The Texas Storm: Understood With Peter Kelly-Detwiler
ERCOT CEO, Bill Magness, who heads the Electric Reliability Council of Texas – the organization overseeing the power grid for most of the state – indicated that the grid was “minutes away from total collapse” during the storm last week. It would have required a “black start” to get it up again – basically, dealing with potentially damaged equipment and rebooting the entire system from zero. That would potentially have taken weeks or months to fully restore the electric grid. Although the Texas electric grid is isolated from other U.S. grids, its gas network is not. Hypothetically, this is what...