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ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

cactusflinthead

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SydneyCarton

SydneyCarton 48063

Posted
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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Completely agreed.  Unfortunately, nuclear seems to be dead in the water as far as new plants go.  It's a shame.

It’s fucking stupid and it makes me so angry.  But companies won’t build them unless they get subsidized, it’s a stupid game of chicken. And since nuclear is consistent, and the grid as it stands being unpredictable, energy companies make huge windfalls during shortages. So they’re aren’t incented to stabilize it, esp. if they pay for the investment with their own money. 

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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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elfenix

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5 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

It’s fucking stupid and it makes me so angry.  But companies won’t build them unless they get subsidized, it’s a stupid game of chicken. And since nuclear is consistent, and the grid as it stands being unpredictable, energy companies make huge windfalls during shortages. So they’re aren’t incented to stabilize it, esp. if they pay for the investment with their own money. 

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BrickHorn

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Seems every year, twice a year, we see extended periods of unpredicted demand. At this point, these aren’t black swan events anymore, dipshits. How about we plan for the energy demands this state experiences on what is now a predictable, regular basis?

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105079

Posted
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1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

Seems every year, twice a year, we see extended periods of unpredicted demand. At this point, these aren’t black swan events anymore, dipshits. How about we plan for the energy demands this state experiences on what is now a predictable, regular basis?

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elfenix

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Seems every year, twice a year, we see extended periods of unpredicted demand. At this point, these aren’t black swan events anymore, dipshits. How about we plan for the energy demands this state experiences on what is now a predictable, regular basis?
"Due to higher than usual call volume ..."
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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45893

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

Seems every year, twice a year, we see extended periods of unpredicted demand. At this point, these aren’t black swan events anymore, dipshits. How about we plan for the energy demands this state experiences on what is now a predictable, regular basis?

Why do that?  If one of these events is bad enough, utilities get to jack their rates through the roof, and everybody profits.

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SydneyCarton

SydneyCarton 48063

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24 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Sent that Evil Mopac tweet to my buddy who is probably the closest to an actual "centrist" that I know and his reply:

We've become California

I hope you reminded him that California was fine except for a Texas company literally turning off power plants to turn a profit at the expense of Californias.

As for Brickhorn's suggestion for planning and a solution...there is a plan. ERCOT can cut off a ton of C&I and free up plenty of megawatts, and do it pretty quickly. As for a solution...their solution was 10 billion in subsidies to build more plants that will take a decade to come online. So, uh, get used to this. 

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89629

Posted
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22 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

 As for a solution...their solution was 10 billion in subsidies to build more plants that will take a decade to come online. So, uh, get used to this. 

Good thing that our governor and other state entities aren't trying to bring in companies that require a lot of energy, as well as a lot more people.

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Horn Under a Bad Sign

Horn Under a Bad Sign 20392

Posted
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1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

Seems every year, twice a year, we see extended periods of unpredicted demand. At this point, these aren’t black swan events anymore, dipshits. How about we plan for the energy demands this state experiences on what is now a predictable, regular basis?


In a way, we are, but it's not politicians who are doing that planning, it's investors. Just last year, Texas added 9.1 gigawatts of capacity and in just the first few months of this year we added 2.5 gigawatts. That's almost 13 billion watts of increased capacity.  Texas generated 136,118 gigawatt-hours from wind and utility-scale solar in 2022.  One gigawatt powers roughly 875,000 homes for one year.  That's what so hilarious: nothing that fossil fuel industry can do will stop the tsunami that's going to hit them. Ralph Waldo Emerson was right:  Build a better source of electricity and the world will beat a path to your door. 

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45665

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1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

I know it won’t happen because they just passed laws to screw over green energy, but throw up more solar. Every gas station should be  incentivized to add solar panels above the gas pumps.   

As should every commercial building with adequate roof space and proper orientation.  I installed solar panels for a hot minute in a former life and now every time I fly, on take off and approach, all I can do is look at all the wide open real estate on commercial roofs that just sit there and do nothing.

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Captainant

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9 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

As should every commercial building with adequate roof space and proper orientation.  I installed solar panels for a hot minute in a former life and now every time I fly, on take off and approach, all I can do is look at all the wide open real estate on commercial roofs that just sit there and do nothing.

It's a massive revenue opportunity for those building owners and it would materially reduce strain on the electric grid. It's ridiculous that we don't incentivize things like that more

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Willfully Horn

Willfully Horn 8002

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47 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

I know it won’t happen because they just passed laws to screw over green energy, but throw up more solar. Every gas station should be  incentivized to add solar panels above the gas pumps.   

I read the Swiss are putting solar panels between railroad ties. We should be putting those things almost everywhere.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105079

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55 minutes ago, Captainant said:

It's a massive revenue opportunity for those building owners and it would materially reduce strain on the electric grid. It's ridiculous that we don't incentivize things like that more

I gotta tell ya, that's something I just don't get.  Lease out your commercial rooftop to a solar outfit.  You get: 1) a revenue stream, even if not a huge one, a steady one, 2) the panels provide shade, reducing the solar heating of your roof, and thus reducing your cooling costs.  The solar company gets panels in an area where the power can easily be transmitted back to a substation for distribution.

I'm sure it's more complicated than that - I understand the big-picture/large scale generation/transmission model, I don't know about small site generation within a city.

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19449

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There's apparently another version that's a couple years away from market that can absorb energy even on the most overcast of days.  I'm science illiterate so I don't remember the details.  It's gonna be even harder to wire into the grid, but it'll eventually scale like all solar.  So we're listening to this at an energy conference.  And the speaker is saying ideal way to test this is a two-fer.  They don't sit well on roofs right now so you'd have to have a huge capex and build them free standing on columns and best place to start is tops of parking garages.  They work better off street level and the actual structure provides shade for cars on the tops of all these urban parking garages.  Anyway, this skeptic who didn't believe in solar to begin with starts bagging on the whole program and asks, "So the parking garage turns into energy?"  And I fucking cracked up and got the biggest scowl from him because he reminded me of the guy in "Big" who says, "So the building turns into a robot?"   /csb

But yes, so much wasted real estate.  Another easy one we're looking at is the tops of bank drive thru lane complexes.  Always flat, over-engineered for structual integrity so can withstand the weight, beaming with grid connectivity access, and most of them going obsolete soon so a need for repurposing.  And they're almost always built on pad sites or strip centers so vast majority are not obfuscated from sunlight from other nearby structures or dense arbor growth.  

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45665

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1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

There's apparently another version that's a couple years away from market that can absorb energy even on the most overcast of days.  I'm science illiterate so I don't remember the details.  It's gonna be even harder to wire into the grid, but it'll eventually scale like all solar.  So we're listening to this at an energy conference.  And the speaker is saying ideal way to test this is a two-fer.  They don't sit well on roofs right now so you'd have to have a huge capex and build them free standing on columns and best place to start is tops of parking garages.  They work better off street level and the actual structure provides shade for cars on the tops of all these urban parking garages.  Anyway, this skeptic who didn't believe in solar to begin with starts bagging on the whole program and asks, "So the parking garage turns into energy?"  And I fucking cracked up and got the biggest scowl from him because he reminded me of the guy in "Big" who says, "So the building turns into a robot?"   /csb

But yes, so much wasted real estate.  Another easy one we're looking at is the tops of bank drive thru lane complexes.  Always flat, over-engineered for structual integrity so can withstand the weight, beaming with grid connectivity access, and most of them going obsolete soon so a need for repurposing.  And they're almost always built on pad sites or strip centers so vast majority are not obfuscated from sunlight from other nearby structures or dense arbor growth.  

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Post Oak

Post Oak 20208

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I just got out of the movies with my kids and it was about 6000 degrees in my white f150.

I know why we don't do this.  Because the GOP are cunts but it would make too much sense to 

1. Incentivize companies to put solar on parking lots.  

France just passed a law that required parking lot solar by 2028.

It's hard to know what the impact would be in the US.  But this article found that if we did the same thing the payoff would be enormous.  Of course the govt would have to help.

https://time.com/6239651/solar-parking-lots-france-us/

Plus it would make me happier.

 

2. Give rebates or funding for people and companies to retrofit their buildings, businesses and homes. We focus a lot on the grid supplying power but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

For example, San Antonio’s CPS Energy offers rebates for smart thermostats, heat pumps, attic insulation, solar water heaters, shade trees and more to residential customers, and some rebates to businesses as well. It also offers free home weatherization to some low-income families, although many residents and advocates think even these programs could go further

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-energy-efficiency-ercot/

 

A white paper found that

We find that a set of seven residential energy efficiency and demand response retrofit programs, deployed aggressively over the 2023-2027 period, could offset about 7,650 MW of summer peak load and 11,400 MW of winter peak load—approximately equaling the capability of the proposed new gas generators

https://www.aceee.org/white-paper/2021/10/energy-efficiency-and-demand-response-tools-address-texas-reliability

 

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gmr548

gmr548 16576

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I know it won’t happen because they just passed laws to screw over green energy, but throw up more solar. Every gas station should be  incentivized to add solar panels above the gas pumps.   

Actually most of the bills specifically designed to handicap renewables failed. Unless I’m wrong the gas plant slush fund (that generators didn’t even want) is the only thing that passed.
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gmr548

gmr548 16576

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I know it won’t happen because they just passed laws to screw over green energy, but throw up more solar. Every gas station should be  incentivized to add solar panels above the gas pumps.   

Texas is the undisputed king of the sprawling, massive parking lot. It’s a point of pride. Solar in parking lots would solve the power problem and keep vehicles much cooler.

But we are a dumb people.
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Longhorn_Fan68

Longhorn_Fan68 33867

Posted
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23 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Sent that Evil Mopac tweet to my buddy who is probably the closest to an actual "centrist" that I know and his reply:

We've become California

hate to break it to you, but your friend is not a centrist. he's massively uninformed. that doesn't make him a centrist

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C-Man

C-Man 27194

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34 minutes ago, Captainant said:

good thing it's not getting any hotter right?

Right!

Who is the guy on Twitter that's all over the Texas grid stuff? Doug something or other? I can't find the tweet but sounds like we've got a bit more offline today than usual, perhaps in advance of the blistering heat that is supposed to start tomorrow and last through next week.

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