The United States is known as the most powerful country in the world. Yet, a sudden drop in temperature in Texas due to a winter storm had caused a power outage that lasted for days. Three million people in Texas have to deal with outages since Monday and 30 people are dead due to the low temperature and lack of heating. 

It was said that the low temperature had caused power generators and natural gas pipes to freeze and the power plants must be offline to avoid grid failure. While 1.8 million homes’ power was restored on the third day, there were still 1.2 million homes which translate to 3.6 million people who have to freeze in the dark. 

The power outage had turned into a market crisis as crude oil production reduced by 4 million barrels per day – the most since 2017. Meanwhile, the gas shortage was so severe that sales of fuel from Texas to other states were banned. Thus, the energy prices surged causing more economic damage amidst the pandemic. 

How China prevented the crisis?

According to statistics, the US had 3,188 power outages during the 2008 to 2017 period and more than 3,000 happened in the past five years. Weather conditions often took the blame, but it also signifies a deep-rooted systemic issue in the US power grid.

China had the same size power grid but had prevented energy crisis from happening through constant maintenance and upgrades. China used the latest technology such as large-scale insulation sensors to monitor the grid construction to prevent harm from extreme weather conditions. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy reported that back in 2015, 70% of the power transformers and transmission lines in the US were 25 years and older while 60% of circuit breakers were 30 years and older. These aged grid system components caused higher failure rates.

Besides governance form an important factor too. US grid system operates under separate power networks by private companies with no national regulation or coordination. Thus, it is impossible to redirect power distribution from other states to Texas when the power outage occurred. China used a nationwide power grid network to have flexible energy allocation plans. 

As humans nowadays could not live without electricity, it is important to be aware of the power distribution crisis and ways to overcome it. As Malaysians, we should also be grateful that our power grid system does not need to withstand extreme weather conditions such as a winter storm.