Another example of extreme weather having an extreme impact on utilities. But in this case, republicans are smart enough to blame the green new deal. Of course windmills do not work in the extreme cold, just ask Denmark. Truth is, Texas prides itself on bucking regulations and the federal govt, and in this case, built its own power grid its own way, and takes full accountability when it crashes 

/s


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi4kMrI_vDuAhVRnOAKHeYiD0MQFjAsegQIUxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.texastribune.org%2F2021%2F02%2F16%2Ftexas-wind-turbines-frozen%2F&usg=AOvVaw3tS9qZT8av9gfmeEbIVDPU

Lerxst1992 said:

Another example of extreme weather having an extreme impact on utilities. But in this case, republicans are smart enough to blame the green new deal. Of course windmills do not work in the extreme cold, just ask Denmark. Truth is, Texas prides itself on bucking regulations and the federal govt, and in this case, built its own power grid its own way, and takes full accountability when it crashes 

/s


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi4kMrI_vDuAhVRnOAKHeYiD0MQFjAsegQIUxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.texastribune.org%2F2021%2F02%2F16%2Ftexas-wind-turbines-frozen%2F&usg=AOvVaw3tS9qZT8av9gfmeEbIVDPU

and the fox news lemmings will just lap it up like everything else they are fed. 

Living in a part of Texas that actually has 4 seasons we have experienced very little disturbance from this latest storm. I have friends in Dallas and Austin who have been without power for 30+ hours, thermostats showing inside temperatures of 45-50 degrees. Once you drop off of the Caprock and head east the state is not prepared to experience temperatures like this.

brianlux said:

FiveBelow said:

Living in a part of Texas that actually has 4 seasons we have experienced very little disturbance from this latest storm. I have friends in Dallas and Austin who have been without power for 30+ hours, thermostats showing inside temperatures of 45-50 degrees. Once you drop off of the Caprock and head east the state is not prepared to experience temperatures like this.

I read somewhere that most of Texas is powered through ERCOT  (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) which manages the deregulated market for energy for something like 75% of the state and that the areas not serviced by ERGOT have gotten through this cold snap generally much better than those who are tied into ERCOT.  Sounds like ERCOT is not managing things there very well.

Yes, our area is on SPP (Southwest Power Pool). I get the frustration about ERCOT but this is also not a common weather event for the majority of the state and since they switched from coal burning plants to natural gas (which was a good move) unfortunately without the full production of renewable energy there is nothing to supplement the shortage. A return to normal temperatures for those areas is key so the renewable energy pool is back.

FiveBelow said:

brianlux said:

FiveBelow said:

Living in a part of Texas that actually has 4 seasons we have experienced very little disturbance from this latest storm. I have friends in Dallas and Austin who have been without power for 30+ hours, thermostats showing inside temperatures of 45-50 degrees. Once you drop off of the Caprock and head east the state is not prepared to experience temperatures like this.

I read somewhere that most of Texas is powered through ERCOT  (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) which manages the deregulated market for energy for something like 75% of the state and that the areas not serviced by ERGOT have gotten through this cold snap generally much better than those who are tied into ERCOT.  Sounds like ERCOT is not managing things there very well.

Yes, our area is on SPP (Southwest Power Pool). I get the frustration about ERCOT but this is also not a common weather event for the majority of the state and since they switched from coal burning plants to natural gas (which was a good move) unfortunately without the full production of renewable energy there is nothing to supplement the shortage. A return to normal temperatures for those areas is key so the renewable energy pool is back.

Hopefully they winterize all of the generator stations after this. Blaming windmills is ridiculous as some have done.  There are windmills in use in plenty of places that are winterized and so don’t get stressed with this type of event.  It’s a massive failure and if they don’t invest in improvements it will happen again, but hey what’s a handful of folks dead and thousands out of work of the shareholders get profit from their deregulated market.   I’m going on 60+hrs, no heat no power.  Foraging in the green belt for dead logs to process into firewood.. government failure and private business failure big time.

static111 said:

FiveBelow said:

brianlux said:

FiveBelow said:

Living in a part of Texas that actually has 4 seasons we have experienced very little disturbance from this latest storm. I have friends in Dallas and Austin who have been without power for 30+ hours, thermostats showing inside temperatures of 45-50 degrees. Once you drop off of the Caprock and head east the state is not prepared to experience temperatures like this.

I read somewhere that most of Texas is powered through ERCOT  (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) which manages the deregulated market for energy for something like 75% of the state and that the areas not serviced by ERGOT have gotten through this cold snap generally much better than those who are tied into ERCOT.  Sounds like ERCOT is not managing things there very well.

Yes, our area is on SPP (Southwest Power Pool). I get the frustration about ERCOT but this is also not a common weather event for the majority of the state and since they switched from coal burning plants to natural gas (which was a good move) unfortunately without the full production of renewable energy there is nothing to supplement the shortage. A return to normal temperatures for those areas is key so the renewable energy pool is back.

Hopefully they winterize all of the generator stations after this. Blaming windmills is ridiculous as some have done.  There are windmills in use in plenty of places that are winterized and so don’t get stressed with this type of event.  It’s a massive failure and if they don’t invest in improvements it will happen again, but hey what’s a handful of folks dead and thousands out of work of the shareholders get profit from their deregulated market.   I’m going on 60+hrs, no heat no power.  Foraging in the green belt for dead logs to process into firewood.. government failure and private business failure big time.

I haven't watched the news since all of this has taken place, but I did receive an informative text message from my electric provider. It did mention the turbines and solar shortages were partly to blame along with how many homes are on natural gas now which is the only other way to power these plants. Supply and demand in a nutshell. What is confusing about your area is how long they have been down, we were warned that if it got bad enough they would do controlled rolling blackouts to combat the issue. No power for 60 hours is insane. It makes me wonder if our area does winterize the equipment since we get 3-4 storms like this each winter and that is why we are not facing the same situation, who knows.

Meltdown99 said:

It’s called freakish weather.  You do not design your electrical grid fro a freakish storm...

The wimps without power and are whining will survive.  My in laws lived through the kingston ice storm with no power for days with 2 little ones...

They are all alive with awesome stories...

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1785475133

FiveBelow said:

static111 said:

FiveBelow said:

brianlux said:

FiveBelow said:

Living in a part of Texas that actually has 4 seasons we have experienced very little disturbance from this latest storm. I have friends in Dallas and Austin who have been without power for 30+ hours, thermostats showing inside temperatures of 45-50 degrees. Once you drop off of the Caprock and head east the state is not prepared to experience temperatures like this.

I read somewhere that most of Texas is powered through ERCOT  (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) which manages the deregulated market for energy for something like 75% of the state and that the areas not serviced by ERGOT have gotten through this cold snap generally much better than those who are tied into ERCOT.  Sounds like ERCOT is not managing things there very well.

Yes, our area is on SPP (Southwest Power Pool). I get the frustration about ERCOT but this is also not a common weather event for the majority of the state and since they switched from coal burning plants to natural gas (which was a good move) unfortunately without the full production of renewable energy there is nothing to supplement the shortage. A return to normal temperatures for those areas is key so the renewable energy pool is back.

Hopefully they winterize all of the generator stations after this. Blaming windmills is ridiculous as some have done.  There are windmills in use in plenty of places that are winterized and so don’t get stressed with this type of event.  It’s a massive failure and if they don’t invest in improvements it will happen again, but hey what’s a handful of folks dead and thousands out of work of the shareholders get profit from their deregulated market.   I’m going on 60+hrs, no heat no power.  Foraging in the green belt for dead logs to process into firewood.. government failure and private business failure big time.

I haven't watched the news since all of this has taken place, but I did receive an informative text message from my electric provider. It did mention the turbines and solar shortages were partly to blame along with how many homes are on natural gas now which is the only other way to power these plants. Supply and demand in a nutshell. What is confusing about your area is how long they have been down, we were warned that if it got bad enough they would do controlled rolling blackouts to combat the issue. No power for 60 hours is insane. It makes me wonder if our area does winterize the equipment since we get 3-4 storms like this each winter and that is why we are not facing the same situation, who knows.

The maddening thing is downtown and all the office buildings have been lit up the entire time.  They aren’t rolling any power through our area at all.  It’s ridiculous.  We go out to the car to listen to the news and warm up and charge our phones.  NPR is reporting that some providers aren’t going online purposefully to drive up prices.  My area up north is mostly apartments, it really seems like areas that have low home ownership and more working class and mixed race neighborhoods have been hit the hardest and are going longest without power.