JUST A MATTER OF POOR GOVERNANCE:

[T]he state still hasn't fixed the critical problem that paralyzed his plants: maintaining a sufficient supply of natural gas, Morgan said.

Natural gas slowed to a trickle during the storm, leaving the Midlothian facility and 13 other Vistra power plants that run on gas without enough fuel. The shortage forced Vistra to pay more than $1.5 billion on the spot market for whatever gas was available, costing it in a matter of days more than twice what it usually spends in an entire year. Even then, plants were able to operate at only a small fraction of their capacities; the Midlothian facility ran at 30 percent during the height of the storm. 

"Why couldn't we get it?" Morgan asked recently. "Because the gas system was not weatherized. And so we had natural gas producers that weren't producing."

If another major freeze hits Texas this winter, "the same thing could happen," Morgan said in an interview.

The predicament in Midlothian reflects a glaring shortcoming in Texas' efforts to prevent a repeat of February, when a combination of freezing temperatures across the state and skyrocketing demand shut down natural gas facilities and power plants, which rely on one another to keep electricity flowing. The cycle of failures sent economic ripples across the country that cost hundreds of billions of dollars. 

The power and gas industries say they are working to make their systems more reliable during winter storms, and the Public Utility Commission, the state agency that regulates the power industry, finally acted on recommendations that federal regulators made a decade ago after another severe winter storm. 

But energy experts say Texas' grid remains vulnerable, largely because new regulations allowed too much wiggle room for companies to avoid weatherization improvements that can take months or years. More than nine months after February's storm -- which could exceed Hurricane Harvey as the costliest natural disaster in state history -- a lack of data from regulators and industry groups makes it impossible to know how many power and gas facilities are properly weatherized. 

Many energy providers, like Vistra, are preparing their plants for extreme weather to prevent a repeat of last winter's power problems.Shelby Tauber / The Texas Tribune

For millions of Texans, that means there is no assurance that they will have electricity and heat if there is another major freeze. 

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