People are exaggerating a bit here. Texas ran out of power in 2021, and before that in 2011. These were totally unacceptable events to be sure, but I'm not sure once every 10 years qualifies as "common".
People might be confused a bit because there are usually several close calls over the year where supply is projected to outstrip demand, but the problem usually resolves when they go bribe some bitcoin mines to turn off. (Ugh.)
And I never said a single thing about "running out of power," because that wasn't the issue in most areas. The power infrastructure was physically damaged. The state is on its own grid, refuses to winterize, and people also carried on in their households as if it were a normal day, which overloaded local transformers.
It took me a week to regain power in 2021 because the transformer blew behind my house on Valentine's Day and Oncor would keep sending trucks with technicians who didn't realize they had access to the transformer via the giant vacant lot behind it. Instead of doing the intelligent thing and calling to ask for a frame of reference, they would cancel the report. They did this for days while the temperatures were near zero.
Dallas had a week-long blackout in some areas a week ago. We had an almost day's long power outage in January in some areas. This is becoming a common occurrence in the area due to severe weather.
People might be confused a bit because there are usually several close calls over the year where supply is projected to outstrip demand, but the problem usually resolves when they go bribe some bitcoin mines to turn off. (Ugh.)
(I live in Austin, TX.)