1) No connection to outside grids for backup capacity. Have to maintain that dream of seceding from the union.
2) Their "free market" real time power auction punishes any provider who tries to plan for reserve capacity and extreme events. They are sure to lose out in this auction to those that don't.
3) During extreme events, power prices spike through the roof so people couldn't pay their bill even if they had power. But now government has interfered in this "free market" and set limits on this. Communists!
https://www.kltv.com/2021/02/18/gov-greg-abbott-provide-upda...
...the Governor announced he is requesting a Major Disaster Declaration — which includes Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program — from the White House.
I'd argue there is a bit of an anti fragility element here. The fact that the approximate black swan event did occur absolutely forced changes throughout. I'd agree things are probably still not ideal but the power grid is about engineering and tradeoffs.
Consider this game theory: Why would Samsung continue to aggressively construct semiconductor factories in Taylor, TX after having suffered a 7-8 figure wafer scrap incident due to the very same grid outage? I can assure you of one thing: There is no way in hell they are running those factories using standby generation, UPS, etc.