![\"Ice](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770981431_542_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Gabriel C. P\u00e9rez <\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
KUT News<\/p>\n
Ice sits on trees and power lines in South Austin during the winter storm of 2021. <\/p>\n
As the anniversary of that catastrophe arrives, people inevitably wonder what has changed with our state power grid, and some point to the performance in this most recent storm as a sign of improvement.<\/p>\n
But even as they look for progress, grid anxiety remains a fact of life in Texas.<\/p>\n
It also seems to be growing outside our state borders, as more Americans learn that their own regional energy systems may not be well prepared for the next big storm.<\/p>\n
No state blackouts for five years and counting.<\/p>\n
Despite days of freezing cold in some parts of the state last month, the Texas grid kept chugging along.<\/p>\n
If anything, the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, may have overestimated the impact of the freeze, forecasting a higher energy draw than actually took place during some moments of the long freeze.<\/p>\n
The relatively smooth ride in Texas was thanks, in part, to changes put in place after 2021\u2019s winter storm Uri overwhelmed the Texas grid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big fear on our end was these dropping temperatures and ice forcing generators offline,\u201d said Tim Ennis, an analyst with Grid Status, a platform that tracks the energy system.<\/p>\n
But, Ennis said, mandates to prepare power plants for cold weather seem to have paid off, keeping more energy flowing when it was needed most.<\/p>\n
“A lot of the lessons that we’ve learned in Uri, that in some ways were paid in blood, have […] been followed,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ennis also credits the proliferation of big grid-scale batteries for improving electric reliability. That\u2019s despite some state lawmakers’ attempts to curb battery growth<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Ennis and others are quick to add that no storm since 2021 has come close to Uri <\/a>when it comes to the extremes of temperature, weather and duration.<\/p>\n The most recent freeze was also just not as big.<\/p>\n Screenshot via ERCOT report<\/p>\n A graphic from an ERCOT report showing winter storm severity comparisons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn’t make it all the way down to the Mexican border,\u201d Josh Rhodes, a power grid researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, put it simply. \u201cThat made a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that no storm has approached the severity of Uri makes it difficult to say how much better prepared the Texas grid has become in the last five years.<\/p>\n Analysts say no one knows for sure until Texans experience a similar storm.<\/p>\n Plenty of grid challenges remain<\/p>\n While Texas has avoided another grid-wide power failure since 2021, it\u2019s also becoming clearer what has not been fixed.<\/p>\n For one, natural gas supplies to feed power plants remain highly unreliable in extreme cold.<\/p>\n In 2021, the drop in gas supply was a big contributor to power outages. In last month\u2019s freeze, production plummeted again, to lows not seen since the 2021 storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n That sudden gas scarcity in the face of desperate demand pushed gas prices to historic highs. It also renewed longstanding accusations that the natural gas industry practices a lucrative, and in some cases legal, form of market manipulation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe natural gas marketers know a thing or two about price gouging,\u201d energy economist Ed Hirs said after the recent freeze. \u201cIt\u2019s okay to call it that!\u201d<\/p>\n The drop off in gas production also came despite post-2021 promises to \u201cwinterize\u201d the Texas natural gas supply chain from state oil and gas regulators.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770981431_19_.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770981432_244_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n