Four Huge Power-Plant Upsets Pushed Texas to Brink of Blackouts

摘要

The nearly simultaneous shutdown of four gigantic power plants in Texas - capable of powering almost 1 million homes - drove the region to the brink of yet another energy crisis thisweek as temperatures soared, according to data analyzed by Bloomberg.All told, generators across the second-largest U.S. state were either down for repairs or running at reduced capacity when triple-digit heat was baking Texas, according to data compiled byWood Mackenzie Ltd.’s Genscape unit. But the biggest impacts came from just a handful of facilities: a Vistra Corp.-owned 1.15-gigawatt nuclear reactor, and three other giant facilitiesowned by Talen Energy Corp. and NRG Energy Inc.“We can’t really afford to lose a gig of capacity heading into an extreme weather event,” said Rebecca Miller, a Wood Mackenzie analyst, using industry shorthand for “gigawatt.”