Experts: Texas power outage event ‘unlikely’ in Idaho

February’s disastrous power outages in Texas, coupled with unusually cold and snowy weather conditions, have electricity stakeholders asking: “Could that happen where I am?”

For Idaho, what happened in Texas is unlikely, said Dave Whitehead, chief executive officer for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, which supplies products to Idaho Power and other utility companies globally. He explained that is basically because of the interconnectedness of the Northwest, from the Pacific Coast to more inland states. And, he credited Idaho’s Power dedication to service.

Ed Schweitzer, Ph.D., founder, president and chief technology officer of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, recently explained the concept of interconnectedness and how it related to the major power outages in Texas at a virtual presentation, Cup of Joe: Special Edition with Dr. Ed Schweitzer, hosted in March by University of Idaho. Schweitzer also discussed the history of electricity as a utility, and where the services are headed today.

Schweitzer stated that no one reason was to blame for the recent power failure in Texas. While arguments are being made nationwide around “too much wind and/or too much solar,” and not enough electricity transmission or interconnectedness to the rest of the country, Schweitzer responded by saying he didn’t think any of those factors contributed much to the power outages, though they might have contributed a little bit.

Regarding the amount of available wind and solar, “let’s face it; solar panels — you can’t get electricity easily 24 hours a day,” Schweitzer said during the presentation, and that includes through the interconnectedness of the infrastructure.

And, regarding the infrastructure for electricity, while the whole country is not necessarily connected, many states are connected with each other and maintain business arrangements around the utility, which is a benefit when a station either goes down unexpectedly or intentionally, for planned maintenance.

Ultimately, Schweitzer called on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the institution that manages Texas’s power, and local to national lawmakers to consider management around electricity.

“Pointing the finger at everyone else is not going to get us where we want to go,” Schweitzer said. “I want to talk (keeping in mind) the basic good in every human being, everyone (having) the best interests at heart, from the engineer to the politician.”

While Texas’s major sources of power for electricity include coal, gas, nuclear and wind, and is interconnected to infrastructure at four points in the state, stakeholders predicted Texas’s extreme peak of electricity to be approximately 67 gigawatts, while forecasted resources were estimated to be 69 gigawatts, according to Schweitzer.

“I think that’s an awfully small margin given we’re dealing with intermittent sources of power and other factors,” Schweitzer said.

Ultimately, Schweitzer showed that the actual peak was 69GW, and the actual resources at the time of the bad weather were 43GW. That, he said, is a margin of -38%, “and no wonder the lights went out.”

“ERCOT, it really just encompasses Texas; it’s not like a big spigot to bring in a lot of power,” Whitehead told Idaho Business Review following the presentation. “Idaho is not in the same boat; there are more ways (electricity can) get in and out of the Idaho area.”

Close to the conclusion of the presentation, Schweitzer posed the questions: “Who is really responsible to the customer?” And, “Who is really behind those ready kilowatts?” He also said this disaster in Texas presents an opportunity for industry experts to offer their knowledge and advice to elected officials.

“(With) ERCOT, the way it (is) designed economically, and the rules (of) when and when not to produce, it’s much more complicated,” Whitehead said, adding that with Idaho Power, all of that is less complicated; and Idaho is better prepared for really cold weather.

“Could this happen in Idaho? The likelihood of something very similar (to Texas) happening … I just don’t see that happening,” Whitehead said. “Idaho Power has always been good about getting things done to make their systems even more reliable.”

During the Q & A portion of the event, when asked what he thought the future (technologically speaking) would be for electricity, Schweitzer said “production will be nuclear,” and advancements in transmission technology will continue.

“I think nuclear is the cleanest, safest way humankind has come up with to produce energy,” Schweitzer said. “One measure of safety (is the calculation of) number of lives lost doing it; the fewest lives have been lost by generating power by splitting the atom.”

Following the presentation, Whitehead said he thinks the technology enabling the shutoff and restoration of power to customers — something SEL said it leads the industry’s technology in — will continue to advance, such as by operators being able to better isolate an outage and thus restore power to the rest of the network more quickly.

“Idaho has always been progressive on improving their reliability,” Whitehead said.