On February 16, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) announced that they will open a joint inquiry into bulk-power system operations during the polar vortex that has hit states in the Midwest and central South.[1] FERC and NERC will investigate all regions impacted by the polar vortex, including the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). The severe weather across the Midwest, Oklahoma and Texas, which began on February 11, 2021, led to a spike in demand on the night of February 14, 2021. Coinciding with this event, there was a drop in supply. As a result, ERCOT, SPP, and MISO directed generators to begin rolling blackouts starting on February 14, 2021 in order to avoid negative system impacts.
On February 14, 2021, President Biden declared a state of emergency in Texas and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.[2] On February 16, 2021, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott (R), directed his state's legislature to investigate ERCOT following the outages.[3] According to officials, increased electricity demand due to the extreme weather, limited gas supplies, frozen wind turbines, and frozen thermal plant instrumentation lines equipment were the major contributors to rolling blackouts across ERCOT.[4] According to a news release from ERCOT on February 18, 2021, roughly 40,000 MW of generation, including 23,500 MW of thermal generation, remains on forced outage due to the extreme weather event.[5]
[1] https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-nerc-open-joint-inquiry-2021-cold-weather-grid-operations
[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/14/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-texas-emergency-declaration/
[3] https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-declares-ercot-reform-an-emergency-item