ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

[956 Worldwide 34468]

9 minutes ago, Js1 said:

GET YOUR GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY HEALTHCARE, YOU COMMIECRAT

Can you imagine the mental state of a person who is freezing their balls off because power plants in the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nation didn’t winterize—- and the immediate target of his anger is REFUGEES! 

[smuggs 9342]

10 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

That half of Texas runs electric heating is also a mystery.  Gas is cheaper and more efficient, and houses have natural gas plumbed because many have gas stoves. 

Cost of building. Full electric HVAC systems are cheaper than gas/electric and it's also less labor intensive to run electrical to an attic than to plumb hard gas line(s) up to a furnace. 

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by smuggs

[elfenix 34186]

 
Deregulation in Texas has created hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Citation needed.

[DCA_HORN 725]

Cost of building. Full electric HVAC systems are cheaper than gas/electric and it's also less labor intensive to run electrical to an attic than to plumb hard gas line(s) up to a furnace. 
 
 
 

Except that the furnace is right next to the gas hot water heater in many cases.

[smuggs 9342]

2 minutes ago, DCA_HORN said:

12 minutes ago, smuggs said:

Cost of building. Full electric HVAC systems are cheaper than gas/electric and it's also less labor intensive to run electrical to an attic than to plumb hard gas line(s) up to a furnace. 
 
 
 

Except that the furnace is right next to the gas hot water heater in many cases.

Yes, and the upsized gas line required to carry the BTU's running a water heater and furnace costs more money to run. And again, the full electric HVAC system is a cheaper unit.

Margins are thin, most builders are going to install what it takes to get you a working HVAC system and them the max dollars.

[SizzleChest 8275]

SIAP.

 

[SydneyCarton 47924]

11 minutes ago, elfenix said:

 

 

Citation needed.

 

I can’t give you a citation, man. It’s just my business. Add up the employees that handle deregulated energy at reliant, txu, direct energy (now txu), entrust, Gexa, champion energy, constellation energy, plus the hundreds of small REPs that have cycled through the Texas marketplace. That’s people handling marketing, trading, pricing, operations, support staff, sales, public relations, business development. Now consider the contract labor associated with those businesses, partnership vendors, and probably a dozen of other avenues or more I’m missing. These businesses also support call center staff in bulk, which means software and CIS support. Oh let’s not forget tech and IT, plus contracts with cloud computing and storage. It’s a lot of motherfucking jobs and business that contributes to the economy, dude. I can spend time mapping it out when I’m not scrounging for fucking toilet water, dude, or you can take my word for it. 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33850]

Oh cool, people got jobs. Meanwhile i can't flush my toilet. Yay for those people 

[Aqua Buddha 14525]

30 seconds of exhaustive internet research told me that Oklahoma gets 32% of their power from wind yet they stayed operational.  Maybe it's not wind's fault, after all.

[TexArcher 37533]

I just want to say, in my 40 degree home, fuck Greg Abbott, fuck Dan Patrick, fuck the GOP, and fuck aggy.

[Firemans4Horn 17846]

There are 49 states that require winterization of windmills. 
 

#we’reTexas

[Js1 85141]

2 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

There are 49 states that require winterization of windmills. 
 

#we’reTexas

Fucking Antarctica's windmills have heaters on them so they don't freeze up.

Texas couldn't splurge for that add-on. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Js1

[Hagbard Celine 10771]

From: Media <0000002ed0ffd167-dmarc-request@lists.ercot.com>

To: "news_bulletins@lists.ercot.com" <news_bulletins@lists.ercot.com>

Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2021, 8:11:13 AM CST

Subject: Majority of customers are able to be restored, but electric companies still restoring outages in the field

 

Majority of customers are able to be restored, but electric companies still restoring outages in the field

 

AUSTIN, TX, Feb. 18, 2021 – The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has made significant progress overnight restoring customer power, although some outages still remain throughout the state.

 

Energy emergency conditions remain as the grid operator and transmission owners work to restore the remaining customers that are without power.

 

“We’re to the point in the load restoration where we are allowing transmission owners to bring back any load they can related to this load shed event,” said ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin. “We will keep working around the clock until every single customer has their power back on.”

 

Customers that remain without power likely fall into one of these three categories:

·         Areas out due to ice storm damage on the distribution system

·         Areas that were taken out of service due to the energy emergency load shed that need to be restored manually (i.e., sending a crew to the location to reenergize the line)

·         Large industrial facilities that voluntarily went offline to help during this energy emergency

 

Transmission owners are assessing how many customers are affected at this time.

 

While there is no additional load shed occurring at this time, a little over 40,000 MW of generation remains on forced outage due to this winter weather event. Of that, 23,500 MW is thermal generation and the rest is wind and solar. It is possible that some level of rotating outages may be needed over the next couple of days to keep the grid stable.

 

###

 

ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers, representing about 90 percent of the state's electric load. As the Independent System Operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 680+ generation units. ERCOT also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for more than 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.

 

Media Contact:

Leslie Sopko, media@ercot.com

 

Subscribe to the News_Bulletins distribution list

Unsubscribe  to the News_Bulletins distribution list

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Hagbard Celine

[FondrenRoad 4378]

59 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Yep. Countries like India and much of the Middle East and Africa wanted to tout a “third way”’ and walk the tightrope between the West and East during the Cold War. Nothing to do with economic development although most of those “third way” nations lagged behind developmentally. 

Lagged behind?  Sounds like you haven't been a guest at a Saudi palace.  They have toilets that cost more than your house. The kingdom is American conservatism perfectly realized. The top 1% has everything. The rest live to work for the scraps that the top 1% cast off. And it's all tied together by keeping the 99% rabidly religious and focused on external bogeymen while the 1% only pretend to believe. 

If you are Joe Schmo, Saudi Arabia sucks just as much as Venezuela. The problem is putting all your eggs in a single economic basket. The same basket Texas Republicans want to put all Texas' eggs in. That worked out like dogshit in 70s Texas too. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by FondrenRoad

[Beantown Express 2.0 6555]

18 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

Oh cool, people got jobs. Meanwhile i can't flush my toilet. Yay for those people 

Look on the bright side.  Some of those people that got jobs may have actually died because of this so we got that going for us.  Which is nice.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Fucking Antarctica's windmills have heaters on them so they don't freeze up.

Texas couldn't splurge for that add-on. 

As @SydneyCarton said, these companies make decisions not to do so.  Part of the reason they do that is that energy is a margin business.  And without any sort of capacity market, there is no economic incentive to make the investment.  If generation units were paid some sort of a capacity figure based on their capacity times their reliability, which was, oh I do not know, calculated based on some sort of objective measurement (basically, you take total generation over the time in question vs. name plate capacity and that is your reliability measure), and you could sell additional capacity in if you can make things run more often more reliably, then those investments will be made.

On the winterization front, that is just irresponsible.  We knew this shit could happen in 2011.  At that point, ERCOT, the PUC, and the lege should have required winterization.  And if our pols are so fucking concerned about O&G, the might want to make sure the can produce in temperatures that our friends in Alberta would call balmy.

[SydneyCarton 47924]

15 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

Oh cool, people got jobs. Meanwhile i can't flush my toilet. Yay for those people 

You’re missing the point. Deregulation created a fuck load of jobs. The system works fine. The only thing that caused this problem was politicians not enforcing regulations enforcing the grid being winterized and prepared for a disaster. This would have happened if Texas had one big regulated system or the system we have now. Don’t conflate Deregulated with “Independent of Federal Control” which is a political issue and choice. 
 

here are a list off the top of my head of states that have deregulated gas or electricity and are still functioning with regulations and under federal guidelines: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York City. Now few od those states work like texas, and a few have had issues of their own like NY, but let’s not pretend deregulation can’t work. 
 

Politicians didn’t make winterization mandatory because it’s expensive and generation companies lobbied them not to do so, and this is Ruby Red Republican Texas. Period. 

[Macklemore 2870]

While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants—not their frozen turbines—are to blame. PolitiFact proclaims “Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage.” Climate-change conformity is hard for the media to resist, but we don’t mind. So here are the facts to cut through the spin. 

Some readers have questioned our reporting Wednesday ("The Political Making of a Texas Power Outage") that wind’s share of electricity generation in Texas plunged to 8% from 42%. How can that be, they wonder, when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has reported that it counts on wind to meet only 10% of its winter capacity.

Ercot’s disclosure is slippery. Start with the term “capacity,” which means potential maximum output. This is different than actual power generation. Texas has a total winter capacity of about 83,000 megawatts (MW) including all power sources. Total power demand and generation, however, at their peak are usually only around 57,000 MW. Regulators build slack into the system.

Texas has about 30,000 MW of wind capacity, but winds aren’t constant or predictable. Winds this past month have generated between about 600 and 22,500 MW. Regulators don’t count on wind to provide much more than 10% or so of the grid’s total capacity since they can’t command turbines to increase power like they can coal and gas plants.

Wind turbines at times this month have generated more than half of the Texas power generation, though this is only about a quarter of the system’s power capacity. Last week wind generation plunged as demand surged. Fossil-fuel generation increased and covered the supply gap. Thus between the mornings of Feb. 7 and Feb. 11, wind as a share of the state’s electricity fell to 8% from 42%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Gas-fired plants produced 43,800 MW of power Sunday night and coal plants chipped in 10,800 MW—about two to three times what they usually generate at their peak on any given winter day—after wind power had largely vanished. In other words, gas and coal plants held up in the frosty conditions far better than wind turbines did.

Gas generation fell by about one-third between late Sunday night and Tuesday, but even then was running two to three times higher than usual before the Arctic blast. Gas power nearly made up for the shortfall in wind, though it wasn’t enough to cover surging demand.

Between 12 a.m. on Feb. 8 and Feb. 16, wind power plunged 93% while coal increased 47% and gas 450%, according to the EIA. Yet the renewable industry and its media mouthpieces are tarring gas, coal and nuclear because they didn’t operate at 100% of their expected potential during the Arctic blast even though wind turbines failed nearly 100%.

The policy point here is that an electricity grid that depends increasingly on subsidized but unreliable wind and solar needs baseload power to weather surges in demand. Natural gas is crucial but it also isn’t as reliable as nuclear and coal power.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

Just now, SydneyCarton said:

You’re missing the point. Deregulation created a fuck load of jobs. The system works fine. The only thing that caused this problem was politicians not enforcing regulations enforcing the grid being winterized and prepared for a disaster. This would have happened if Texas had one big regulated system or the system we have now. Don’t conflate Deregulated with “Independent of Federal Control” which is a political issue and choice. 
 

here are a list off the top of my head of states that have deregulated gas or electricity and are still functioning with regulations and under federal guidelines: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York City. Now few od those states work like texas, and a few have had issues of their own like NY, but let’s not pretend deregulation can’t work. 
 

Politicians didn’t make winterization mandatory because it’s expensive and generation companies lobbied them not to do so, and this is Ruby Red Republican Texas. Period. 

All of those are deregulated, and their ISOs have capacity as a part of the market.  I know the Texas  pols intended energy only on that being a feature, but it is a bug.

[JimmyJames 12271]

So ERCOT says all the utilities can now restore power.

Must be because the weather warmed up already right? Just in time too.

Or is it because the short positions have finally cleared?

 

[MoJames 8241]

14 hours ago, Mole said:

I grew up in the north. I remember one winter when our fridge went out, we just threw everything in the snow on the back porch. It was a little weird to put on my coat to make hot pockets, but it seemed like a pretty obvious solution.

General approach to beer at friends houses in the winter here

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

1 minute ago, Macklemore said:

While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants—not their frozen turbines—are to blame. PolitiFact proclaims “Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage.” Climate-change conformity is hard for the media to resist, but we don’t mind. So here are the facts to cut through the spin. 

Some readers have questioned our reporting Wednesday ("The Political Making of a Texas Power Outage") that wind’s share of electricity generation in Texas plunged to 8% from 42%. How can that be, they wonder, when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has reported that it counts on wind to meet only 10% of its winter capacity.

Ercot’s disclosure is slippery. Start with the term “capacity,” which means potential maximum output. This is different than actual power generation. Texas has a total winter capacity of about 83,000 megawatts (MW) including all power sources. Total power demand and generation, however, at their peak are usually only around 57,000 MW. Regulators build slack into the system.

Texas has about 30,000 MW of wind capacity, but winds aren’t constant or predictable. Winds this past month have generated between about 600 and 22,500 MW. Regulators don’t count on wind to provide much more than 10% or so of the grid’s total capacity since they can’t command turbines to increase power like they can coal and gas plants.

Wind turbines at times this month have generated more than half of the Texas power generation, though this is only about a quarter of the system’s power capacity. Last week wind generation plunged as demand surged. Fossil-fuel generation increased and covered the supply gap. Thus between the mornings of Feb. 7 and Feb. 11, wind as a share of the state’s electricity fell to 8% from 42%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Gas-fired plants produced 43,800 MW of power Sunday night and coal plants chipped in 10,800 MW—about two to three times what they usually generate at their peak on any given winter day—after wind power had largely vanished. In other words, gas and coal plants held up in the frosty conditions far better than wind turbines did.

Gas generation fell by about one-third between late Sunday night and Tuesday, but even then was running two to three times higher than usual before the Arctic blast. Gas power nearly made up for the shortfall in wind, though it wasn’t enough to cover surging demand.

Between 12 a.m. on Feb. 8 and Feb. 16, wind power plunged 93% while coal increased 47% and gas 450%, according to the EIA. Yet the renewable industry and its media mouthpieces are tarring gas, coal and nuclear because they didn’t operate at 100% of their expected potential during the Arctic blast even though wind turbines failed nearly 100%.

The policy point here is that an electricity grid that depends increasingly on subsidized but unreliable wind and solar needs baseload power to weather surges in demand. Natural gas is crucial but it also isn’t as reliable as nuclear and coal power.

That is an OPED piece by the WSJ.  Always take their OPED pieces with a grain of salt. 

Most of us who are all in on green energy have been saying THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME you need (1) baseload capacity, preferably in the form of nuclear and (2) we need storage capacity to go hand in hand with green energy because of the intermittancy of green energy.  Cannot control mother nature.

[SydneyCarton 47924]

3 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

As @SydneyCarton said, these companies make decisions not to do so.  Part of the reason they do that is that energy is a margin business.  And without any sort of capacity market, there is no economic incentive to make the investment.  If generation units were paid some sort of a capacity figure based on their capacity times their reliability, which was, oh I do not know, calculated based on some sort of objective measurement (basically, you take total generation over the time in question vs. name plate capacity and that is your reliability measure), and you could sell additional capacity in if you can make things run more often more reliably, then those investments will be made.

On the winterization front, that is just irresponsible.  We knew this shit could happen in 2011.  At that point, ERCOT, the PUC, and the lege should have required winterization.  And if our pols are so fucking concerned about O&G, the might want to make sure the can produce in temperatures that our friends in Alberta would call balmy.

Yeah. Capacity market is a solution, albeit imperfect. Fining motherfuckers who don’t keep to standards works, but ask wall street how that goes.  The problem is politicians. Why do you think the right had their talking points immediately screaming green energy and frozen turbines? They fucking knew. They know now. Hence the red meat to the base. 

[Dahobbs 17451]

2 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants—not their frozen turbines—are to blame. PolitiFact proclaims “Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage.” Climate-change conformity is hard for the media to resist, but we don’t mind. So here are the facts to cut through the spin. 

Some readers have questioned our reporting Wednesday ("The Political Making of a Texas Power Outage") that wind’s share of electricity generation in Texas plunged to 8% from 42%. How can that be, they wonder, when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has reported that it counts on wind to meet only 10% of its winter capacity.

Ercot’s disclosure is slippery. Start with the term “capacity,” which means potential maximum output. This is different than actual power generation. Texas has a total winter capacity of about 83,000 megawatts (MW) including all power sources. Total power demand and generation, however, at their peak are usually only around 57,000 MW. Regulators build slack into the system.

Texas has about 30,000 MW of wind capacity, but winds aren’t constant or predictable. Winds this past month have generated between about 600 and 22,500 MW. Regulators don’t count on wind to provide much more than 10% or so of the grid’s total capacity since they can’t command turbines to increase power like they can coal and gas plants.

Wind turbines at times this month have generated more than half of the Texas power generation, though this is only about a quarter of the system’s power capacity. Last week wind generation plunged as demand surged. Fossil-fuel generation increased and covered the supply gap. Thus between the mornings of Feb. 7 and Feb. 11, wind as a share of the state’s electricity fell to 8% from 42%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Gas-fired plants produced 43,800 MW of power Sunday night and coal plants chipped in 10,800 MW—about two to three times what they usually generate at their peak on any given winter day—after wind power had largely vanished. In other words, gas and coal plants held up in the frosty conditions far better than wind turbines did.

Gas generation fell by about one-third between late Sunday night and Tuesday, but even then was running two to three times higher than usual before the Arctic blast. Gas power nearly made up for the shortfall in wind, though it wasn’t enough to cover surging demand.

Between 12 a.m. on Feb. 8 and Feb. 16, wind power plunged 93% while coal increased 47% and gas 450%, according to the EIA. Yet the renewable industry and its media mouthpieces are tarring gas, coal and nuclear because they didn’t operate at 100% of their expected potential during the Arctic blast even though wind turbines failed nearly 100%.

The policy point here is that an electricity grid that depends increasingly on subsidized but unreliable wind and solar needs baseload power to weather surges in demand. Natural gas is crucial but it also isn’t as reliable as nuclear and coal power.

What a load of shit. Everything failed because nothing was winterized. The problem wasn't the source of power. And, no, wind advocates haven't been blaming natural gas except so far as to counter the bullshit narrative that renewable energy was the problem. And, no one ever uses the total capacity of a wind mill for anything. It would be a completely stupid way to judge that particular generator. 

[SydneyCarton 47924]

2 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

All of those are deregulated, and their ISOs have capacity as a part of the market.  I know the Texas  pols intended energy only on that being a feature, but it is a bug.

I know. Line I said, there’s problems and tweaks. I’m simply saying deregulation itself isn’t the problem. 

[SydneyCarton 47924]

5 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants—not their frozen turbines—are to blame. PolitiFact proclaims “Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage.” Climate-change conformity is hard for the media to resist, but we don’t mind. So here are the facts to cut through the spin. 

Some readers have questioned our reporting Wednesday ("The Political Making of a Texas Power Outage") that wind’s share of electricity generation in Texas plunged to 8% from 42%. How can that be, they wonder, when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has reported that it counts on wind to meet only 10% of its winter capacity.

Ercot’s disclosure is slippery. Start with the term “capacity,” which means potential maximum output. This is different than actual power generation. Texas has a total winter capacity of about 83,000 megawatts (MW) including all power sources. Total power demand and generation, however, at their peak are usually only around 57,000 MW. Regulators build slack into the system.

Texas has about 30,000 MW of wind capacity, but winds aren’t constant or predictable. Winds this past month have generated between about 600 and 22,500 MW. Regulators don’t count on wind to provide much more than 10% or so of the grid’s total capacity since they can’t command turbines to increase power like they can coal and gas plants.

Wind turbines at times this month have generated more than half of the Texas power generation, though this is only about a quarter of the system’s power capacity. Last week wind generation plunged as demand surged. Fossil-fuel generation increased and covered the supply gap. Thus between the mornings of Feb. 7 and Feb. 11, wind as a share of the state’s electricity fell to 8% from 42%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Gas-fired plants produced 43,800 MW of power Sunday night and coal plants chipped in 10,800 MW—about two to three times what they usually generate at their peak on any given winter day—after wind power had largely vanished. In other words, gas and coal plants held up in the frosty conditions far better than wind turbines did.

Gas generation fell by about one-third between late Sunday night and Tuesday, but even then was running two to three times higher than usual before the Arctic blast. Gas power nearly made up for the shortfall in wind, though it wasn’t enough to cover surging demand.

Between 12 a.m. on Feb. 8 and Feb. 16, wind power plunged 93% while coal increased 47% and gas 450%, according to the EIA. Yet the renewable industry and its media mouthpieces are tarring gas, coal and nuclear because they didn’t operate at 100% of their expected potential during the Arctic blast even though wind turbines failed nearly 100%.

The policy point here is that an electricity grid that depends increasingly on subsidized but unreliable wind and solar needs baseload power to weather surges in demand. Natural gas is crucial but it also isn’t as reliable as nuclear and coal power.

This is an opinion hit piece. It’s bullshit. 

[Macklemore 2870]

Just now, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

That is an OPED piece by the WSJ.  Always take their OPED pieces with a grain of salt. 

Most of us who are all in on green energy have been saying THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME you need (1) baseload capacity, preferably in the form of nuclear and (2) we need storage capacity to go hand in hand with green energy because of the intermittancy of green energy.  Cannot control mother nature.

Glad to see you support nuclear as part of your commitment to green energy. To Bill Gates’ credit, he also supports nuclear energy and mentions it in his new book. Also has invested in bringing cleaner reactors online.

[SydneyCarton 47924]

3 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

So ERCOT says all the utilities can now restore power.

Must be because the weather warmed up already right? Just in time too.

Or is it because the short positions have finally cleared?

 

It’s because they solved the frequency issues between their plants that allow them to operate in sync without crashing everything again, if I had to guess. 

[Brisketexan 104684]

As [mention=192]SydneyCarton[/mention] said, these companies make decisions not to do so.  Part of the reason they do that is that energy is a margin business.  And without any sort of capacity market, there is no economic incentive to make the investment.  If generation units were paid some sort of a capacity figure based on their capacity times their reliability, which was, oh I do not know, calculated based on some sort of objective measurement (basically, you take total generation over the time in question vs. name plate capacity and that is your reliability measure), and you could sell additional capacity in if you can make things run more often more reliably, then those investments will be made.
On the winterization front, that is just irresponsible.  We knew this shit could happen in 2011.  At that point, ERCOT, the PUC, and the lege should have required winterization.  And if our pols are so fucking concerned about O&G, the might want to make sure the can produce in temperatures that our friends in Alberta would call balmy.

Again, Penelope with well-stated and succinct truth. Seriously, I may propose to this lovely woman. I’m sure my wife would be ok with it.

There are ways to have a “deregulated” system function. Require winterizing and other protective measures. Build in a capacity market.

But as noted above....not in an anarcho-capitalist Republican dream State. Any expectation for meaningful reform is a pipe dream, because THAT’S SOCIALISM!!!!!!

Forget it Jake, it’s Texas.

[SydneyCarton 47924]

2 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

Glad to see you support nuclear as part of your commitment to green energy. To Bill Gates’ credit, he also supports nuclear energy and mentions it in his new book. Also has invested in bringing cleaner reactors online.

I’m pro nuclear. One of the South Texas nuclear plants was down for a chunk of Tuesday. Usually when a nuclear plant goes down it comes with a big explosion. This chill fucked up EVERYTHING. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by SydneyCarton

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

Just now, SydneyCarton said:

Yeah. Capacity market is a solution, albeit imperfect. Fining motherfuckers who don’t keep to standards works, but ask wall street how that goes.  The problem is politicians. Why do you think the right had their talking points immediately screaming green energy and frozen turbines? They fucking knew. They know now. Hence the red meat to the base. 

Oh, I know the politicians are one of the main problems.  However, a capacity market would all least incentivize some of the investment, though I think you have to set bare minimums.  Those that go above and beyond should have economic incentives to do so.  Companies are not charities, though I know a lot of people think they are.

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

The other thing that is insane is that the Republican Party is the party that traffics most in dysfunctional, developing world political tropes. (These idiots do not understand that third world actually means).

- Unfettered, cutthroat, protection-free market for consumers (official R policy)

- Sweetheart deals for cronies and large enterprises (official R policy)

- “Privatization” of utilities and public services (official R policy)

- Government that is incapable by design and hampered by inadequate funding and investment (official R policy)

- Expansive funding only for the military and “power” agencies/ministries (official R policy)

- Grievance politics aimed at stoking fear among the majority (mega-dittos)

All this shit defines the developing world, most importantly the lack of a functioning regulatory and administrative state that is starved of resources and a “private sector” that unevenly provides things like roads, security, and utilities to those that can afford them. And of course, the ability to always find the funding to pay for a big military and heavily armed police. Turning the U.S into Pakistan is pretty much the GOP platform. 

Yeah and so these countries create desperate situations for most of their citizens, and many of them end up fleeing here to avoid starvation or death squads.

Eventually, back in their home countries, often as not you get a revolution, and then we get all the people who caused that state to fail moving here, becoming citizens, and then voting for candidates who promise to make America more like pre-Castro Cuba or the Shah's Iran. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

3 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I know. Line I said, there’s problems and tweaks. I’m simply saying deregulation itself isn’t the problem. 

I completely agree with you.  I am in support of deregulation and consumer choice.  I know you have been without power, but I have been trying to explain to a lot of people how ERCOT works.  I may not be in the industry anymore, but I still remember how it all works.  

[SydneyCarton 47924]

1 minute ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Oh, I know the politicians are one of the main problems.  However, a capacity market would all least incentivize some of the investment, though I think you have to set bare minimums.  Those that go above and beyond should have economic incentives to do so.  Companies are not charities, though I know a lot of people think they are.

Yeah. I agree. Baseline improvements are needed in the system. I don’t think we need a capacity market to make it work in Texas. But we’d need honest companies and politicians. So I guess what I’m saying is a form of capacity market probably is the best answer. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19096]

4 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

Glad to see you support nuclear as part of your commitment to green energy. To Bill Gates’ credit, he also supports nuclear energy and mentions it in his new book. Also has invested in bringing cleaner reactors online.

I have always been pro-nuclear.  South Texas Project has been a boon for the most part.  

[SydneyCarton 47924]

1 minute ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

I completely agree with you.  I am in support of deregulation and consumer choice.  I know you have been without power, but I have been trying to explain to a lot of people how ERCOT works.  I may not be in the industry anymore, but I still remember how it all works.  

Yeah, I’m getting some free time now and combating the ignorance on FB and other places is overwhelming. 

[Bateshorn 9908]

Holy fucking shit people:  IT'S NOT FUCKING WIND.

A quick google search indicates 35+% of Iowa's power comes from wind.  It's 14 degrees in Des Moines right now with snow in the forecast. They have much harder winters than you tough guys down in Texas.

There are less than 100 IA outages STATEWIDE right now. STFU up about wind.  

Edited February 18, 2021 by Bateshorn

[SydneyCarton 47924]

Just now, Bateshorn said:

Holy fucking shit people:  IT'S NOT FUCKING WIND.

A quick google search indicates 35+% of Iowa's power comes from wind.  It's 14 degrees in Des Moines right now with snow in the forecast. They have much harder winters than you tough guys down in Texas.

There are less than 100 IA outages STATEWIDE right now. STFU up about wind.  

Iowa might have improved. My employee in Iowa was saying there were mass outages yesterday or the day before. 

[TexArcher 37533]

The WSJ is completely, 100% full of shit when it comes to their editorials.  

We get something like 6 or 7% of our power from wind.

They're covering for their Big Energy buddies, as always.

[Bateshorn 9908]

8 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Iowa might have improved. My employee in Iowa was saying there were mass outages yesterday or the day before. 

It was roughly 5000 outages 2 days ago.  Your standard “it’s cold as fuck, some places are gonna dark as grid operators deal with people cranking the thermostat” outages. 
 

We are having a sleet storm in MD today.  I’m sure a few thousand people will lose power for a while as branches come down.  That’s normal winter weather stuff. Not an apocalypse like this whats going on in Texas. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Bateshorn

[SydneyCarton 47924]

2 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

It was roughly 5000 outages 2 days ago.  Your standard “it’s cold as fuck, some places are gonna dark as grid operators deal with people cranking the thermostat” outages. 
 

We are having a sleet storm in MD today.  I’m sure a few thousand people will lose power for a while as branches come down.  That’s normal winter weather stuff. Not an apocalypse like this whats going on in Texas. 

Well in my defense it was portrayed to me as an apocalypse. I’ve been too busy to keep tabs elsewhere 

[MoJames 8241]

So in order to avoid this clusterfuck again, you guys are counting on which politician to step up?

[SydneyCarton 47924]

1 minute ago, MoJames said:

So in order to avoid this clusterfuck again, you guys are counting on which politician to step up?

I’m too angry and I admit, scared, to read the daily texan thread on this shit. 
 

ive been speaking to my buddies about this. One nailed it. The easiest way to understand what happened here is the same thing when GM or Ford does the math on whether it’s cheaper to do a recall versus paying out and settling the lawsuits. That’s it. That’s what this is, exactly. 

[MoJames 8241]

9 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

It was roughly 5000 outages 2 days ago.  Your standard “it’s cold as fuck, some places are gonna dark as grid operators deal with people cranking the thermostat” outages. 
 

We are having a sleet storm in MD today.  I’m sure a few thousand people will lose power for a while as branches come down.  That’s normal winter weather stuff. Not an apocalypse like this whats going on in Texas. 

Checking in from Colorado, approx 25% of our power is wind, no power outages at my house which is at 7400 feet and had about 2 foot of snow in the past week.

[Macklemore 2870]

20 minutes ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Yeah and so these countries create desperate situations for most of their citizens, and many of them end up fleeing here to avoid starvation or death squads.

Eventually, back in their home countries, often as not you get a revolution, and then we get all the people who caused that state to fail moving here, becoming citizens, and then voting for candidates who promise to make America more like pre-Castro Cuba or the Shah's Iran. 

You should have seen Iran in the 70s. Pretty girls in go go boots and short dresses. 70 rials = $1 unlike 230,000 to $1 currently. Lots of Americans, cheap domestic labor and good places to drink. It was pretty close to being heaven until it went to shit.  

[SizzleChest 8275]

11 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I’m too angry and I admit, scared, to read the daily texan thread on this shit. 
 

ive been speaking to my buddies about this. One nailed it. The easiest way to understand what happened here is the same thing when GM or Ford does the math on whether it’s cheaper to do a recall versus paying out and settling the lawsuits. That’s it. That’s what this is, exactly. 

Yes, in a sense.  But a personal automobile is not a basic service.  

[Js1 85141]

10 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

You should have seen Iran in the 70s. Pretty girls in go go boots and short dresses. 70 rials = $1 unlike 230,000 to $1 currently. Lots of Americans, cheap domestic labor and good places to drink. It was pretty close to being heaven until it went to shit.  

Ugh visiting pre-Shah Iran would be a top 5 "if you could travel back in time" destination.   Just to experience it. 

[wildcat09 29269]

14 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

You should have seen Iran in the 70s. Pretty girls in go go boots and short dresses. 70 rials = $1 unlike 230,000 to $1 currently. Lots of Americans, cheap domestic labor and good places to drink. It was pretty close to being heaven until it went to shit.  

Did you seriously create a new sock to circumvent the CR ban that you requested?

[NWBuck 8548]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Fucking Antarctica's windmills have heaters on them so they don't freeze up.

Texas couldn't splurge for that add-on. 

[SydneyCarton 47924]

17 minutes ago, SizzleChest said:

Yes, in a sense.  But a personal automobile is not a basic service.  

Listen, I’m not saying it is, but what I am doing is trying to ascribe the right responsibility and blame to those most culpable. Homes and WallStreet aren’t basic functions either, nor is a college education, but we’ve managed to fuck over the fortunes of plenty of folks that way too. I’m discussing a mentality. 
 

what do you do to change bad behaviors? You penalize those responsible and vote out those who give them cover. Same as it ever was, dude. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by SydneyCarton