FERC releases final report on Texas power outages (2021)

Thu Nov 18 16:35:29 UTC 2021

> On Nov 17, 2021, at 11:31 PM, Haudy Kazemi via NANOG <nanog at nanog.org> wrote:
> 
> Yet, in spite of claims of TX being an island, customers all over the country are now being forced to pay energy surcharges specifically tied to the Feb 2021 TX event. It was a line item on my last bill.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2021, 21:03 Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:
> "Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It."
> 
> 
> However, Texas maintains its electric grid as an isolated island, and 
> hasn't followed past recommendations to avoid electric grid outages.
> 
> https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Federal-report-warns-Texas-power-outages-16628257.php

“specifically tied to” ≠ "Caused by."

Do you mean to say that an ELECTRIC bill elsewhere in the country has gone up SPECIFICALLY because of what happened last February in Texas? I note the use of the phrasing “energy surcharges” without specifying what kind of energy.

You may have a natural gas line item, but that was not CAUSED BY what happened in Texas. It was in the same timeframe, but what happened was a weather issue, not a Texas issue. Unusually extreme cold weather across an unusually large part of the country caused temporary insane demand in the natural gas markets around the country, resulting in huge spikes in cost for natural gas on the spot market. Some gas utilities around the country had prepared for such an eventuality by storing gas or with long-term price contracts, others did not.

That does not necessarily mean Texas CAUSED the problem.

-Andy