The Texas 2021 Winter Blackout

Course Description

In February 2021, Texas experienced a winter storm that triggered the largest controlled firm load shed in U.S. history. This course examines what happened, why it happened, and what it means for grid reliability going forward. You'll work through the cascading failures—traced by FERC, NERC, and Regional Entity Staff—that left more than 4.5 million Texans without power for up to four days during extreme cold.

You'll explore Texas's electric grid structure and operation, including its unique characteristics and the challenges operators faced. You'll also review the human and economic impacts, regulatory and legislative responses, and recommendations for improving grid resilience to prevent similar events in the future.

This course equips you to anticipate vulnerabilities, implement winterization strategies, and prepare emergency response plans that protect public safety and infrastructure continuity.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify and explain the cascading failures that led to the February 2021 Texas winter blackout, including generation losses, natural gas supply disruptions, and grid operations challenges.

2. Analyze the unique characteristics of the Texas electric grid structure, including its limited interconnection capacity and implications for grid reliability during extreme weather events.

3. Apply lessons learned from the Texas blackout to develop comprehensive risk assessment strategies that account for cascading failures across interdependent energy systems.

4. Examine the operational challenges faced by ERCOT grid operators during the crisis and the critical decisions required to avoid complete grid collapse.