As Texas Went Dark, the State Paid Natural-Gas Companies to Go Offline
Source: By Russell Gold and Katherine Blunt, Wall Street Journal • Posted: Sunday, May 9, 2021
A program meant to reduce industrial electricity use during emergencies contributed to power plants not getting fuel during February’s freeze
The Journal’s analysis of grid records shows that participants included dozens of critical pieces of natural-gas infrastructure. Ercot ordered them to stay off for more than four days, as gas prices surged to extraordinary levels and some power plants stopped producing electricity because they couldn’t get enough fuel to function.
The estimated value of the program for the five days of the blackout was about $2 billion—and participants including oil-and-gas companies earned a portion of that for turning themselves off at Ercot’s behest. Two companies petitioned Ercot for permission for idled facilities to come back sooner, the grid operator said. By the time they were allowed to restart, the crisis was nearly over.