FERC releases final report on Texas power outages (2021)

Haudy Kazemi kaze0010 at umn.edu
Sat Nov 20 00:31:17 UTC 2021


More specifics:

Centerpoint is charging Minnesota natgas customers a surcharge specific to
the Feb 2021 event. It is a line item listed as the 'Feb 2021 Weather
Event' on the October and November bills with a per-therm surcharge. The
surcharge rate was different between Oct and Nov.
https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/Documents/211022-01_RateCase_FactSheet.pdf

Xcel Energy has also recently added a "February 2021 Weather Event -
Pricing Event Surcharge" to their MN natgas rate book:
https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe-responsive/Company/Rates%20&%20Regulations/Regulatory%20Filings/Mg_Section_5.pdf


Much electric generation depends on natgas.

Xcel Energy is charging at least one wholesale electric customer in
Colorado a highly increased 'fuel cost adjustment' (FCA). As this wholesale
customer is an electric co-op, they will pass this on to their own retail
customers.
https://www.gvp.org/FCA

Xcel also has FCAs on their retail electric customer bills; it would not
surprise me to see those also be moved upwards, even if they don't itemize
out the reason for increase as being the Feb 2021 event. Increases in these
FCAs may be constrained by state level PUCs, but the utility workaround is
the duration.

Other utilities also have added surcharges:
Gas surcharge:
https://www.minnesotaenergyresources.com/company/tariffs/swcr.pdf

Gas and electric surcharges in Cedar Falls, IA due to the price spike from
the same event.
https://www.cfu.net/utilities/rates-service-policies/february-2021-energy-costs

It is possible that some US utilities may not add surcharges, or if they do
add them, they may disguise them under existing fuel cost adjustment
charges rather than as highly visible line items. A large jump in
surcharges may be an indicator this is happening.

Although the cold weather event was not limited to the Texas area, the
problems of frozen-out natgas supply infrastructure and electric
infrastructure (which are interdependent) were concentrated on equipment
operated by entities in Texas. Surely the weather event increased demand to
some degree; at the same time a sudden loss of natgas supply compounded the
demand pressure on the remaining supply, and both factors combined to drive
a market price spike. The severe weather event itself was unavoidable* but
survivable; the frozen infrastructure issues were clearly preventable.

*Unavoidable, if one ignores the possibility the event may have been a side
effect of human-activity-induced climate chaos.



On Fri, Nov 19, 2021, 11:28 Tom Beecher <beecher at beecher.cc> wrote:

> Yeah, some additional specifics about this would be helpful.
>
> I see no new charges on my nat gas gas bills in my state (NY) going back 4
> months that I still had laying around.
>
> On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 12:32 AM 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
>>>
>>>
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