It seems to me that the problem stems from the usually working system that pays power companies only as they supply power and not in any way for additional capacity that might not be in use but may be required. The incentive for power companies is thus to provide power by the cheapest means and actually look forward to times of power shortages because the price they receive rises considerably.
There is no incentive to have additional capacity ready to make more power and so lower the price they receive. Why build a power plant that may sit idle most of the year and whose only effect when in use is to lower the peak price they receive when demand is high and reaching their capacity to supply?
A simple blackout starts a cascade of effects as people switch to alternative energies to heat their houses. Gas heaters turning on at the same time slows supplies down (in addition to frozen well heads etc) and pressure drops allowing the possibility of air to bypass valves which prevent this at normal pressures. Texas avoided explosions as well as freezing and blackouts by sheer luck as pressure falls were allowed to continue in the hope it would all work out. It was assessed that a few blown up neighbourhoods was less damage than shutting off the gas early. Shutting off gas could take weeks to restart. Frozen houses get burst pipes, basements flood, things ice over, then every furnace and gas line needs to be individually cleaned and inspected…
I’ve read Texas was seconds and minutes away from a catastrophic failure which would have taken weeks or months to restart. Venezuela had one that took weeks to restart.
Lots of interesting lessons in this one. I hope we all learn from it. Wind power did this to Texas. Be very afraid of a Green New Deal.