2021 Texas Electricity Black-out Crisis: Root-cause Analysis and Recommendations

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the structure of the U.S power grid and various sources of electricity generation and potential vulnerabilities that the grid can face. We also discuss the role of Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization that is primarily responsible for managing electricity in Texas, and the sequence of events that led to the power crisis in Texas during February 2021. Finally, we do a root cause analysis for the power crisis and provide recommendations to minimize the impact of these type events on the Texas grid in the future.

The paper is organized as follows: In section one, we discuss the energy sources, how the electricity grid in America works, and some potential vulnerabilities of the power grid. Section two is entirely devoted to an explanation of how ERCOT works in Texas. In section three we discuss the events that took place in February 2021 that led to blackout.  In section four we discuss why did the events unfold and break down the causes.  We also discuss advantages and disadvantages of the current structural elements of Texas electricity industry.  In section five we offer some recommendations to remedy the situation.