Analysis by Energy Workforce President Tim Tarpley
The US power grid held up fairly well as a major winter storm moved across the country over the weekend. While there are some scattered outages in northern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the overall grid performed as expected for the most part. The Trump Administration had anticipated stress on the grid and gave PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, permission to operate at full tilt regardless of pollution considerations. As of Monday, around 810,000 customers across the country were without power. There were some notable price spikes after the storm, with Next-day prices in New England soaring to about 82% to $313 per megawatt hour, while PJM West prices in Pennsylvania and Maryland soared to 360%, the highest rise since January 2014.
The Texas grid, which faced a significant test during the last major winter storm, Uri, seemed to hold up fairly well. Texas lucked out, as the ice mostly missed Houston, and San Antonio had only minimal impacts. DFW and Austin did get significant impacts; however, the grid held up well. While there were around two dozen reports of upsets at natural gas processing plants and compressor stations in Texas, this paled in comparison to the more than 200 reported upsets during the first five days of Uri in 2021.
US oil production did take a bit of a hit, with estimates figuring that we lost up to 2 million barrels per day or roughly 15% of national production, over the weekend. Outages peaked on Saturday, the storm’s worst day, with the Permian Basin accounting for the largest share of that decline at around 1.5 million barrels per day. On Monday, things started to pick back up, with shut-ins estimated at only 700,000 barrels per day, with the hope of being fully restored by Jan. 30th. North Dakota faced a similar decline, with production expected to be down around 80,000 to 110,000 bpd as of Monday morning. This significant test comes at a time when Congress continues to consider permitting reform amid significant power projection demands on the US grid. The SPEED Act passed out of the House before Christmas break, and the Senate continues to work on its own separate package.
Tim Tarpley, Energy Workforce President, analyzes federal policy for the Energy Workforce & Technology Council. Click here to subscribe to the Energy Workforce newsletter, which highlights sector-specific issues, best practices, activities and more.
