# Who Messed with Texas's Electricity?

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/who-messed-with-texass-electricity>

**By** Peter Van Doren, Trevor Burrus, Aaron Ross Powell

**Published:** April 2, 2021

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Fan favorite, Peter Van Doren, returns to explain to us what exactly happened to the power grid in Texas during their unusually cold weather.

## Shownotes:

Alternating current electricity systems require that demand equals supply in real-time. Any supply-demand imbalance must be remedied in minutes to avoid collapse of the system that would take weeks to repair. And the Texas system was very close to collapse. So why did the Texas blackouts occur when the weather was bitter cold?

Could a free market electricity system work? What is the rate of return on regulated utilities? Why are all power companies monopolies?

## Further Reading:

[Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Texas Electricity Meltdown](https://www.cato.org/blog/some-preliminary-thoughts-texas-electricity-meltdown?queryID=5b9592b9dce58b00c38af25d8bebcd1e), written by Peter Van Doren