Actually, it's because Texas retired reliable sources of electricity from coal and natural gas for unreliable "green energy".
The New York Times as usual just leaves that part out, here:
The regulator forecast demand in Texas to peak at 79,671 megawatts, just short of the 80,168 megawatts that will be available.
That's a forecast margin of just 497 megawatts.
Texas has retired 6,453 megawatts of coal generation capacity since 2017 and added 3,945 megawatts of wind generation capacity.
In addition Texas has retired 2,316 megawatts of natural gas generation capacity since 2008 and added 3,425 megawatts of solar generation capacity since 2010.
Not only is Texas short a net 1,399 megawatts of generation capacity over the period, if the wind doesn't blow it's potentially short another 3,945 megawatts, and another 3,425 megawatts if the sun don't shine.
Way to go, Brownie.
