Last week wasn’t a very good one for Texas. Like much of the U.S., Texas was affected by unusually cold winter weather—fueled by a shift in the upper-atmosphere’s jet stream that we’ve come to refer to as a polar vortex. The storm has been named Winter Storm Uri. There remains debate about whether the polar vortex phenomenon is a direct result of climate change—most climate scientists argue that there is a strong causal relationship.

Unlike most other states, though, Texas seemed extraordinarily unprepared for the punishing cold, snow, and ice. The storm system was exceptional, but the state’s lack of resilience still seemed odd. I think of Texas as a state of rugged individualism and self-sufficiency.

It’s not like winter storms are new. I remember spinning a 180 on I-40 in my Datsun pick-up truck when I was driving through Amarillo on my way back to New Mexico in the late-1970s. And about a month ago, I remember news that aberrations in the jet stream over the Arctic this winter would likely result in severe conditions in the Lower-48.

Power generation infrastructure unsuited to extreme cold

It turns out that, in an expression of that rugged independence, Texas had avoided typical regulation of their power generation. To avoid federal regulation, they kept the state’s power grid isolated from the nation’s regional power grids, and that decision came back to bite them. In most places, the regional grid allows power to be sent across state lines during power disruptions—an important piece of resilience.

Here’s how journalist Richard Parker described the problem in a February 17^th article in the New York Times:

“The crisis dates back to the 1930s, when the Federal Power Commission gained the authority to regulate interstate transmission of electric power. But politicians in Texas, with their slavish devotion to the fossil fuel industry, didn’t want Washington regulating the electricity business and chipping away at those hefty profits.”

In the 1970s, Texas finally regulated the power industry, through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), but Parker describes that as more of an industry club that has been ineffective at true regulation.

The bigger problem was that many of the power generation plants in Texas (and some other states) weren’t properly weatherized. Gauges, pipes and other components froze up and power plants shut down. Or natural gas pipelines weren’t properly weatherized and they froze—natural gas, as it comes out of the ground, includes a lot of other components, such as water vapor, and freezing can occur.

Even many (but not all) wind turbines shut down in the cold. A lot has been said of the state’s wind turbines doing poorly in the cold, with Fox News commentators Texas Governor Greg Abbott blaming renewable energy on the state’s power woes. (Texas is the largest wind power producer in the U.S., with over 28,000 MW of installed capacity—almost three times that of Iowa, the second-largest producer.)

The wind power industry knows very well how to build wind turbines that can operate in extremely cold weather, as evidenced by successful wind farms in cold places like Minnesota, but even in colder climates, exceptional conditions can result in ice accumulation on the blades that will throw them off-balance and cause damage—so, indeed, some of them shut down in Texas.

An even bigger problem for much of Texas—and some other places in the South—was the loss of potable water. With extremely cold weather a lot of pipes burst. When pipes fail in homes a lot of flooding results, damaging those houses and contents. But leaking pipes, including water mains, also results in reduced water pressure through the water distribution system. Many places lost water altogether. Other areas saw water pressure drop significantly, requiring boil-water orders to be imposed for safety reasons.

Well over a week later, many Texas locations are still without water or under boil-water orders.  

Resilience lessons from the deep freeze

Below are a few recommendations for enhancing resilience to extreme winter weather. This isn’t a comprehensive list; consider it a starting point for the conversations we need to have not just in Texas, but in communities throughout the country as we try to build a more resilient future.

1. Prepare for colder winter weather. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D., of Texas Tech University, likes to refer to the climate change we are seeing as “global weirding” due to its many odd, and even counterintuitive, impacts. More extreme winter weather, due to the polar vortex, is as example of that weirding. Even as the Earth is warming dramatically, changes in atmospheric circulation patterns, can push Arctic weather south, as we have seen this winter.

While we should be modeling energy performance of buildings based on expected future weather conditions—including longer, hotter summers—we should maintain, or even reduce winter design temperatures. Our heating systems need to be designed to handle the coldest expected temperatures, and those coldest temperatures may be lower than we have been assuming.

2. Keep pipes within the building envelope. In all of the continental United States, a building’s water pipes should be kept within the building’s insulated envelope. This is second nature in my part of the country, but in many areas—including a lot of Texas—it’s not unusual to run water pipes through unheated crawl spaces, attics, or even outdoors.

If there is piping outdoors in locations where winter freezing is rare—to outdoor showers or pools, for example, include drain valves at the low points in those plumbing lines so that the pipes can be drained in advance of a predicted freeze.

3. Insulate buildings. To protect pipes from freezing and keep occupants safe in cold weather during power outages, significant insulation should be provided in all homes, even in warmer climates where insulation is often absent or minimal. The table below shows recommended insulation levels for building envelopes, including windows and doors and airtightness from the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and from BuildingGreen (where I hang my other hat and authored the BuildingGreen Guide to Insulation).

While protecting pipes from freezing, high levels of insulation will also help to reduce energy consumption in hot weather—by reducing heat gain from the exterior—and it will help to maintain thermal habitability in the event of an extended power outage (passive survivability).

4. Store water for emergency use. Unless you live in a rural area and have access to a spring or a well with a backup generator or hand pump, it makes sense to store water. Keeping several carboys or potable water in a closet or other dark location (keeping light away from stored water will prevent algae growth) is one effective approach. Another option is to fill bathtubs with water in advance of an expected power outage, though such outages are often hard to predict.

5. In rural areas, consider an alternative water source. At our Vermont farm, we are lucky to have a spring that runs year-round from which I can draw water if we lose power and can’t operate our deep-well pump. A hand pump that fits into the same well as a submersible pump is another option, especially in rural locations that are not served by municipal water. Rainwater harvesting with an underground or freeze-protected cistern is another option in some parts of the country, though filtering will typically be required for potable uses.

6. Weatherize power generation systems. Just as we should design our buildings to maintain functionality in extreme weather conditions, so too should we design our power systems to maintain operation under extreme conditions. There may be some situations in which the impacts are so severe that operation is impaired—such as extreme icing of windmill blades during ice storms—but there may even be solutions for dealing with such situations (in that example, de-icing technologies, or even electric resistance heating of wind turbine blades).

With centralized power plants, the instrumentation, controls, fuel supply systems, and other components should be designed to handle extreme conditions. If freezing of coal or wood chip piles prevents feed augers from operating (as occurred with coal-fired power plants in Texas), that coal storage should be kept covered to keep it from getting wet and freezing.

7. Invest in backup power. A lot of problems can be solved with backup electricity during extended power outages. Even small amounts of backup power—as can be provided with the simple, portable battery systems that I described in this article—make it possible to keep cell phones charged and provide limited lighting. Somewhat larger battery backup systems, such as Tesla’s PowerWall, can be used to power the electrical components of fuel-fired heating systems (almost all heating systems require electricity for fuel pumps, fans, thermostats, and other components), along with refrigerators and freezers.

Conventional (fuel-fired) backup generators can be portable or stationary, and models are available using natural gas, propane, gasoline, or diesel fuel. With portable units, proper placement and operation is critical for safety reasons. This RDI primer on backup power provides a good overview of options.

8. Weatherize and protect the distribution of electricity and natural gas. In the devastating ice storm of January 1998 in northern New England and eastern Canada, 30,000 utility poles and 130 high-voltage power distribution towers came down due to 3-4 inches of ice accumulation that occurred over a five-day period, knocking out power to 4 million utility customers. Ice accumulation didn’t get as bad in Texas this February, but power distribution designers should be taking such risks into consideration. A very different situation occurred in California in 2019 and 2020 when we saw utility companies proactively shutting down the power grid due to the risk that power distribution lines would cause wildfires.

Will risks of ice damage or wildfires lead us to burying power distribution lines? Perhaps. Will that increase costs? Probably. The U.S. power grid is in need of significant upgrading, especially as the fraction of our electricity supplied by distributed renewables increases. As the grid is being upgraded—or redesigned—enhancing its resilience should be a top priority.

If extreme cold caused natural gas pipelines to freeze (due to water vapor and other impurities in the natural gas), those pipelines should be redesigned to maintain functionality under those conditions. Natural gas pipelines in colder regions must include those protections already. If this increases the cost of delivering natural gas, so be it; this is an embedded cost of resilient natural gas supply.

9. Educate the public about hypothermia and carbon monoxide risks. More than 70 deaths have been attributed to the recent winter storm, with causes ranging from hypothermia to heart attacks while shoveling snow, falls, and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. With the latter, between February 15^th and 17^th, Texas hospitals and health providers saw more than 700 visits for CO poisoning, according to the New York Times, and at least a handful of deaths. Some of the problems were caused by homeowners operating backup generators in garages or other spaces without adequate ventilation. Others were caused by people running their cars with the heat on to keep warm—often with the car in the garage. Still others tried to keep warm by operating charcoal grills indoors. A public awareness campaign is needed to explain how to keep safe during extreme winter weather and how to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

10. Enhance community resilience. While we should do what we can to help homeowners and renters improve the resilience of their homes and apartments, we also need to look out for those unable to help themselves. Emergency shelters providing secure, heated, and air-conditioned refuge during extreme winter or summer conditions should be planned in our communities. We should invest in resilience hubs where residents can obtain potable water, charge their cell phones, and communicate with family and loved ones via WiFi.

And we should work to build stronger community connections through which we get to know our neighbors and support one-another. Your next-door neighbor may be your first responder in the next disaster. Think about how to build a stronger community in your neighborhood, your city block, or your town.

Final thoughts

Winter Storm Uri that slammed Texas and much of the rest of the country with extreme winter weather this February demonstrated the need to address resilience. As the ten recommendations offered here illustrate, resilience comes into play at multiple scales. Within our homes we need to think about preventing frozen pipes and safely keeping warm. In our communities we need to think about water supply, the power grid, and protecting those who are at risk. In our regions we need to reinvest in a more resilient power grid that will serve the needs of a post-fossil-fuel future.

With all of these strategies, we will need to work together to succeed. The winter storm last week won’t be the last disaster to strike, and it won’t be the worst. Achieving resilience will depend on understanding the growing vulnerabilities we face and working together to respond to them. While the challenges will be many and the costs great, the need to work together in surmounting the obstacles and finding solutions gives me a sense of optimism. We need to unite in common purpose and transcend the partisan divisions that separate us. Working together to enhance resilience can bring us together—just as our country united during World War II.

#          #          #          #          #

Along with founding the Resilient Design Institute in 2012, Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. To keep up with his latest articles and musings, you can sign up for his Twitter feed. To receive e-mail notices of new blogs, use the form on the right to sign up.