Climate Adaptation
Texas Was Warned a Decade Ago Its Grid Was Unready for Cold
- Grid regulators investigated cold snap in 2011 that cut power
- Federal recommendations to avoid repeat incident went unheeded
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Federal regulators warned Texas that its power plants couldn’t be counted on to reliably churn out electricity in bitterly cold conditions a decade ago, when the last deep freeze plunged 4 million people into the dark.
They recommended that utilities use more insulation, heat pipes and take other steps to winterize plants -- strategies commonly observed in cooler climates but not in normally balmy Texas.