Steve Verdon has a good post on power supply problems in Texas. I added a few comments, taken from memory after being out of the power industry for several years. Take them for what they’re worth. The blog is free, isn’t it?:

I’ve been out of the power industry for six years now, but, based on what I knew then, Texas has even more problems. Every time I heard about Texas during the deregulation of generation during the 90s, it was always followed with a comment about them not being hooked into the national grid. If still accurate, they have prevented themselves from benefiting from surplus capacity in other states. Extraordinarily dumb, not unlike California limiting their grid operators to the day ahead market and making long-term purchasing agreements illegal.