Texas wind power companies were not required to install the "cold weather" package on wind turbines. That package includes powerful defrosters. It was wrongly not considered necessary in Texas.
Texas power stations were also not required to have sufficient cold weather preparedness.
Likewise, Texas grid infrastructure.
But hardly noticed by anyone is that the Rolling Blackouts did not roll out very well. I got rolling blackouts for most of Monday February 15, and they were not fun but tolerable. I could still get by and get things done. I was not trembling in the dark in fear. You could tell these rolling blackouts were deliberate because they lasted 15 minutes on and off, very consistently. I would have preferred 30 or 60 minutes on/off because I think my heat pump would work better. In 15 minutes my heat pump has barely warmed up.
But on Tuesday February 16, I got hit with a 31 hour sustained outage. In below freezing temperatures, high winds, and with no other source of heat. With no word about restoration. I couldn't go anywhere, because roads were icy, and even if I did go somewhere, there would be nothing to see except empty store shelves (for any store actually open) and mega expensive motel rooms. Ultimately, my fairly well insulated home temperature fell to 57 degrees F. People with drafty homes could see lower inside temperatures. I heard of one person whose home got to 42 degrees after 14 hours of disconnection. I survived OK, but if this had kept up for another few days, I don't know what would have happened.
Other people I know didn't experience any rolling blackouts at all. Just very long and very short outages.
It's clear that however the rolling blackouts were supposed to work, they did not work.
Rolling blackouts should not be necessary, but when they are, they should work.
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