Kristen, it wasn't the electricity generation plants that froze, but wellheads and distribution equipment - where the gas comes out of the ground.

Gas burned in Texas power plants is typically extracted as it's used - it's cheaper than storing it in tanks. But because the fuel source is often far away it's prone to disruptions, especially ones caused by bad weather throughout the state. With wind variable by its very nature, it's not hard to see why outages in Texas were an accident waiting to happen.

Southern California is as dependent on Texas gas as Texas is! The fuel supply for all power plants in the area comes from El Paso through two parallel 40" pipes that cross through New Mexico and Arizona.

Once in California they cross the infamous San Andreas Fault in two places. Within the next 20 years the the Pacific Plate is expected to shift northward along the fault by up to 7 meters, in a massive earthquake that occurs roughly every 150 years. When the pipelines rupture, analysts expect all of Southern California will lose both its gas and electricity for several weeks.

This is a classic cost-benefit issue.  Reliable electricity can be provided just about anywhere, however building out a more resilient electricity system comes at a cost which could be a 10% or 15% increase in utility bills.  Are Texas consumers prepared to pay the additional cost of ensuring electricity availability of 99.9% or whatever number deemed  acceptable?  As a guide to reliability of supply, the British Grid which is considered to be reliable nevertheless produces customer interruption figures of perhaps 50 interruptions per 100 customers per year.  In comparison British natural gas supply is approximately 25 times more dependable with customer interruption statistics of perhaps 2 interruptions per 100 customer per year. 

It’s a philosophical question, does a state provide close to 100% security of supply for most consumers which will result in high taxes and utility bills, or should individuals chose to pay less taxes and have lower utility bills but be more self-reliant?  For example should a warm to hot weather state invest many millions of dollars in frost proofing the electricity system awaiting a 1 in 30-year snow event, or should individuals just take more personal responsibility by having some back-up food in the house, good insulation, a connection to the natural gas supply, a generator with a good supply of fresh gas, and a secondary source of heat be that a log fire or portable gas heaters plus a few spare tanks?  Take your pick, higher taxes and charges, or lower bills and a degree of self-responsibility.  What’s not possible is low costs, no self-responsibility, and a highly reliable home energy situation.