Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 28

'Epic
Failure'
Texas blackouts
a cautionary tale
for Missourians
This past February, residents of Texas suffered through
rolling blackouts during a period of unprecedented extreme
cold. While power went out there and elsewhere across the
Midwest, it continued flowing for members of electric co-ops
served by power suppliers Associated Electric Cooperative
and Wabash Valley Power Alliance. This article from energy
expert Robert Bryce serves as a cautionary tale we would
ignore at our peril. For this reason we are reprinting it this
month with his permission.
by Robert Bryce | info@ruralmissouri.coop
A
28 RURAL MISSOURI | NOVEMBER 2021
s the postmortem of the blackouts that slammed
the state back in February continues, it's apparent
that Texans narrowly averted a catastrophe that
could have resulted in what biologists call a mass
mortality event.
At about 2 a.m. on Feb. 15, the Texas grid came within
four or five minutes of a systemwide failure that could
have plunged nearly the entire state into a blackout at a
time when temperatures were plunging, it was snowing
sideways and the roads were impassable. Recovering from
such a failure and executing what's known as a " black
start " could have taken the Electric Reliability Council
of Texas days or even weeks. Had that occurred, Winter
Storm Uri would have killed thousands, even tens of thousands,
of people.
As it was, the February snowpocalypse likely cost the
state some $200 billion, according to estimates by economist
ay erryman, and the final death toll, according to
an analysis by BuzzFeed News, could be as high as 700.
The February blackouts should have been a neon-bright
wake-up sign for the state's politicians and regulators that
the structure of the Teas energy grid is deeply flawed and

Rural Missouri - November 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - November 2021

Contents
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - Contents
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 4
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 5
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 6
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 7
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 8
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 9
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 10
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 11
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 12
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 13
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 14
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 15
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 16
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 17
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 18
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 19
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 20
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 21
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 22
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 23
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 24
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 25
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 26
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 27
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 28
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 29
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 30
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 31
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 32
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 33
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 34
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 35
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 36
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 37
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 38
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 39
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 40
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 41
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 42
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 43
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 44
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 45
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 46
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 47
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 48
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 49
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - 50
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - November 2021 - Cover4
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