Although I was not personally affected in any way by the February 2nd 2011 power outages across Texas, the Texas State government has different feelings.
In a new article by the Texas Tribune posted today, the Texas Senate continued it's hearings today looking to hear explanations as to why these power plants failed all across Texas.
David Campbell, chief executive of Luminant said that his company had 11 power-plant units go down, four powered by coal, seven by natural gas, and said this was due to faulty instrumentation.
However, John Ragan, who heads the Texas operations of NRG Energy, said that they lost only one coal unit and had some problems getting full production out of some smaller gas plants, but still ran at more than 90% capacity.
Sen. Mike Jackson, had some critical words for Luminant, who couldn't believe that some of their coal-plants were some of the newest around, yet still faltered. "The brand new stuff ought to be the best."
Sen. Troy Fraser, head-chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee had some warning words to the energy companies. He stated that all of the companies have a seat at ERCOT, who is the Texas grid operator, and that he has always been worred at ERCOT because the marketing participants are always designing what the companies should do next. He expected the companies to at least put the proper measures into place to prevent accidents. "I would prefer a free-market solution if we can do it, but guys, we're here -- we're governing.
