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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on

Parliament

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31263

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It's probably been mentioned, but ERCOT is not directly responsible for power generation.  It is responsible for interconnection (think tall towers) between regional providers.

The power plants are where the principal fucking up is going on, and they're owned by various entities.

Luminant/Vistra f/k/a TU Electric owns many of the coal plants, a lot of the wind farms, and some of the gas plants.  Cities own many of the gas plants.  Entities like LCRA own the hydro plants.

So, Luminant/Vistra (parent) is the private entity we should be pissed at.  Also local/regional incompetence by those owners.

Apparently, some of the more local grid hardware is not quite up to cycling on and off, and that's Oncor and similar.  Or maybe your city uitlity.

 

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SubliminalHorn
SubliminalHorn

Power back on. 109 hours. I almost want to cry a little 

Machinator
Machinator
BradInATX
BradInATX

I've actually been turning my heat up a degree every time a new Surly member loses power on this thread. It's a nice balmy 94 in here.

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9376

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5 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

 

Big thanks to Jerry Jones for opening up JerryWorld as a warming shelter, since they're staying lit and heated.

Oh wait, he only did the lit and heated part.  Need some heat to protect infrastructure, but all those lights aren't doing that.

Give him a break. This is a once in a lifetime event...you know, like the Cowboys making it to the Super Bowl

 

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MoJames

MoJames 8241

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5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's probably been mentioned, but ERCOT is not directly responsible for power generation.  It is responsible for interconnection (think tall towers) between regional providers.

The power plants are where the principal fucking up is going on, and they're owned by various entities.

Luminant/Vistra f/k/a TU Electric owns many of the coal plants, a lot of the wind farms, and some of the gas plants.  Cities own many of the gas plants.  Entities like LCRA own the hydro plants.

So, Luminant/Vistra (parent) is the private entity we should be pissed at.  Also local/regional incompetence by those owners.

Apparently, some of the more local grid hardware is not quite up to cycling on and off, and that's Oncor and similar.  Or maybe your city uitlity.

Did you research this or do you work for ERCOT or something?

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SquishMitten

SquishMitten 10398

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Just got this same text from multiple people, all starting out with "we got this from my dad's neighbor" or something similar. This just some spammy thing going around or what?

"We just got this from dad’s neighbor:

Apparently everyone’s power will go out today, including hospitals and critical sites. Fill up your bathtubs with water, most pumps are electrical and some lines are freezing over.
My buddy is high up in the Bexar co chain, he was on a call this am with ERCOT. 

"This meeting just talked about state plan.  Everybody will likely be knocked off power, including hospitals today"
CRITICAL NEED FOR IMMEDIATE LOAD REDUCTION - Tuesday, February 16, 6:30 a.m. Update
High probability ALL customers will experience outages
 
ERCOT is at a critical stage and in jeopardy of losing the grid.
    •    Rotating outages will be increasing in both length and frequency.
    •    Critical circuits will now experience outages.  There is a very high probability that all customers including critical customers such as hospitals will be affected.
    •    We have no certainty or ability to predict duration or frequency of outages during this critical stage.
    •    Restoration efforts have been suspended until this emergency situation has improved.
    •    Please reduce your thermostats to a maximum of 62 degrees"

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31263

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, MoJames said:

Did you research this or do you work for ERCOT or something?

Do your own research!

I researched it because I was wondering about it.  ERCOT basically flips switches.  However, they certainly could have flogged the plants harder to prepare.

Also worth noting that Luminant/Vistra/Energy Futures Holdings was the subject of an LBO by the usual suspects, KKR, Goldman, Illuminati, etc.  and has been struggling financially leading to its bankruptcy in 2014.  It was both the largest LBO and largest bankupty of its time.

tl;dr fuck Luminant/Vistra/EPH.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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gsoda3

gsoda3 3236

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Just now, UTexasFight said:

Counterpoint: at least 2/3rds of ERCOT’s board is from TEXAS.

Why is having out of staters on the Board of a Texas entity a problem as that tweet would insinuate?

 

it's not a problem.  i would be much more concerned if the entire board was made up of texans.  you need experts on your board.  frankly i wish more of the board was made up of non-texans.

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hookemATL

hookemATL 11604

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3 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Just got this same text from multiple people, all starting out with "we got this from my dad's neighbor" or something similar. This just some spammy thing going around or what?

"We just got this from dad’s neighbor:

Apparently everyone’s power will go out today, including hospitals and critical sites. Fill up your bathtubs with water, most pumps are electrical and some lines are freezing over.
My buddy is high up in the Bexar co chain, he was on a call this am with ERCOT. 

"This meeting just talked about state plan.  Everybody will likely be knocked off power, including hospitals today"
CRITICAL NEED FOR IMMEDIATE LOAD REDUCTION - Tuesday, February 16, 6:30 a.m. Update
High probability ALL customers will experience outages
 
ERCOT is at a critical stage and in jeopardy of losing the grid.
    •    Rotating outages will be increasing in both length and frequency.
    •    Critical circuits will now experience outages.  There is a very high probability that all customers including critical customers such as hospitals will be affected.
    •    We have no certainty or ability to predict duration or frequency of outages during this critical stage.
    •    Restoration efforts have been suspended until this emergency situation has improved.
    •    Please reduce your thermostats to a maximum of 62 degrees"

Superglue all pets into one super pet to reserve body heat. Put grandma outside and say your goodbyes. Find the fattest person in your neighborhood and keep them captive on your porch in case a tauntaun situation should arise. God bless and praise be to Xenu. 

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Machinator

Machinator 32097

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Posted
5 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Counterpoint: at least 2/3rds of ERCOT’s board is from TEXAS.

Why is having out of staters on the Board of a Texas entity a problem as that tweet would insinuate?

 

 

3 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

it's not a problem.  i would be much more concerned if the entire board was made up of texans.  you need experts on your board.  frankly i wish more of the board was made up of non-texans.

It's not, but some state reps are now saber-rattling about the whole deal. On reflection, probably a topic more suited for CR.

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fuggled

fuggled 576

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5 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

DCT_SPECIAL36_1280x720.jpg?crop=16:9&wid

This forecast is what has me concerned.  Austin/Houston/San Antonio are going to get hit with ice and freezing rain that will bring down limbs and lines and lead to more outages.  Power companies are going to have their hands full for a while.

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gsoda3

gsoda3 3236

Posted
Posted
Just got this same text from multiple people, all starting out with "we got this from my dad's neighbor" or something similar. This just some spammy thing going around or what?
"We just got this from dad’s neighbor:
Apparently everyone’s power will go out today, including hospitals and critical sites. Fill up your bathtubs with water, most pumps are electrical and some lines are freezing over.
My buddy is high up in the Bexar co chain, he was on a call this am with ERCOT. 
"This meeting just talked about state plan.  Everybody will likely be knocked off power, including hospitals today"
CRITICAL NEED FOR IMMEDIATE LOAD REDUCTION - Tuesday, February 16, 6:30 a.m. Update
High probability ALL customers will experience outages
 
ERCOT is at a critical stage and in jeopardy of losing the grid.
    •    Rotating outages will be increasing in both length and frequency.
    •    Critical circuits will now experience outages.  There is a very high probability that all customers including critical customers such as hospitals will be affected.
    •    We have no certainty or ability to predict duration or frequency of outages during this critical stage.
    •    Restoration efforts have been suspended until this emergency situation has improved.
    •    Please reduce your thermostats to a maximum of 62 degrees"



Sounds like that was based on this and might happen...

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/16/texas-power-outages-ercot-asks-austin-energy-shed-power/6763860002/?utm_source=SND&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=statesman&fbclid=IwAR3oaZ1utKyyOCaDwUgUz4sqWGbMUK-AF_tscqvAq2cXt79cj1ELjwEvvm0
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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 14963

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1 minute ago, SquishMitten said:

Cross posting from where? How could they even do that? I'd think that would bring down major infrastructure and take days or weeks to restore water to everyone

I posted the same question in the Texas thread. It's just what I'm hearing from people who have to deal with the cities.

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gmr548

gmr548 16491

Posted
Posted
Just got this same text from multiple people, all starting out with "we got this from my dad's neighbor" or something similar. This just some spammy thing going around or what?
"We just got this from dad’s neighbor:
Apparently everyone’s power will go out today, including hospitals and critical sites. Fill up your bathtubs with water, most pumps are electrical and some lines are freezing over.
My buddy is high up in the Bexar co chain, he was on a call this am with ERCOT. 
"This meeting just talked about state plan.  Everybody will likely be knocked off power, including hospitals today"
CRITICAL NEED FOR IMMEDIATE LOAD REDUCTION - Tuesday, February 16, 6:30 a.m. Update
High probability ALL customers will experience outages
 
ERCOT is at a critical stage and in jeopardy of losing the grid.
    •    Rotating outages will be increasing in both length and frequency.
    •    Critical circuits will now experience outages.  There is a very high probability that all customers including critical customers such as hospitals will be affected.
    •    We have no certainty or ability to predict duration or frequency of outages during this critical stage.
    •    Restoration efforts have been suspended until this emergency situation has improved.
    •    Please reduce your thermostats to a maximum of 62 degrees"

The amount of power outages is trending down, not up, so that seems sketchy. We could see issues with more precipitation expected tonight though.
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Shoxthemonkey

Shoxthemonkey 1976

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When I built my house out in the sticks I made sure that I wired the central air so that I could unplug it from the house circuit and plug it into my gas powered generator. I realize that it isn't per code at all but it works like a charm and there is zero chance that I am bleeding current back to the grid. They are doing rolling blackouts up here today and when it gets to be my turn I will swap plugs and hit the start button. I will at the very least stay warm. One of the benefits of living in a backwoods county that didn't have any zoning rules until recently. All this to say that if I lived in Texas I would be investing in a residential Generac setup pronto.

https://www.generac.com/

Good luck to all of you, I'm sending as much non-denominational mojo as I can muster.

 

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Steel Shank

Steel Shank 9413

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The aggy is talking about “blackstart” condition.  If the entire grid is out, it is difficult to get it started because the ERCOT grid is an island(because Texas doesn’t want to invoke interstate commerce and have its grid subject to federal regulation).  There are a handful of direct current ties with the eastern interconnect to OK and AR and to the south with Comisión Federal de Mexico at the border to Mexico.  The Texas grid operates at asynchronous connection.  We’d have to establish a connection to the outside to get the grid started that is complicated by the DC to AC power transfers.  But, getting it started is one thing and maintaining stability of the vastly interconnected grid across the state is another thing.  We don’t ever want the entire grid going down.
By the way, ERCOT’s grid controls 85% of the state.  The Southwest Power Pool controls most of the rest in the panhandle and northeast and southeast TX as part of the eastern interconnect.  El Paso is part of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council in the western interconnect.  I’d be curious to see how folks in Amarillo, Beaumont, and Texarkana are doing.

According to this map, the Panhandle, El Paso and East Texas are doing significantly better than Ercot.

https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas
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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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26 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

^^^ Worse

 

Mattress Mac opening his Gallery Furniture stores as warming shelters.

 

That guy has always seemed shitty, but that's a really Christian thing of him to do.  Hope folks remember that when it comes time for a new and properly weighed mattress.  

I'm sure Joel Osteen was asked to open up his churches to aid the freezing folks of Houston.  And he called back an hour later with an invoice.  

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Gale Snoats

Gale Snoats 242

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I have a fire place with a rod across the bottom. Turn the gas on light the gas coming g out of pipe. Burn wood. I’m (1) concerned it seems to be getting a bit smoky in our living room and (2) worrried about us being right in front of fire place for hours at a time while that propane is blasting through that pipe and burning the wood. Any thoughts / help on those issues? Does it merit leaving house trying to get to friends?

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

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Posted (edited)
24 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


The amount of power outages is trending down, not up, so that seems sketchy. We could see issues with more precipitation expected tonight though.

Yeah, a friend of mine got that too. I'm not sure that it's all that reliable. However, they're still not doing all that great today:

 

Edited by phdhorn
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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

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https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/02/16/galveston-county-calls-for-refrigerated-truck-to-handle-expected-influx-of-bodies-from-freezing-weather/

GALVESTON, Texas – Galveston County officials are calling for a refrigerated truck to hold the expected influx of bodies of people who have died from subfreezing temperatures.

According to the county Medical Examiner’s Office, officials are expecting to receive a couple of dozen bodies of people who have died during the cold snap. Officials said the trucks are necessary since many funeral homes in the area have lost electricity and are unable to house the bodies.

“That number is going to climb as we have the ability to do more welfare checks and check on people who’ve been trapped and without power for the last 48 to 50 hours,” said Galveston County Judge Mark Henry.

Henry said the county’s medical examiner covers Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda counties, so they aren’t yet sure if all of the weather-related fatalities are just Galveston County residents...snip

 

 

...Henry said about 90% of Galveston County is without power. He laid the blame for these deaths at the feet of the state, saying he would like to know who made the decision to cut power to his county.

Henry the only other time the medical examiner has made a request like this since he took office in 2011 was because of COVID-19, but that truck ws never used.

 

 

Edited by clapclapclap
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TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10481

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16 minutes ago, Lobo said:

That guy has always seemed shitty,

Mattress Mac has always been on the front line,  helping out during every tough spot that Houston has encountered. Why throw out comments like that on something you know absolutely nothing about?  Plus he’s a longhorn football letterman. Maybe you should think about cutting down on your prodigious post count and focus a little more on making quality posts. 

Edited by TonyTexas
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SquishMitten

SquishMitten 10398

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5 minutes ago, Gale Snoats said:

I have a fire place with a rod across the bottom. Turn the gas on light the gas coming g out of pipe. Burn wood. I’m (1) concerned it seems to be getting a bit smoky in our living room and (2) worrried about us being right in front of fire place for hours at a time while that propane is blasting through that pipe and burning the wood. Any thoughts / help on those issues? Does it merit leaving house trying to get to friends?

Once the wood is lit, turn off the gas. If it's getting smoky, are you sure the flue is open?

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 14963

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25 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I'm hearing the City of Austin is going to start lining up the weaker homeless people and executing them by police firing squad. What should me and my family do to take proper precautions around this?

Very insensitive comment. We all know that firing squads have to be used because there isn't power for the electric chairs.

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washparkhorn

washparkhorn 9935

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Gale Snoats said:

I have a fire place with a rod across the bottom. Turn the gas on light the gas coming g out of pipe. Burn wood. I’m (1) concerned it seems to be getting a bit smoky in our living room and (2) worrried about us being right in front of fire place for hours at a time while that propane is blasting through that pipe and burning the wood. Any thoughts / help on those issues? Does it merit leaving house trying to get to friends?

. . . not sure if serious . . .

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52340

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Gale Snoats said:

I have a fire place with a rod across the bottom. Turn the gas on light the gas coming g out of pipe. Burn wood. I’m (1) concerned it seems to be getting a bit smoky in our living room and (2) worrried about us being right in front of fire place for hours at a time while that propane is blasting through that pipe and burning the wood. Any thoughts / help on those issues? Does it merit leaving house trying to get to friends?

Make sure your chimney flue is open, and turn the gas off after the wood gets going. 

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