What Really Happened During the Texas Power Grid Outage?

Caption notes

In a 2021 account of the Texas winter storm, Practical Engineering explains how grid frequency can fall when demand rises and available generation declines. Grady Hillhouse describes emergency load shedding as a way to reduce demand and help stabilize the grid. He distinguishes that system-wide goal from what households experienced. In his account, some utilities ran out of other noncritical circuits to rotate through, leaving some households without power for an extended period.