 As winter storm Urie rolled through America, dropping temperatures drastically, Texas was hit hardest, leaving millions without running water and electricity. Broken pipes, property damage, and lives lost across Texas, as fingers are being pointed at leadership for their lack of preparation. UT Austin student Nikul Nagaraj recounts his experience. Yeah, so we don't have water for like four days because the pipes at the bottom floor burst. So we actually went downstairs and like in the garage there, there was like an open pipe like that and like broken and there was like water like gushing out. But this energy failure has just scratched the surface of America's energy infrastructure problems. To top the list, the American Society of Civil Engineers rated our energy grid a C minus, as much of the grid has passed its 50 year life expectancy. With America's energy grid having about 55,000 substations, 30 of these substations play a critical role in grid operations. And nine of these being offline could cause coast to coast blackouts for over 18 months and causing irreparable, immeasurable damage. As UC Berkeley students are accustomed to the occasional power outage, it may not come off as a surprise that the US has more power outages than any other developed country in the world. While these power outages continue to happen, updating our energy systems costs tons of money. And that makes private corporations unwilling to update their systems when they fail. Although our energy crisis seems insurmountable, researchers here at Berkeley are working on these very issues, pushing forward with renewable energy to diversify our energy outlets. We design, build and test power converters that convert energy in electrical form, ranging from things like solar inverters to convert DC energy from solar panels to the grid. We're seeing more and more renewable energy, certainly here in California, but also, in fact, Texas is a very big producer of wind energy. So I think that's something we're going to see more and more, and that's driven primarily by the cost. They are now the lowest cost energy source in many places to put in the grid. I'm Parker Lushoy, CalTV News.