I'm shocked that nobody has mentioned Enron in the context of grid collapse and insane spot market prices. Granted, Enron specifically manipulated markets to c

I'm shocked that nobody has mentioned Enron in the context of grid collapse and insane spot market prices. Granted, Enron specifically manipulated markets to create scarcity of supply, but the effect was the same: prices skyrocketed when electricity producers were unable to meet demand. In my view, electricity shouldn't count as a commodity. Virtually any other commodity in the world has some amount of buffer in the supply chain. Oil can be stored in tankers, grain in silos, etc. Electricity doesn't work like that. Production and consumption must always be in perfect balance. Sure, it's possible to address that by implementing grid scale batteries, but very few electricity grids in the world have done so. Australia is an exception, and the Telsa batteries are able to blunt a lot of the price gouging caused during periods of increased demand. I can't see Texas investing in batteries to create a diversity of supply given how hydrocarbon-centric the state is, especially if they can't even mandate the easy/cheap fixes to their existing infrastructure. Markets are great when they work, but governance matters when they fail.