Page 39 - Industrial Plants

service, causing a strong imbalance between the production failures that occurred due to the cold
withdrawals from and feed into the grid. In essence, the wave, avoiding or mitigating rolling blackouts. On top of
infrastructure was caught unprepared when cold and this, Texas does not impose obligations on producers
snow began to bite. The Electric Reliability Council of to maintain adequate reserve margins capable of
Texas (ERCOT), the system operator that manages the guaranteeing the supply of electricity and contributing
state’s power grid, was therefore forced to stop supply to the stability of the grid in all circumstances. Faced
in rotation to try to stabilize the system and avoid an with the cold emergency, the state found itself without
uncontrolled blackout. Many users were left without weapons.
power (and electric heating) for days, sometimes for
more than a week, during a wave of extreme cold. The “The maelstrom in Texas of last
prolonged power outages caused suffering, death and February and its consequences is
destruction. Businesses were unable to function, just the latest and more prominent
leading to lost production and ripple effects to suppliers demonstration that climate change
and other parts of the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, in causes extreme weather events with
many buildings across Texas, pipes froze, then thawed a frequency and an intensity never
and spewed water, creating additional costly damage. experienced in the past, putting the
The imbalance on the free spot market between energy energy infrastructure to the test
demand and supply sent energy prices through the
roof, from about 50 USD/MWh before the storm to the What happened in Texas is just the latest and more
regulated cap of 9.000 USD/MWh for about a week; as prominent demonstration that climate change causes
a result, those end-users who were not disconnected extreme weather events with a frequency and an
and whose contracts exposed them to spot prices, intensity never experienced in the past, putting the
accrued bills 100 to 200 times higher than usual, whilst energy infrastructure to the test. Heat waves and
for those with fixed prices contracts, the onus fell on wildfires in California and Western Australia, stormy
the power companies, some of which ended up facing winds in northern Italy, and an unprecedented ice storm
bankruptcy, with additional ripple effects. in Slovenia are some other recent egregious examples
(Figure 1)
The maelstrom was exacerbated by the fact that Texas
has its own electricity grid, which it consciously chose Science has largely established the direct link between
to separate from other states both in the east and west the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in
of the US to prevent it from coming under the the atmosphere and the progressive modification of the
jurisdiction of federal institutions. This means that, planet’s climate balance, which leads to significant
differently from the rest of the US, but also from Europe, temperature rises, prolonged periods of drought and an
network isolation does not allow access to nearby state increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather
support for system balancing when momentary failures events. Greenhouse gas emissions represent the major
or overloads take place. If the same situation had impact of human activity on the environment.
occurred elsewhere, interconnections could have at In a global effort to fight climate change, many countries
least partially compensated for the peak in demand and have therefore committed to decarbonization targets.

Submarine cable
laying

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