The energy crisis crippling power grids across the U.S. showed few signs of abating Tuesday morning as blackouts left almost 5 million customers without electricity during unprecedented cold weather.
Spot power prices in Texas hit the $9,000-per-megawatt-hour price cap for a fourth straight day. To prevent the collapse of their networks, suppliers from North Dakota to Texas are instituting rolling power cuts for the second consecutive day to limit demand. The severe shortages are likely to continue throughout Tuesday, and the deep freeze is forecast to remain until Wednesday at least.
Officials have reported two people dead, likely from cold, according to the Associated Press. Medical centers are rushing to administer vaccines before they go bad. Flights are grounded. More than 2 million barrels a day of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of gas production are shut and massive refineries have halted gasoline and diesel output.
The Southwest Power Pool, which controls a grid spanning 14 states from North Dakota to Oklahoma, ordered rotating outages for a second consecutive day. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Texas, making more resources available to help.
All time stamps are EST.
Texas Electricity Supplies Keep Falling (12:13 p.m.)
Texas’s power supply declined further Tuesday morning even as the state’s grid operator said it hoped to start restoring electricity to some homes.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s main grid, supplied less than 44 gigawatts of power as of 11:53 a.m. on Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s down from 47 gigawatts earlier in the day, and less than at the same time on Monday.
Power Plants Shut Down After Instruments Froze, Ercot Says (11:00 a.m.)
Frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities, as well as limited supplies of natural gas, are the main reasons behind the blackouts in Texas, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid.
One of the reasons power is coming back slower than expected Tuesday is “natural gas pressure,” he said. While some wind turbines in West Texas shut down, that’s been the least significant factor in the blackouts, said Woodfin. Strong winds helped boost output from the turbines that remained in service, offsetting some of the losses.
Texas lost about 30,000 to 35,000 megawatts of generating capacity in recent days as bitter cold swept across the region, he said. On Tuesday morning, the grid was unable to meet about 18,500 megawatts of demand. A megawatt is enough to power about 200 homes.
Blizzard Cuts U.S. Oil Output by Over 2 Million Barrels a Day (10:06 a.m.)
U.S. oil production has plunged by more than 2 million barrels a day as the coldest weather in 30 years brings havoc to key producing states that rarely have to deal with frigid Arctic blasts.
