http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticN...=22&sp=trueAccording to the above article, low wind speeds in West Texas caused less power to be fed to the grid; when demand for electricity went up because of lower temperatures, the combination caused a power shortage. One severe enough that the utilities cut power to some "interruptible" customers for about 90 minutes. Interruptible customers get a slightly lower rate in exchange for being willing to reduce power use when power shortages occur. Apparently it is fairly common for some industrial users who can shut down their processes with no problems.
Believe it or not, I think this is a good thing--These emergencies don't happen very often, and the companies that accepted the lower rate had accepted that they might have to do this. The "cool" thing about it is that it shows that wind-generated power is actually giving a significant proportion of electricity in at least one US state!
