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ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45695

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Now ask about the gas producers and pipelines. Because a plant with no fuel is just a lot of expensive metal.

Seriously this though.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the main fucking problem that the gas wasn't able to get to the electricity producers?  Which would make ERCOT's statement completely fucking meaningless?

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High Plains Drifter
High Plains Drifter

I was driving around just now, listening to NPR, and they called out Abbot for his bullshit. I believe the direct quote was something like "Governor Abbot falsely claimed renewable energy was the caus

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Bullneck
Bullneck

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Dutchrudder

Dutchrudder 11147

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Posted (edited)
On 12/30/2021 at 10:23 PM, Bullneck said:

Are Texas' power generators ready for the next freeze? ERCOT thinks so

ERCOT says it has inspected more than 300 electric generation units to meet new state standards. 

The problem is that a significant portion of our Texas grid is reliant on each other. The pipelines that bring NG to the plants that generate electricity run on the electricity generated by those plants. If any go offline, even for short term rolling blackouts, they may not come back online again, which is what happened to some in February. If that causes pipelines to fail to deliver gas, then other plants may also shut down due to lack of fuel, they freeze up, and then those won't be generating electricity until the it warms up again. This creates a sort of uniquely idiotic one-way circuit grid that feels like it was designed by the same dipshits who made Christmas lights back when I was 5. 

Edited by Dutchrudder
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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45695

Posted
Posted

Cross posted

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-03/plunging-gas-supplies-show-texas-still-hasn-t-prepared-for-cold?fbclid=IwAR0E0Jzo7x1-ZxGQT1YZJB_HrYOzPuiXoeSv5p0focBGwsJWU6qiBcEYtVU

 

Quote

Plunging Natural Gas Supply Shows Texas Still Not Ready for Cold

By 
,  , and 
January 3, 2022, 12:06 PM CST Updated on January 3, 2022, 4:19 PM CST
  •  
    Nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas wasted or burned Sunday
  •  
    Gas plants spewed massive amounts of toxic pollutants
 

Texas’s natural gas industry had almost a year to prepare for last weekend’s cold blast and avoid another loss of production. But yet again, instruments froze, output plunged and companies spewed a miasma of pollutants into the atmosphere in a bid to keep operations stable.

Though Saturday’s cold front wasn’t as severe as the February storm that killed hundreds and knocked out power to much of the state, nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas was burned or wasted due to weather-related shutdowns, according to filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. At the same time, production plunged to the lowest level since the last freeze, BloombergNEF data shows.

Texas daily gas production fell over the weekend to the lowest since February
 
 

That has environmental implications. Natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. And the roughly dozen gas facilities that reported problems with the cold also emitted a combined 85 tons of sulfur dioxide and 11 tons of carbon monoxide, among other pollutants, according to a Bloomberg review of environmental filings. 

RELATED: Texas Had All Year to Prep for Winter, and It’s Still Not Ready

“We know this is pollution that can hurt people’s health and, overwhelmingly, this is avoidable,” said Luke Metzger, executive director of the nonprofit Environment Texas. “These facilities could be investing in better insulation and other kinds of things that would prevent equipment from freezing,” he said. “It’s easier to pay a fine.”

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It’s a stark reminder of the industry’s continued vulnerability to extreme weather. Despite calls for producers to harden their infrastructure against cold, much of the industry has managed to avoid doing so. The Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s top regulator of the industry, plans to adopt some weatherization standards but those won’t go into effect until 2023, and they include loopholes that allow some companies to opt out of compliance. 

The commission’s two-year timeline risks a repeat of last winter’s freeze that plunged millions into darkness for days, said Virginia Palacios, executive director of the Railroad Commission watchdog group Commission Shift. “It makes our hearts beat a little faster because of what we went through last February. It was a traumatic event that I don’t think anybody wants to relive.”

 

READ: Restarting Texas’s Frozen Energy Hub Will Be a Climate Mess

Most of the natural gas released due to operating issues this weekend came from plants owned by Pioneer Natural Resources Co. Other facilities that reported operating issues and related emissions were owned by Occidental Petroleum Corp., Targa Resources Corp. and DCP Midstream. None of the companies immediately replied to requests for comment.  

The TCEQ, which enforces air regulations in the state, declined to comment. The Texas Railroad Commission did not immediately provide comment.

Normal operations have resumed at many of the facilities and gas production has rebounded to near-normal levels. 

Prices for the fuel weren’t much affected by the production dip, with next-day delivery at the Waha spot hub in West Texas trading at $3.35 per million British thermal unit Monday, traders said.

 

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Captainant

Captainant 27689

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Crimony.  THAT little cold front caused that much disruption?

We are royally fucked.

It didn't cause that much disruption, they can claim that much disruption to let Jerry fucking Jones rake in another cool $9,000,000,000 off the frozen bodies of several hundred dead Texans. 

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11050

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, A-Tex Devil said:

I am more upset with how PTSD from last year is having my wife stocking up like the zombies are coming for maybe a 24 hr freeze.  Fuck you ERCOT!

 

No shit. We have maybe ten fires in our fireplace a year. More for the ambience than anything. Wife called some guy who showed up with a CORD of firewood a few months back.

We got firewood piled so high in the backyard, I'm afraid its going to fall over and crush the dogs.

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105177

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

No shit. We have maybe ten fires in our fireplace a year. More for the ambience than anything. Wife called some guy who showed up with a CORD of firewood a few months back.

We got firewood piled so high in the backyard, I'm afraid its going to fall over and crush the dogs.

 

Counterpoint: we usually have a decent stash of firewood because my wife likes to have a fire on cold days.  We had a decent stash last year, but on the Sunday before the worst of it hit, I did the math on the likelihood of power issues, and the boy and strapped on our ice grippers, grabbed the chainsaw, and hit every decent dead oak in the greenbelt behind our house, and loaded up.

And over the next 72 hours, we burned a shitload of that wood in our fireplace.  It helped......but the room we were heating was too goddamned big.  

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elfenix

elfenix 34330

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Posted

selling and delivering firewood was the main fundraiser we had in scouts.  i am intimately familiar with how much a cord is. 

 

also, riding around on top of the stacks in the trailer behind the rig through the neighborhood was pretty great. 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 46000

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, kevwun said:

As long as it comes out to 128 cubic feet you have a cord.

A "face cord" is different, right?  In this case, he was quoting ~ 85 cu ft, which I think is actually twice as much as what most vendors call a "face cord" (4 x 8 x 1.33 ish).

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SydneyCarton

SydneyCarton 48134

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

Television Omg GIF by The Voice

I mean, I'd like to point out that if you don't like his post, you're essentially cheering for massive catastrophe.

2 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Everyone in Texas....

Game Of Thrones GIF

Hoping there are no repeats of 2021...

I Hope Please GIF

All of us in the Northeast...

winter is coming white walkers GIF

Secure in the knowledge that we won't have issues like Texas had because as flawed as NEISO, NYISO, and PJM are, they are light years better than ERCOT.

celebration GIF

 

Good luck!

ERCOT isn't the problem. It's the politicians, lobbyists, money, and right wing agenda, really. 

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Gil Bang

Gil Bang 25984

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

No shit. We have maybe ten fires in our fireplace a year. More for the ambience than anything. Wife called some guy who showed up with a CORD of firewood a few months back.

We got firewood piled so high in the backyard, I'm afraid its going to fall over and crush the dogs.

 

So, the firewood guy was an aggie?

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11050

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, fattyflattie said:

Face cord is 1/3 cord, iirc. 

 

Correct, IF the logs are the standard length of (do the math, 4 feet divided by three , carry the one) 16 inches. If they are less than that, you are getting ripped off.

 

(I just use my cock to make sure the logs are the correct length).

 

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fattyflattie

fattyflattie 4639

Posted
Posted
Just now, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Correct, IF the logs are the standard length of (do the math, 4 feet divided by three , carry the one) 16 inches. If they are less than that, you are getting ripped off.

 

(I just use my cock to make sure the logs are the correct length).

 

Yeah but folding it in half has to hurt? 

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PenelopeWitherspoon

PenelopeWitherspoon 19127

Posted
Posted
42 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I mean, I'd like to point out that if you don't like his post, you're essentially cheering for massive catastrophe.

ERCOT isn't the problem. It's the politicians, lobbyists, money, and right wing agenda, really. 

Well, ERCOT is part of the problem, but I do not disagree with who you are blaming.  The PUC has made ERCOT toothless, and the PUC is appointed by politicians who take money from lobbyists who are funded by money and the right wing agenda.  

 

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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 77231

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Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) say they've received notice from natural gas providers of "some instances" of reduction in supply in the North Texas area, though energy experts don't anticipate a major impact on the statewide power grid.

The reductions, known as curtailments, are expected to result in a loss of energy reserves between 1,200 and 2,600 megawatts, according to ERCOT.

 

 

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