Starting on the night of Valentine’s Day, extreme weather in Texas caused water supplies at a nuclear reactor to freeze, impeding the ability to create steam needed to spin turbines and generate electricity.
Gas wells also froze, limiting supplies to natural gas-fired power plants and almost all gas that was available was shifted to local heating needs instead of electricity generation. This infrastructure can be weatherized, but Texas took the calculated risk of not spending money on such measures.
There have been tragic consequences of these decisions, the full extent of which is still unknown. There will be plenty of reviews and analyses of what led to such decisions, but it is a sad state of affairs that these decisions (and the preceding planned blackouts) even needed to be made in the first place.
So much of this awful situation relates to relying on a small number of large power generators who distribute electricity over long stretches of fragile power lines.
However, the alternatives to such dependence, and therefore ways to mitigate the risk of facing a situation like Texas are many: solar and hydropower of various sizes and structures that create electricity to be consumed locally; battery storage systems; electric vehicles, which not only do not create emissions but will play a huge role in energy storage and grid modernization; modern, high-efficiency wood heating (for which tax credits were just made available as part of the federal stimulus package), which utilize New Hampshire’s most renowned local resource, our responsibly managed forests; demand response, which is the business of paying large users of energy that can be flexible in their operations to curtail consumption during times of peak demand; and energy efficiency, which is usually the least expensive “source” of energy of all.
The model of centralized electricity and natural gas distribution and sales is a monolith long overdue for a reengineering, but the powerful players in the industry have a vested interest in maintaining business-as-usual.
The public has a voice in such matters though; and while the business of regulating how energy is generated, supplied and paid for is technical and esoteric, ratepayers and taxpayers have a right to be involved. New Hampshire has a long history of an engaged citizenry, and when it comes to electricity and thermal energy things should be no different. The public can get involved at Public Utility Commission hearings, provide comments on pending state legislation and elsewhere. Our resiliency depends on it.
(Kevin Porter of Concord is vice chairman of Clean Energy NH.)