The Power Crisis in Texas - Lessons for Nigeria’s Energy Sector
Lotenna Nwana*; Chigozie Obi* and Ifeoma Malo*
- Texas energy systems fail the looming climate change test after years of warning, causing power outages and increasing human costs
- Nigeria’s underdeveloped energy sector can learn from the Texas crisis to create resilient energy systems that allow multiple sources of power generation and storage
On Monday 15th February, massive winter storms caused over 4 million Texans to experience blackouts that would last for days. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees the power supply for the Lone Star State, instructed local utilities to cut off the power supply after most of its energy system shut down; citing the need to avoid catastrophic damage to its grid. The power outage that has killed over 20 people, had hundreds admitted to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning after using their cars as heaters, and stalled water treatment facilities- which led to a public notice sent to 12 million people to boil their water before consumption.
Fossil fuel groups and allies, including Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, immediately laid the blame on renewable energy providers, claiming that frozen wind turbines were a large cause of the power failure. This is despite accounting for 10% of energy in winter times. However, the problem was much larger than that and starts at the inception of Texas going independent to generate its power. There are three electric grids in the lower 48 states of the USA; the Western and Eastern Interconnection (which are interlinked and provide backup generation), and the Texas Interconnection. To avoid being regulated by the federal government of America according to the stipulations of the 1953 Federal Power Act, Texas power companies refused to engage in interstate commerce. This led the Texas State Government to form its independent grid which is currently managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and responsible for 90% of the power consumed within the oil-producing state. ERCOT pursued a policy focus on cost rather than reliability which would limit its energy systems.
This is not the first time the state of Texas is experiencing blackouts. In February 2011, a blackout occurred in parts of Texas caused by a winter storm that saw single-digit temperatures (near zero) in these areas. A total of 193 generating units in Texas failed, leading to rolling blackouts affecting 3.2 million customers. Following this event, a National Electric Industry Group developed winterization guidelines for operators to follow to protect electricity sources (gas plants, winds turbines) from being frozen during severe winter conditions but these guidelines were voluntary and required heavy investment. Ten years down the line, the same electricity issues that occurred in 2011 have been repeated, and this begs the question as to why the measures were not implemented.
The current blackout in Texas can be attributed to multiple aggregated failures, from a gap in demand and supply; exacerbated by climate change. On the demand-side, extreme weather conditions mean Texans consume more electricity in peak seasons. During the summer, the peak state generation capacity is 86,000 Megawatts (MW), as millions use their air conditioner at full tilt, while in the winter, the capacity is 67,000 MW. However, this winter was worse. As the cold weather spiked leading to a high wintery freeze (at -18C), the electricity demand rose to levels normally seen in the summer, as people turned up their heaters longer, including the inefficient ones. ERCOT and power plant operators were not prepared for this; extreme climate change conditions were not taken into consideration during electricity planning.
On the supply-side, the grid is predominantly thermal (natural gas and coal), and at -18 C temperature, pipelines froze up due to moisture in the gas supply lines, pumps slowed down, and diesel engines refused to start; freezing of gas supply lines and wind turbines led to 46,000 MW of power going offline. Furthermore, the imbalance between demand and supply caused energy prices at the wholesale market to rise from $20/KWh to $9000/kWh. As Texas cannot access energy from neighbouring grids to meet demand, ERCOT had to shed load on the system as a last resort to prevent total power system failure.
The current problem in Texas is a financial incentive issue for power plant operators and regulators. On the one hand, weatherization guidelines were too costly for power grid operators, so they refused to invest in insulating their plants and installing renewable energy reserves and batteries for back-up power. On the other hand, ERCOT’s policy of deregulation meant no accountability measure (to ensure reliable electricity) was in place. Energy experts have suggested Texas needs to rethink how it invests in its energy systems to make it stronger, resilient, and more reliable. So its energy systems can weather storms from climate change.
In many ways, Nigeria’s electricity situation is similar to that of Texas. A report presented by ERCOT in 2017 identified natural gas, wind turbines and coal as the major sources of electricity in Texas contributing 51%, 24.8%, and 13.4% respectively to energy generation within the state. A similar case is prevalent in Nigeria with the country being primarily dependent on thermal power sources (87.5%) for electricity. To take a cue from Texas, there is a need to diversify our energy sources and incorporate more weatherized renewable sources of electricity (such as solar power) to guard the country’s electric grid and enable the government to meet electricity demand even in cases of extreme climate conditions.
Though Nigeria’s energy system is underdeveloped, it can learn from this crisis as it is largely one of demand and supply of power and regulation. In Ondo state, the state house of assembly is working on creating its independent power provider, as a result of the failure of the national grid. So what lessons can be learned for the potentially largest energy market in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Nigeria has the capacity to supply about 12,522 megawatts of electricity but due to a number of factors — improper management of resources, wastage etc., we only manage to supply about 4000 megawatts of electricity. To address this issue, a lot of investments are being made to develop mini-grids that address this electricity gap and supply electricity to underserved areas. Given the ongoing electricity issue in Texas, it is important for Nigeria to internally assess our electricity infrastructure and begin taking appropriate steps to ensure our electricity grid (both off-grid and on-grid) can handle extreme climate conditions.
Also, the Nigerian Government needs to develop policies and guidelines that will regulate the work of mini-grid developers. These guidelines will encourage mini-grid developers to equip the mini-grids they install with the infrastructure required to be able to handle extreme climate conditions (hot or cold). More policies also need to be put in place to encourage the investment in and execution of power generation projects (primarily renewable sources) within the energy sector. This will increase the contribution of renewable sources of electricity to power generation and provide Nigeria with alternative sources to meet electricity demand in the case where the other sources fail. More efforts need to be concentrated to further develop the national grid and ensure that Nigeria generates enough electricity capacity to meet the demand.
Lotenna Nwana* is a Research Analyst, Energy Access at Clean Technology Hub
Chigozie Obi* is an Associate, Partnership and Stakeholder Engagement at Clean Technology Hub
Ifeoma Malo* is the CEO of Clean Technology Hub
