Preliminary Analysis of the 2·15 Power Outage in Texas, U.S. and Its Enlightenment to the Construction of China's Electricity Market

Abstract

From February 15 to 19, 2021, a rotating outage due to load-shed occurred in the power grid of Texas in the United States, causing widespread global concern. In this paper, an overview of the power grid and electricity market in Texas was introduced firstly. Then, this paper sorted out the occurrence and development process of the accident with time as the main line, and paid attention to the operation status of the electricity market during the accident period. Moreover, the causes of the three major problems such as imbalance between supply and demand, high electricity price, and financial crisis in the accident were analyzed. Finally, this paper summarized the experience and lessons of power outages, and put forward relevant enlightenments to the construction of China's electricity market.

Keywords

• u.s. power outage
• load-shed
• electricity market
• scarcity pricing