Texas wind energy freeze-out shows need for better resource adequacy, says NRG VP

The underperformance of wind energy during a Feb. 1 winter storm in Texas compared to its effectiveness during winter storm Elliott in December demonstrates the need for energy systems to be resource adequate in all scenarios and create a market for reliability, says an industry official.

Travis Kavulla, NRG’s vice president for regulatory affairs, said the difference in performance had more to do with uncontrollable meteorological factors than anything else.

The Feb. 1 storm froze turbines and caused available wind capacity to drop as low as approximately 1,600 MW out of a total installed capacity of almost 37 GW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s fuel mix tracker.