Dear friends,

In mid-February, freezing temperatures in Texas left more than 4 million without power and even more without water. The disruption impacted COVID-19 vaccine distributions and halted U.S. oil production causing gas prices to climb. The fallout was not limited to economic issues. Nearly 70 people died due to extreme conditions. 

As the public scrambled to understand what happened, experts knew this wasn’t the first (or the last) time we would see catastrophic infrastructure failure. In 1989 and 2011 Texas experienced similar infrastructure issues as polar vortex patterns shifted south. Following those events, investigative reports came up with several recommendations for Texas’ energy providers and regulators. However, no substantive changes were made. Will this time be different? 

While states can make changes where necessary, federal support will play a huge role in updating U.S. infrastructure systems. In the coming weeks, Congress is expected to move forward with the country’s first infrastructure bill since 2015, providing funds to fix infrastructure systems. In many cases, cities and states need a lot more than money to tackle the full scope of challenges ahead. 

Reflecting on this most recent Texas infrastructure crisis, I explore new technologies and market mechanisms that deserve consideration. These strategies will help ensure equitable and safe infrastructure systems for building better cities.

Hope this gets you thinking,
Kate

Ideas Worth Discussing

Integrate stopgaps with storage systems

During Texas’ winter storm, all types of energy infrastructure froze: coal stockpiles, natural gas pipelines, wind turbines, and even a nuclear power plant. While Texas’ grid is diverse, it lacks reliable capacity across power sources. Utility-scale batteries can solve this problem.  

• Tesla’s secret mega battery could boost the grid [Bloomberg]

• EVs are personal batteries, foundational to vehicle-to-grid solutions [EcoWatch]

Incentivize upgrades when the market won’t

After the 2011 winter freeze, investigative reports called for winterization of Texas’ grid. In response, Texas politicians made weatherization a voluntary option for market providers and not a requirement for utilities. Without any incentive to invest in their own systems, energy providers never winterized their generation and transmission systems. Texas state legislators will need to provide funds or collect penalties for energy providers to winterize this time. But, new energy sources might not need this.

• TX governor will mandate and fund winterization [Marketplace]

• Distributed energy resources limit need for winterization [WhisperValleyAustin]

Provide adequate resources by designing a better market

Texas is the only state in the continental U.S. that runs an energy only, stand-alone grid. This means that Texas cannot tap other energy markets and does not price future reliability. In times of high energy demand or low energy supply, the Texas energy market will (1) increase energy rates (to a certain maximum limit), (2) ask customers to voluntarily limit energy use, or (3) implement rolling blackouts. In February, all of these strategies were implemented. The results were costly and deadly.

• Regional interconnection is fastest way to more energy [GreenTechMedia]

• Energy providers should play nice and share resources [ReformAustin]

• Pricing reliability means there is grid reliability [Reuters]

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NV’s Innovation Zones allow companies to build cities and become governments [APNews]

Stockton’s Guaranteed Income program shows pay offs [NPR]

Sewer overflows are more common in minority communities [CityLab]

The women shaping this year’s climate action [GreenBiz]

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