> This is the sort of thing we should have some baseline regulations to support -- critical infrastructure should be designed to support a temperature range of X to Y, where X is a record cold times some factor and Y is a record heat times some factor.

Meanwhile the folks in the El Paso area (which is not regulated/managed by ERCOT) are going just fine:

> El Paso Electric said they always try to prepare for the future and after a winter storm in 2011, the utility company worked towards replacing and upgrading their equipment. Many generators now have antifreeze protection.

* https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2021/02/15/el-pasos-not-seeing...

The first step is making sure you have regulators who are somewhat clued in.

Of course being hooked up to the national grid could be useful as well, so as to allow for energy inputs when your own infrastructure is having problems. Though that would mean dealing with the Feds, which seems to be undesirable:

> Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry says that Texans find massive power outages preferable to having more federal government interference in the state's energy grid.

* https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/rick-perry-says-texans-woul...