2023 Spring Meeting and 19th Global Congress on Process Safety

(146f) What the Processing Industry Must Learn from the February 2021 Texas Power Outages

Author

Richard Carter - Presenter, ACM Facility Safety Inc.
In February of 2021, the U.S. State of Texas was impacted by a severe cold weather event which caused the disruption of electricity supply to over 4.5 million people during a period of below-freezing temperatures. The low temperatures caused disruptions to primary electricity generating units and also to backup systems. This resulted in over 65,000MW of unplanned generation outage, more than four times as large as the previous largest event in 2011.

The people impact of this event was catastrophic. Out of the 246 fatalities confirmed to be related to the winter storm, most were directly related to loss of electric power; 186 people died from hypothermia or exacerbation of pre-existing illnesses, and 29 people died from fires or carbon monoxide poisoning caused by alternate sources of heat such as space heaters and fuel-burning equipment.

This paper will discuss the sequence of events that led to this disruption, and the reasons that the initial upsets grew into such a far-reaching and impactful event, with the purpose of finding the lessons that the processing industry must learn to prevent catastrophic scenarios in their facilities. These lessons include:

  • Planning and preparedness for emergencies and unplanned situations
  • Identification and management of potential cascading failures, also known as the “domino effect”
  • Adequate redundancy and separation between normally-operating systems and backup or safeguarding systems
  • Understanding of potential hazards of backup systems
  • Public communication and community involvement

These lessons are directly applicable to the processing industry. By understanding and applying these lessons, operating companies and facilities can be better prepared to respond to unplanned or extreme situations and save lives, assets and production, and the environment.