years.
Second, there has actually been a LARGER drop in NG, coal and nuclear generation than in wind generation. The NG side of things is due to the fact that we use NG for heating. So when it's cold there is a fight for the NG between heating and electricity.
Northeasterners will remember this from the polar vortex when we had to shut down power plants because of a lack of NG. So, if a once in a decade shortage of a particular type of generation means we should abandon it, I guess we should abandon NG too.
Third, Texas has a very specific market design that makes it prone for these sorts of occurrences (although next I won't blame the design). Texas is what is called an "energy only" market. Most restructured electricity markets have a separate "capacity market" that pays ...
people to build power plants. In Texas the sole incentive to build power plants comes from periodic spikes in prices (and the general price level). So, price spikes are expected to happen more often in Texas compared to other markets; that is how it is designed to work.
From a purely economics point of view, this is actually a more efficient market design. Instead of socializing capacity expansion, market designers are expecting price spikes.
A second way Texas is different from other markets is that it is an "island". It is not connected to surrounding electricity markets like other markets. This is by explicit design. This means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to not have jurisdiction over Texas.
TX wants this. But, in times like this it means the system is likely less robust bc it can't trade with surrounding markets. Given that these surrounding areas are also facing problems, I am not sure how much better TX would be if it was linked to these (it wouldn't hurt though).
With that said, it is important to note that the surrounding markets are facing similar issues, even higher prices. So, personally, I wouldn't blame the market design, wind power, NG generation, etc. I'd blame the fact that we are seeing a once in a decade, or two, winter storm!!
With that said, we should learn from this and see if we can improve upon the market design.
Most importantly, stay safe Texas! Please do not use your gas range to heat your home or camp stove. Carbon monoxide poisoning, sadly, is going to be a real issue over the next few days. Please seek out heating centers instead.
