Power plant and transmission line operators that are part of the Texas power grid have until December 1 to use their “best efforts” to address known issues that led to outages during the deadly frost last February, and the Implementing decade-old recommendations for winterization, which regulatory authorities have largely disregarded until this year.
That is the crux of the new rules approved by the Texas Public Utility Commission on Thursday – rules that the agency says will increase the resilience of the network over the winter, which starts in about eight weeks.
According to the rules, electricity companies must document that they have taken certain winterization measures – but they are not penalized if they suffer weather-related outages or failures.
Still, members of the supply commission called the new rules a step toward greater oversight, as Texas previously had no winterization requirements. They also said that “more robust and year-round prep standards” will be developed – in conjunction with a comprehensive government weather study – although these standards will not be introduced anytime soon.
The rules passed on Thursday are “operational standards to get ready for this winter,” said Peter Lake, chairman of the utilities commission. They will ensure that “the physical resilience of our network is considerably improved this winter compared to last winter”.
But not everyone sees it that way.
“Really, at the end of the day it just feels like they’re telling the operators, ‘Get out there and do your best,'” said Adrian Shelley of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “One would hope that (plant operators and sales companies) have already given their best.”
There is now a large potential gap in efforts to prepare the state power grid for this winter that is outside the purview of the Public Utility Commission.
The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the natural gas industry, has not yet issued new winterization mandates for wells and pipelines, and is also considering enacting a rule that would allow its operators not to label it as “critical infrastructure” within the power supply chain, that needs to be winterized – simply by paying a registration fee of $ 150.
The Railway Commission is making public comments on its proposed Critical Infrastructure Rule by November 1st, with final adoption expected by December 1st.
“You sound like you missed the emergency message,” to help protect the web, Senator John Whitmire, D-Houston, Wei Wang, executive director of the Railroad Commission, said during a hearing three weeks ago. “That is unsatisfactory. They united this body ”in anger at the agency.
“This is the Achilles heel” in preparation for the grid right now, Senator Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said during the same hearing. Gas suppliers were “just as much a problem as anything else” during the February disaster.
According to a preliminary report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month, the lack of a consistent supply of natural gas to gas-fired power plants was a major contributor to the widespread and protracted power outages during the massive state power grid failure in February, second only to the lack of weathering in all types of power plants .
But the natural gas industry has struggled to avoid blame and the potential for increased regulation since that disaster, and paid for a report released in April that largely absolved them of their responsibilities.
At least 210 Texans died from reasons related to the severe winter frost in February – when the power grid went down just when it was needed most – and property damage was estimated at more than $ 200 billion.
According to the rules for this winter approved by the Public Utility Commission on Thursday, operators of power plants and transmission lines have the option of making an “exception for good cause” from certain of the new winterization requirements – ie they can generally apply for an opt-out.
In most cases, however, the exemptions granted to them would be temporary and they would need to document specific reasons for non-compliance and provide a timeline for compliance. The supervisory authorities would also have to sign off on the exceptions.
Overall, the winterization measures power plants and transmission companies must take now – or at least do their best – are largely the ones recommended in two reports nearly 10 years ago after a winter storm in 2011 saw widespread power outages on the Texas grid.
These decades-old recommendations have never been converted into requirements, by either Texas lawmakers or government regulators. These include, for example, trace heating to protect pipes from the cold, the insulation of critical parts and the installation of wind protection devices or enclosures for devices and sensors that are sensitive to the cold, as well as efforts to ensure “fuel safety on site”.
The “highest representative, official or official” with authority for the respective facility or transmission facility must also make a notarized declaration that the measures have been taken. In addition, the state power grid operator – the Electric Reliability Council of Texas – has the authority to inspect all facilities within 48 hours.
Some power plant operators say they didn’t wait for the new rules to prepare their plants for the coming winter.
“We are voluntarily hardening our generating fleet to withstand an event that only happens once in 100 years, like the winter storms in February, and we are going beyond the 2011 NERC recommendations,” said Meranda Cohn, spokeswoman for Vistra Corp. , based on the report by North American Electric Reliability Corp.
Public Citizen’s Shelley, however, described the new rules as weak and said he was concerned that the network as a whole would continue to be extremely vulnerable.
The new rules are “better than nothing,” he said. “But if we have another storm with the same intensity as (the one in February) then I think people should be very concerned.”
Bob Sechler, Austin-American Statesman (TNS)
[ad_1]
