The Wholesale Price Of Electricity Spikes 10,000% In Texas Power Outage

By Mish Shedlock of MishTalk
Monday, February 15, 2021 2:01 PM EDT

A massive polar vortex spread across the South impacting many states. Texas was the hardest hit.

Spot Price Spike

The spot price of wholesale electricity on the Texas power grid spiked more than 10,000% on Monday amid a deep freeze across the state and rolling outages among power producers, according to data on the grid operator’s website.

Real-time wholesale market prices on the power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) were more than $9,000 per megawatt hour late Monday morning, compared with pre-storm prices of less than $50 per megawatt hour, according to ERCOT data.

On Feb. 10, well before inclement weather hit Texas, spot wholesale prices on ERCOT settled around $30 per megawatt hour at the end of the day, ERCOT data show. But on Sunday, the price per megawatt hour surged past $9,000 on the grid.

The above from Reuters.

ERCOT is a nonprofit independent system operator for the region. It performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for nearly 8 million premises in competitive choice areas.

ERCOT Calls For Rolling Outages 

In a news release ERCOT Calls for Rotating Outages as extreme winter weather forces generating units offline.

Extreme weather conditions caused many generating units – across fuel types – to trip offline and become unavailable. There is now over 30,000 MW of generation forced off the system.

"Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now," said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness.

Rotating outages will likely last throughout the morning and could be initiated until this weather emergency ends.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers -- representing about 90 percent of the state’s electric load. 

Outages Lasting Longer Than Expected

Austin Energy says Power Outages Lasting Longer Than Expected.

ERCOT overnight declared an Energy Emergency Alert Level 3, which called for Austin Energy, along with other utilities across Texas, to begin rotating outages to close the gap between power reserves and consumer demand.

382,000 Without Power in Bitter Cold

KXAN reports an Energy Emergency. 382,000 are without power as outages lasts hours in bitter cold.

Traffic Signals Down

Six Killed in 130-Vehicle Pileup

Cars and Trucks are Wedged

A Massive Crash involving more than 130 vehicles on an icy Texas interstate left six people dead and dozens injured Thursday amid a winter storm that dropped freezing rain, sleet, and snow on parts of the U.S.

“There were multiple people that were trapped within the confines of their vehicles and requiring the use of hydraulic rescue equipment to successfully extricate them,” said Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis.

“The roadway was so treacherous from the ice that several of the first responders were falling on the scene.”

The ice storm came as a polar vortex – swirling air that normally sits over the Earth's poles – has moved near the U.S.-Canada border, resulting in colder weather farther south than usual, said Steve Goss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

In Tennessee, police responded to about 30 traffic collisions and some flights were delayed at Memphis International Airport after freezing rain and sleet fell. In Kentucky, the governor declared a state of emergency to free up funding and help agencies coordinate as they responded to reports of slick roads and downed power lines. And in southern Indiana, schools and government offices closed.

Pipeline Shut

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