Not what I would have expected

 

We've been enduring a typical Texas summer heatwave over the past couple of weeks, with temperatures routinely well above 100° Fahrenheit.  There have been warnings from electrical utilities to conserve power, or risk cascading power failures;  but as far as I know, there haven't actually been any of the latter.  The reason, according to Oilprice.com, may surprise you.

Peak energy demand has reached an all-time high in Texas, where temperatures have been hotter than 99% of the world over the last few weeks. The prolonged heat wave is shattering records now but is likely just the beginning of what scientists predict will be a pattern of increasing and increasingly extreme weather events associated with climate change.

In Texas, the expectation that summer heat waves as well as winter storms will continue to get more and more intense has been of particular concern, due to the fragility and isolated nature of the state’s power grid. That fragility was made infamous in 2021, when the grid collapsed under the strain of increased heating demand during the disastrous Winter Storm Uri. Tragically, at least 246 people died from the storm and the related grid failure, with stated causes of death ranging from hypothermia to carbon monoxide poisoning according to the state’s official death toll. However, a BuzzFeed News analysis says that the official count is far lower than the real death toll, which they calculate to be around 700 lives lost.

. . .

The New York Times has called the Texas grid “the nation’s most extensive experiment in electrical deregulation,” and experts have been nervous that that experiment could go terribly wrong all over again under the strain of an extreme weather event such as the one Texas is experiencing now. But so far, the grid has held up, even with peak energy demand reaching a record-breaking 81,000 megawatts (MW), a significant uptick from the  69,000 MW peak demand that left the grid in ruins during Winter Storm Uri.

How is this possible? The Lone Star state has quietly been building out its renewable energy industry at a breakneck clip. “It’s all thanks to the rapid additions of solar, wind, and grid-scale battery storage in the last two years,” reports Forbes. The state has added almost 3,000 MW of wind since 2021 and 10,000 MW of solar since 2020, with utility-scale solar doubling every year since then. Its solar energy installment rate has surpassed that of California, and its new grid battery installations are a very close second to the Golden State. “During this historic heat wave, it’s been all these new, low-cost wind, solar and batteries that have kept the grid afloat and Texans cool – in many cases saving lives,” Forbes writes.

All of this added renewable energy production capacity has made the Texas energy grif much more resilient. Not only does it give the grid a greater diversity of energy sources to fall back on in case of disaster, it’s also easing the state’s reliance on fossil fuels for energy security. Past grid failures in Texas have shown that coal and gas plants are much more vulnerable than renewable ones to extreme weather events in both hot and cold conditions. In fact, when the state lost 9,600 MW of electricity capacity last week due to the failure of several natural gas and coal plants, solar and wind provided that lost energy and then some, generating a record 31,500 MW on Wednesday.

There's more at the link.

I've always regarded increased dependence on so-called "renewable" energy sources - solar, wind, etc. - as a potential weakness, a likely point of failure.  I'm honestly surprised to read that they've actually relieved the pressure on traditional electricity generating plants during a peak consumption period like this.  I can understand solar energy being more than usually efficient during such heatwaves, but the winds have often been less than usual as a hot blanket has dampened normal weather patterns, so I'd discounted it as a major contributor.

Are these reports trustworthy, or are they just hype on behalf of the renewable energy industry?  I don't know, but Oilprice is normally a reasonably trustworthy source.  Can knowledgeable readers chime in with their input?  I'm sure we'd all like to know more.

Peter