Texas Power Grid: On the night of February 14, we were 4 minutes 37 seconds from a disaster

The Texas Electricity Reliability Board, “Ercot,” said the US state of Texas was dangerously close to a long-term power outage during last week’s severe winter storm.

According to documents released at Wednesday’s emergency council meeting, the Texas network has come under much greater pressure than previously thought.

And in the most dangerous part of the night of February 14, when the storm hit the state, network operators were four minutes and 37 seconds away from a widespread “blackout” that would have triggered an automatic shutdown of some circuits. electric.

If this had happened, millions of Texas customers would have suffered long-term disruption because technicians would have had to “blackout” their production facilities. It could take weeks, leaving Texas in total darkness.

The black start is the process of putting the power plant or part of the electricity network back into service without relying on the external electricity transmission network to recover from a total or partial shutdown. Usually, the electrical energy used inside the station is supplied by the station’s generators.

Documents showed that half of the state’s power generation capacity was disrupted due to severe cold during the peak, with much of the power generation being shut down for more than 48 hours before recovery of the current. The board said most of the plants that have stopped producing are fueled by natural gas.

On Wednesday, six members of Ercot’s board of directors responsible for managing most of Texas’ power grid, which is largely cut off from the rest of the nation’s power grid, resigned.

Last week, a severe winter storm caused a major blackout in the southern state. So far, dozens of deaths have been reported due to inclement weather.

Source: “Xinhua”

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