Texas’ response to February’s unprecedented winter storm is in full swing, as the Texas Legislature and the state’s energy sector attempts to tackle prevention of the power grid failure in the future. Several media outlets are covering the topic, and helping interpret the impact for residents is Ann Bluntzer, Ph.D., acting director of the TCU Energy Institute and management professor at the Neeley School of Business.
“I’m pleased that our Legislature has taken some accountability and tried to put in some measures that are going to help protect the citizens and the consumers of our great state, but I do think this is a great opportunity for the conversation to continue,” she told Spectrum News.
With the hot summer temperatures and warnings from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to conserve energy, questions also began to arise about electricity in the current months.
“I think we’re not going to have the weatherization issues in summer,” Bluntzer told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “When you look at what really fell apart in February, a lot of it can be pointed to those centers were not properly weatherized, and that led to a lot of the failures.”
“In the summer, it’s not as big of an issue. I’m honestly not as worried about having a situation like we had in February in the summer."
As she discussed with WFAA and the ABC affiliate in Houston, the issues lie more with source of the power and the reliability of the power coming into the grid.
“That’s the real question that we’ve got to start asking ourselves,” she said.
Bluntzer has also recently completed interviews with CBS 11 and D Magazine.