System Failure - Texas Blackout of 2021

In System Failure - Texas Blackout of 2021, you'll learn ...

• What happened to the Texas natural gas and electric systems during the February 2021 winter storm
• The electric utility structure in Texas and the system conditions, planning, and preparation for winter events
• How an electric system responds to extreme events
• Lessons learned from this event that are pertinent to not only Texas but the entire U.S. electric system.

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 5 CPD

Length: 87 pages

For almost eleven days in February of 2021, the entire state of Texas was at risk of losing electric power and natural gas to millions of customers.

This event was caused by exceptional long-lasting and widespread cold weather as well as a lack of preparation for an extreme cold weather event.

This course explains what happened to the Texas natural gas and electric systems during this winter storm and the resulting lessons learned that may help minimize the impacts of future events.

• Chapter One describes the system conditions, planning, and preparation for winter events.
• Chapter Two describes the status of the electric and gas facilities leading up to the event.
• Chapter Three is a timeline of activities and issues for the period of February 8th through the 13th.
• Chapter Four continues the timeline describing the activities during the most critical period of the event, which was from February 14th through the 19th.
• Chapter Five provides key findings and recommendations to prevent or minimize the impact of future winter storms.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the electric utility structure in Texas.
• Classify the types of generation resources available in Texas.
• Categorize the uniqueness of the Texas electric utility structure.
• Explain how the natural gas industry prepares for winter weather.
• Analyze the shortcomings of ERCOT winter planning assessments.
• Apply the processes used by ERCOT to maintain stability.
• Describe the energy emergency alert protocols.
• Assess the components of the natural gas supply system and its weaknesses.
• Illustrate how natural gas outages progressed during the event.
• Demonstrate how wind turbine generators were impacted by the event.
• Examine how natural gas-fired generators were impacted by the event.
• Evaluate the importance of frequency control for system stability.
• Trace how ERCOT operators were able to avoid a complete system failure.
• Compare lessons learned from this event.
• Differentiate what needs to be done to minimize a reoccurrence of the event.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 30 questions. CPD credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.