ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

[ndawg 1,242]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Correct. It also happened in 2002. No, I don’t want to pay more for electricity for 10 year storms.

Don't worry, we should be able to help subsidize anyone who can't afford a small increase in utility cost.

[956 Worldwide 34,465]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Correct. It also happened in 2002. No, I don’t want to pay more for electricity for 10 year storms. ERCOT really fucked up, but any explanation will likely be lost on this crowd. And lol at the Highland Park graphic, and general anytime Wanoer Bob posts. 

Look, I would have infinitely more respect if the power generators and others would come out and say this. Its somewhat defensible. 

”We didn’t build our plants and supply lines to handle this type of lasting cold. We want to make money and you all want lower energy prices. We made the decision it was worth the risk compared to the upside considering this happens about once a decade or less. We’re pretty sure not many of you bought snow chains and keep them around just in case, either, so don’t pretend it’s just us that make those kind of calculations when safety is at stake.” 
 

But all this ready to go bullshit to fling at renewables? GTFO.

Edited February 18, 2021 by 956 Worldwide

[cactusflinthead 27,594]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

No, let’s not. All solvable without increases in electricity costs. It won’t be the costliest in the history of the US. You’re going to have start citing your numbers, because I don’t believe any of them. And stop being a coward and reappear in the thread in which you took a gigantic shit, got your ass kicked, and won’t come back. 

Why are there ceramic parts in transformers Rex? 

The ones installed during the 30s and still in use.

 Why do they shut down plants without weatherization in September? 

 

 

[wildcat09 29,269]

12 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Let’s not pay any more for electricity, even a few dollars a month.

Also, let’s suffer a disaster that will end up being the costliest in the history of the United States, per early insurance estimates.

Not sure I agree with your math there, Lou.

Rex is a fuckin idiot.

[Foosters 17,735]

You read college educated adults make posts like "lots of deaths are ok as long as I don't have to pay a little extra each month" and then you start to understand why our country is really only good at punishing people and killing people overseas. 

[Dahobbs 17,451]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Lulz. I see the unity in Trump hate has dissipated. I’ll see myself out. This is my business; I know it inside and out. But, I’m not gonna convince a bunch of loons that have deeply embedded bonehead notions. Not worthy of my time.

So now we know who to blame. Thanks. Figures. 

[Foosters 17,735]

Just now, Dahobbs said:

So now we know who to blame. Thanks. Figures. 

Yes, its the people freezing to death because they aren't expressing sufficient "unity" with Rex's idea that their deaths are an acceptable cost.

[C-Man 27,070]

[956 Worldwide 34,465]

1 minute ago, C-Man said:

The “encouraging” people to switch bit was a pretty slick piece of PR. They did the right thing and “encouraged” you to switch, even if that’s damn near impossible. And of course, it’s totally beyond their control what happens after, you signed the contract and they have no choice but to enforce it.

 

[hayden_horn 11,360]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Lulz. I see the unity in Trump hate has dissipated. I’ll see myself out. This is my business; I know it inside and out. But, I’m not gonna convince a bunch of loons that have deeply embedded bonehead notions. Not worthy of my time.

10 year events have actuarial consequences. if your house is in 100 year floodplain, you're paying more for insurance. we should make sure that this shit doesn't happen again, even if it is in 10 years' time. this is third world shit we are going through right now. i've been boiling water all fucking day, we have people without power, people dying because they are cold, moving out of their houses so they don't freeze to death, and this is all a joke to you, it seems.

we should fix it, so it doesn't happen again.

[Okie State 3,788]

So my electricity contract is running out soon and it won't let me sign up for any new plans. Everything just says it's under maintenance. Am I about to get fucked with a huge rate increase?

[HenryJames 65,891]

Abbott is a complete fucking coward. What a fucking embarrassing press conference.

[wildcat09 29,269]

20 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Lulz. I see the unity in Trump hate has dissipated. I’ll see myself out. This is my business; I know it inside and out. But, I’m not gonna convince a bunch of loons that have deeply embedded bonehead notions. Not worthy of my time.

Ah yes, those of us who think we should have a basic level of infrastructure to prevent shitloads of people from dying on the regular are the loons. 

If you don't want to live in a society, go find your own fucking island and get the fuck out. If you do want to live in a society, you're going to have to pitch in you pussy.

[Asithappens 974]

2 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Abbott is a complete fucking coward. What a fucking embarrassing press conference.

We need a governor who will stand up for Texas, not sit down for ERCOT.

[wildcat09 29,269]

Just now, Dr. Beeper said:

One last response here. It’s not a joke to me at all. I’ve not once commented on any death situation as if it were acceptable. All kinds of jackasses putting words in my mouth.

The solution of “let’s just pay more for electricity” is a really neophyte dumbass simpleton response. 

Literally nobody thinks the solution is to just pay more for electricity you dipshit.

[Dahobbs 17,451]

15 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

One last response here. This particular event is like a 100-year event, and it’s not a joke to me at all. I’ve not once commented on any death situation as if it were acceptable. All kinds of jackasses putting words in my mouth, like that moron wildcat (I have no desire to live in a society with you or your ilk, and am confident we are worlds apart)  

The solution of “let’s just pay more for electricity” is a really neophyte dumbass simpleton response. 

Paying more is simply us recognizing that getting things fixed will take money. Paying more allows the solution to be implemented. It isn't the solution itself. Your deep understanding of this business is apparently as fundamentally flawed as your understanding of airplane etiquette and dipping. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Dahobbs

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

5 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

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. 

Can you elaborate on this?  I'm an engineer, so I have some basic understanding of power generation and transmission and AC, but no realistic understanding of these issues.

[SydneyCarton 47,924]

5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Can you elaborate on this?  I'm an engineer, so I have some basic understanding of power generation and transmission and AC, but no realistic understanding of these issues.

I’d love to sound smart, but honestly the best resource is this wiki page I read a few years back. Me referencing it in my posts now is folks in the industry deeper than me talking about it. It’s a pretty good read though. The short is once they get out of sync getting back in the exact frequency is no walk in the park. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency

Edited February 18, 2021 by SydneyCarton

[hornmpa96 2,598]

1 hour ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Correct. It also happened in 2002. No, I don’t want to pay more for electricity for 10 year storms. ERCOT really fucked up, but any explanation will likely be lost on this crowd. And lol at the Highland Park graphic, and generally anytime Wanker Bob posts. 

 

15 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

One last response here. This particular event is like a 100-year event, and it’s not a joke to me at all. I’ve not once commented on any death situation as if it were acceptable. All kinds of jackasses putting words in my mouth, like that moron wildcat (I have no desire to live in a society with you or your ilk, and am confident we are worlds apart)  

The solution of “let’s just pay more for electricity” is a really neophyte dumbass simpleton response. 

How am I supposed to read the first quote?

People are actually dying during this event whether through a house fire started by candles or carbon monoxide poisoning. As a Texan, I would willingly pay extra for electricity to ensure plants are properly able to withstand weather extremes. I would even include paying extra for the produced gas to winterize the supply lines.

if that’s a dumbass simpleton response, please educate me because I don’t want to see additional Texans dying in the next 10 year storm provided we can improve the situation.

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

7 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I’d love to sound smart, but honestly the best resource is this wiki page I read a few years back. Me referencing it in my posts now is folks in the industry deeper than me talking about it. It’s a pretty good read though. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency

Thanks.  I see this:

Quote

Generators can only be interconnected to operate in parallel if they are of the same frequency and wave-shape. By standardizing the frequency used, generators in a geographic area can be interconnected in a grid, providing reliability and cost savings.

And that makes a certain amount of sense.  I think, then, that depending on the impedance characteristics of a particular local grid, cutting it in or on may fuck up the frequency and wave shape of part of the larger grid, risking the whole thing.  So that maybe partially explains why I have seen reference to being unable to turn on certain grids without risking the system.

Like some local grids are going to have more transformers and more "step downs" to household voltage.  Those grids are going to be more likely to have different impedance characteristics than other grids with fewer transformers and will thus be harder to turn on and off frequently.

Edited February 18, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Dahobbs 17,451]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Will take money paid by the consumer?  Absolutely no it will not.  The default of a lot of people to give up your money and my money to fix a very fixable problem (that rears its head very infrequently) is fucking disturbing. I’ve a very firm handle on the business. Don’t understand why another default position is I don’t care about people dying and I’m getting negged to death. 

Who pays then? I don't understand what on earth you think people are suggesting or what you think the solution is. It seems fairly obvious: (1) winterize, and (2) market accounting for reserve capacity. Those things take money. Either it comes out of profit (assuming sufficient profit exists), it results it increased prices, or is paid for by taxes. Those are the choices. But sure, if you have a magic way to make those things happen without money, please share with the class. 

If paying 10% more in prices presents events like this, whether categorized as 10 year or 100 year, then it is worth it and the economically efficient outcome. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Dahobbs

[Michael Knight 12,901]

Texas was "seconds and minutes" away from catastrophic monthslong blackouts, officials say

Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said that grid operators implemented blackouts to avoid a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months.

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/texas-power-outages-ercot/

Edited February 18, 2021 by Michael Knight

[Dbeasy 14,974]

7 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

This industry is directly adjacent to my career of 20 years. I know more about the grid and the power than most folks. I will say that the title of this thread isn’t correct. I’m sure much of it has been covered here, and we’re just getting power restored after days without here in Houston. I’ll be happy to answer direct questions over time when I can, but I’ll sum this up quickly. 
 

20 things went wrong. This isn’t a deregulation issue or a PUC issue. This isn’t an ERCOT issue. This isn’t a federal oversight issue or preventing socialism. This is politics and greed, period. Texas’s grid wasn’t winterized after repeated fuckups this decade because politicians don’t hold companies accountable and fine them for failure. Companies don’t do it because they’re greedy and sick and do calculations like “how much will it cost to fix this versus pay off lawsuits?” That’s it. If this grid was winterized properly and protected, If resources brought online earlier, if pipes had been better insulated carrying gas, we’d be fine. Do we need to be connected to the other two major grids in the US? There’s pros and cons you can debate. But we could have survived this on our own if we’d taken the precautions. We didn’t. Because they’re expensive. 
 

Deregulation in Texas has created hundreds of thousands of jobs. You want to keep it. None of this is a problem if politicians hold companies accountable to standards and actually implement basic regulations. But we don’t because Texas. Laying blame anywhere other than our elected officials is wrong and a smokescreen, because we all know companies will sink to their lowest requirements because people are shitty. 

Great post but I would slightly reword one thing you said. We all, me included, blame greedy corrupt flawed politicians for our problems, but that is only a symptom of the root cause of the problem.
 

Our populace is so uninformed on just about every policy topic that they not only can’t pick the right politicians, they can’t even separate truth from propaganda. Until we somehow create a more informed population that has figured out the propaganda game being played, our future will continue to get worse, across the board. 

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

I still feel like people don't get that ERCOT fucked up in their projections, but isn't responsible for a lot of the fuckups.  They can't force power generators to do their jobs right, or natural gas producers, or wind farm operators, or pipeline companies.  About all they can do is send a sternly worded letter.

This was a multi-faceted, multifarious fuckup at a bunch of different levels under the control of different regulatory bodies.

Something is going to have to change at multiple places to fix this.  And it's gonna cost some money, either taxes or consumer prices, or both.  Or reduced profit margins, but good luck with that.

Edited February 18, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Michael Knight 12,901]

8 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

Who pays then? I don't understand what on earth you think people are suggesting or what you think the solution is. It seems fairly obvious: (1) winterize, and (2) market accounting for reserve capacity. Those things take money. Either it comes out of profit (assuming sufficient profit exists), it results it increased prices, or is paid for by taxes. Those are the choices. But sure, if you have a magic way to make those things happen without money, please share with the class. 

If paying 10% more in prices presents events like this, whether categorized as 10 year or 100 year, then it is worth it and the economically efficient outcome. 

Maybe just maybe the people making obscene amounts of money off of this could make slightly less obscene amounts, call me crazy call me a communist but fuck those fucking people they can pay for it out of their ass.

[956 Worldwide 34,465]

6 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Great post but I would slightly reword one thing you said. We all, me included, blame greedy corrupt flawed politicians for our problems, but that is only a symptom of the root cause of the problem.
 

Our populace is so uninformed on just about every policy topic that they not only can’t pick the right politicians, they can’t even separate truth from propaganda. Until we somehow create a more informed population that has figured out the propaganda game being played, our future will continue to get worse, across the board. 

I am not in the power or O&G industry but my profession is very closely tied to (counter) propaganda. I’m convinced that propaganda is only capable of being solved on the supply side. Responsible leaders across the cultural, business, and political spectrum have to swear off of it and call it out when they see it. 
 

 You can do some good on the margins— and you can inoculate against certain strains at the expense of vulnerability to others— but herd immunity is a pipe dream. We aren’t and never will be rational creatures and all propaganda does is weaponize that reality. 

[lemonlime 5,503]

Even if you're a psychopath and are fine with people dying to save some money, how much is repairing all the broken pipes, etc. going to cost?  And are the financial costs of these massive repairs really less than paying to winterize the infrastructure?

 

[Dahobbs 17,451]

2 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

Maybe just maybe the people making obscene amounts of money off of this could make slightly less obscene amounts, call me crazy call me a communist but fuck those fucking people they can pay for it out of their ass.

I have no issue with that. It just depends on the economics of the business. If there is sufficient room for these things to be built into current consumer pricing, great. No one is saying to just pay higher prices. They are saying we should be willing to if that is what it takes. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,096]

41 minutes ago, Asithappens said:

We need a governor who will stand up for Texas, not sit down for ERCOT.

Abbott doesn't stand up for anything.  It is kind of a feature.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,968]

So, I didn't read the last ten or so pages because the first several were making my brain rot. Y'all need to do a little more critical thinking and stop listening to whoever your liberal or conservative savior is and just lashing out illogically at anybody who isn't like you. I probably missed some good actual discussion on policy stuff because most of y'all can't help yourselves, but I'll give you my perspective as someone who has worked in operations in a chemical plant for ten years.

So, first off, let's acknowledge that a chemical plant and an electrical plant aren't exactly the same. They do however rely on a lot of the same basic infrastructure and concepts. 

Reports said that the instruments froze up. That's easy enough to fix, right? Most plants have special air lines for instruments that are supposed to be clean and free from oils and moisture and all that fun stuff, but in reality the oil separators and dryers have problems from time to time and allow moisture and junk to get in the lines. It get fixed, but there are probably tens of miles of lines of instrument air in a small plant that could potentially have moisture in them. Add the inefficiencies of the dryers and it can easily accumulate. Throw in the same problems with your regular plant air that isn't as well controlled plus any other utilities, and you have tons of potential places where there could be disruptions. You are basically relying on your operators to know all of this and be able to report it and get it fixed (assuming an unlimited maintenance budget and no capex projects going on). These same operators don't have a lot of experience dealing with cold weather on this level, and the engineers don't exactly know what is going on on that level, so things get overlooked or not reported because nothing will come of it and they have been figuring out how to deal with stuff like that forever.

It's not hard, and not political, to see how we could easily lose a huge amount of electrical capacity in an event like this. There are obviously things we could have and should do better, but plants going down in extreme cold in Texas is pretty much always going to happen. We should plan for it better, but it is really freaking hard to plan for something you can't simulate.

[Michael Knight 12,901]

Just now, Dahobbs said:

I have no issue with that. It just depends on the economics of the business. If there is sufficient room for these things to be built into current consumer pricing, great. No one is saying to just pay higher prices. They are saying we should be willing to if that is what it takes. 

It doesn't have to take that. If the last year has taught us anything its that our economy hell our civilization cannot survive without basic things like power, water and health care. Stop making living a for profit industry.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,096]

50 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

One last response here. This particular event is like a 100-year event, and it’s not a joke to me at all. I’ve not once commented on any death situation as if it were acceptable. All kinds of jackasses putting words in my mouth, like that moron wildcat (I have no desire to live in a society with you or your ilk, and am confident we are worlds apart)  

The solution of “let’s just pay more for electricity” is a really neophyte dumbass simpleton response. 

That isn't the solution.  That is likely the result of the solutions that have been posited in this thread.  And by the by, you say this is your business, well, it used to be mine too.  I spent over 10 years of my career dealing with power and utilities in a number of roles.  So fuck off with your bullshit.  This also is no longer a 100 year event.  It happened in 1983, 1985, 2011, and 2021 at a minimum.  

Edited February 18, 2021 by PenelopeWitherspoon

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

1 minute ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

We should plan for it better, but it is really freaking hard to plan for something you can't simulate.

Yeah, I have said and believe this.  We could have done a better job preparing, but the systems are so complex that something unanticipated is always going to pop up and fuck things up.  Like you said, you can model and predict and simulate 4 degree temperatures until you're blue in the face, but until you see what happens with your particular equipment in those particular conditions, it's not going to be a failsafe plan.

[JimmyJames 12,271]

5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I still feel like people don't get that ERCOT fucked up in their projections, but isn't responsible for a lot of the fuckups.  They can't force power generators to do their jobs right, or natural gas producers, or wind farm operators, or pipeline companies.  About all they can do is send a sternly worded letter.

This was a multi-faceted, multifarious fuckup at a bunch of different levels under the control of different regulatory bodies.

Something is going to have to change at multiple places to fix this.  And it's gonna cost some money, either taxes or consumer prices, or both.

Agreed. And I have a simple solution.

1. stop electing corrupt and incompetent republican governors like perry and hot wheels,

2. have non corrupt, non incompetent, non republican governors appoints competent people to the PUC instead of energy industry cronies and other buffoons,

3. The PUC actually oversees the energy sector in the state, including ERCOT with an eye towards the public good instead of industry profits.

4. vote all the idiot republicans out of the house and senate so that the lege can write laws with an eye towards the public good instead of industry profits.

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,555]

14 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

I initially said 10 year event and changed my mind on the severity of it. I wasn’t shifting gears on you. To the rest of your post and the one below here, I’ll respond later, if I have the energy. My user name in Cloak Room evokes immediate derision and negs when I’m not overtly critical of Trump, and I’m worn out. It’s not “magic”; it’s reallocation of costs and incremental costs borne by shippers and gathering line companies. 

 

Well then ERCOT deserves a fucking reward. Way to position the narrative your dumbfucks. 

This is great fucking logic right here.  It reminds me of that time my buddy got drunk and decided to drive and almost hit a car full of little kids.  He got lucky and missed them but we should give him a fucking reward since he didn't kill those kids.    

[JimmyJames 12,271]

Oh yeah, almost forgot.

5. Stop electing corrupt and incompetent republicans to the Railroad commission. 

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

1 minute ago, Dr. Beeper said:

You’re right but ERCOT still fucked up royally. If I’m on the board of ERCOT, yet have no authority to ensure producers and gatherers do their jobs properly, then I’d resign. ERCOT and RRC need to lead the charge of totally reforming the system, including, but not limited to ensuring consumers don’t pay any more to ensure they “do their jobs right”. That people here just want to offer that up, without fully understanding the situation, is insanity. 

Well, like dahobbs said, I don't think anyone is saying the solution is to pay more for electricity.  But I think it's foolish to believe that solutions won't cost money somewhere and a rise in consumer prices seems likely.  Or in taxes.

I suppose the money could come from the profit margins of the money-making entities that need to do better, but that seems unlikely.

As far as politics, I think everyone must agree that the regime controlling Texas for the last 2-3 decades has  been overly deferential to the profit margins of private entities and letting "the market" solve the problems, and that is a major contributing factor to where we are at the moment.

2011 sounded an alarm bell on these kinds of issues and I think recommendations were made, but there was no incentive or stick to make industry follow the recos.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,096]

1 minute ago, JimmyJames said:

Oh yeah, almost forgot.

5. Stop electing corrupt and incompetent republicans to the Railroad commission. 

I cannot stand Wayne Christian.  Watching hearings with him is fucking painful.

[Dahobbs 17,451]

27 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

I initially said 10 year event and changed my mind on the severity of it. I wasn’t shifting gears on you. To the rest of your post and the one below here, I’ll respond later, if I have the energy. My user name in Cloak Room evokes immediate derision and negs when I’m not overtly critical of Trump, and I’m worn out. It’s not “magic”; it’s reallocation of costs and incremental costs borne by shippers and gathering line companies. 

 

Well then ERCOT deserves a fucking reward. Way to position the narrative your dumbfucks. 

Speaking of dumb messaging, dude, you came in guns blazing saying everyone was being stupid for suggesting we pay more for energy. All you had to do was say that your solution was for the energy businesses to just eat the cost in their margins. You'd have gotten positive rep galore. 

[JimmyJames 12,271]

I like how Abbott is coming down hard on ERCOT when he bears more responsibility for this fiasco than any single person with the exception of Rick Perry. Abbott appoints the PUC which regulates ERCOT.  2011 was a Godsend warning that this kind of thing could happen and nobody did jack shit to fix the known problem for 10 fucking years.

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

14 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

I like how Abbott is coming down hard on ERCOT when he bears more responsibility for this fiasco than any single person with the exception of Rick Perry. Abbott appoints the PUC which regulates ERCOT.  2011 was a Godsend warning that this kind of thing could happen and nobody did jack shit to fix the known problem for 10 fucking years.

Anyone currently in office yes.  There may be a few Railroad and PU commissioners that have been around long enough to really bear the responsibility for ignoring the warning bells.

As you acknowledge, these problems date back quite a ways.  A lot of the things even predate the "deregulation" in 2002.  Ann Richards was governor when power generation was "deregulated."Wrong about that, Shrub signed that bill, but it has been an ongoing process for decades.

But yeah, treating ERCOT as the sole whipping boy is stupid, whether we do it or Abbott does.  Shitbag.

Edited February 18, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[MoJames 8,241]

28 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

It's not hard, and not political, to see how we could easily lose a huge amount of electrical capacity in an event like this. There are obviously things we could have and should do better, but plants going down in extreme cold in Texas is pretty much always going to happen. We should plan for it better, but it is really freaking hard to plan for something you can't simulate.

Yet most other states in the same region and similar weather are able to keep the power on?

[Dahobbs 17,451]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Not quite that simple, and I didn’t come in guns blazing. You chose to presume I was. 

Uh, you literally posted that we shouldn't pay more and that explaining here would be wasted on us. By all means, continue thinking you're somehow above us little people. And, you still can't explain what your solution is. 

[JimmyJames 12,271]

16 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

What solution did I post there?

‘83 was the closest approximate. The others don’t come close. You forgot 2002. This was a 100-year event. 

Saying this is a “100 year event” is crap. If the power went off today then you might be right. The power was shut off Sunday night

[TwiceHorn 31,309]

16 minutes ago, MoJames said:

Yet most other states in the same region and similar weather are able to keep the power on?

I think our population, geographical area and number of major cities makes it a bit more of a challenge than OK, AR, NM or LA.

[MoJames 8,241]

5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I think our population, geographical area and number of major cities makes it a bit more of a challenge than OK, AR, NM or LA.

I was directly commenting on his statement that it's hard to keep the plant up bc we don't have to do it as often as other places. I admit I'm not aware of what plants require upkeep in OK, AR, NM or LA, but it appears the people running the plant in those places have their shit together.

Edited February 18, 2021 by MoJames

[JimmyJames 12,271]

So every time the temperature in the state gets down to 10 degrees we should expect the possibility of a complete collapse of the power grid? Seems like pretty low expectations.

[Foosters 17,735]

State	November 2020 rate (cents/kWh)	Avg. monthly usage (kWh)	Avg. bill	Cost ranking
Alabama	13.00	1,136	147.68	49
Alaska	22.53	601	135.41	43
Arizona	11.69	1,033	120.76	31
Arkansas	10.59	1,028	108.87	24
California	22.26	554	123.32	35
Colorado	12.38	678	83.94	3
Connecticut	21.41	690	147.73	50
Delaware	13.62	912	124.21	36
Florida	12.00	1,089	130.68	42
Georgia	11.38	1,062	120.86	32
Hawaii	28.84	506	145.93	48
Idaho	9.67	1,000	96.70	8
Illinois	13.41	692	92.80	5
Indiana	13.23	928	122.77	34
Iowa	12.34	831	102.55	14
Kansas	12.98	861	111.76	26
Kentucky	11.43	1,052	120.24	30
Louisiana	9.94	1,187	117.99	29
Maine	16.17	546	88.29	4
Maryland	13.27	940	124.74	37
Massachusetts	22.10	583	128.84	41
Michigan	16.43	633	104.00	18
Minnesota	12.92	748	96.64	7
Mississippi	11.99	1,132	135.73	45
Missouri	10.07	994	100.10	12
Montana	11.22	865	97.05	9
Nebraska	10.73	957	102.69	16
Nevada	11.61	854	99.15	11
New Hampshire	19.20	599	115.01	27
New Jersey	15.69	654	102.61	15
New Mexico	12.94	615	79.58	2
New York	18.91	572	108.17	22
North Carolina	11.64	1,042	121.29	33
North Dakota	10.26	1,063	109.06	25
Ohio	12.35	841	103.86	17
Oklahoma	10.27	1,039	106.71	20
Oregon	11.12	969	107.75	21
Pennsylvania	13.51	805	108.76	23
Rhode Island	23.58	577	136.06	46
South Carolina	12.68	1,082	137.20	47
South Dakota	12.03	978	117.65	28
Tennessee	11.10	1,150	127.65	39
Texas	12.20	1,112	135.66	44
Utah	10.29	745	76.66	1
Vermont	19.68	538	105.88	19
Virginia	11.65	1,078	125.59	38
Washington	9.84	1,023	100.66	13
West Virginia	12.46	1,026	127.84	40
Wisconsin	14.77	660	97.48	10
Wyoming	11.12	854	94.96	6
U.S. average	13.35	867	115.74

 

 

[Beau Vine 54,010]

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Governor Greg Abbott appointed Arthur D'Andrea to serve as a commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas on November 14, 2017, for a term set to expire on September 1, 2023. Before his appointment, Commissioner D'Andrea served as Assistant General Counsel to Governor Abbott. His career has been primarily focused on the law, including his role as Assistant Solicitor General in the Texas Attorney General’s office where he served as lead appellate counsel in matters including constitutional challenges to state statutes, public-utilities regulation, antitrust, tax disputes, insurance regulation, regulatory takings, and petitions for writ of habeas corpus. There he argued thirteen cases in the Second and Fifth Circuits, the Texas Supreme Court, and in the intermediate state courts of appeals.

Prior to joining the Attorney General's team, Arthur worked in the Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice Group for a private law firm where he represented clients before the United States Supreme Court and in federal and state courts of appeals nationwide in matters including white-collar criminal prosecutions, international-trade disputes, patent infringement, trademark disputes, bankruptcy, international arbitration, and securities litigation.

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas, Commissioner D'Andrea worked as a Management Consultant for Price Waterhouse Coopers before earning a Juris Doctor from the University Of Texas School Of Law. He and his wife, Erin, are raising their children in Austin, Texas.

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Governor Greg Abbott appointed Shelly Botkin to serve as a commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas on June 11, 2018, for a term set to expire on September 1, 2025. Before her appointment, Commissioner Botkin served as Director of Corporate Communications and Government Relations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) where she worked to build awareness of the organization’s vital role in managing the electric grid for most of Texas.

Prior to joining ERCOT, Shelly worked ten years in the Texas capitol as a senior policy analyst on business, regulatory, and environmental issues for two state senators and for both the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House.

Shelly is a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, serving on the Water Committee. She is also on the Advisory Council of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business.

After growing up in Lubbock, Shelly earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. She lives in Austin, Texas.

 

[Francisco 2.0 32,346]

https://defector.com/texas-energy-crisis-lying/

 

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My little sister sent me a photo of the faucet in her Dallas house, which she had left on at a drip overnight at the instruction of a half-dozen Instagram suggestions from people who know how to weather the cold. This, they said, is to keep your pipes from freezing, to keep the water running so it doesn’t solidify in the freezing temperatures and explode. We don’t know about that. We are Texas girls, after all, raised in winters warm enough to swim in the pool on Christmas, with bodies capable of regulating 110 degrees but not 30. You can get used to the heat, gain a tolerance for it, learn to run a mile through air that feels like you’re breathing through a straw, but you can’t get used to the cold. The cold will kill you. When my sister woke up the next day, her faucet was an icicle. It was cold enough inside her bathroom to freeze the water solid as it dripped. 

 

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We knew it was coming. There is nothing Texas weather reports love more than a big ball of air hurtling toward you, whether it’s a cold front or a heat wave, they know it’s coming early. What is there to stop it? There are hundreds of miles between Texas and anything to break the wind, endless plains for a pressure system to sprint across before it gets to you, full of the wrath of God. 

You know what happened. We all know what happened. The power grid is down in Texas, and has been for days. People are freezing. They are trying to warm their feet over the gas burners on their stove. They are arriving at the hospitals by the hundreds with carbon monoxide poisoning because they have tried not to die by using cars and camping stoves and ovens for warmth, and the trade off is that the air will still kill you, but more quickly. They are in pain. Even those with power are scared.

 

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I know more people in Texas than I know anywhere else by a country mile. I was raised there, I went to school there, and graduated there. I know hundreds of people across the state, and the state is not small. It is five hours from Houston to Dallas if you speed, four from Austin to Dallas, nine from Dallas to El Paso. I have heard from people in the Rio Grande Valley who are terrified, and from people near the Oklahoma border. There are 29 million people in Texas, and almost all of them are too cold. 

 

Spoiler

Everyone is scared. My friends tell me they’re worried about their parents and grandparents who don’t have power and can’t be reached because the roads aren’t plowed. They say that (if they’re lucky) their power is off and on, but they have no water, or vice versa. They say that they are worried their friends and coworkers are dead because the last time anyone heard from them was Friday, and they didn’t have power. They say a pipe exploded and the living room is flooded. People are sharing houses, taking in strangers, handing food out on the street in the midst of a viral pandemic. They are attacked on every side by invisible, deadly enemies. 

How did this happen? How does an entire giant state run out of energy? How does a power grid fail so drastically? The answer is simple. Texas partitioned its own energy grid from the rest of the country so it could be free from regulation, and that independence comes with a cost.  In a 2019 story for the Texas Observer, Amal Ahmed wrote that Texas’s energy grid, ERCOT, “has the lowest reserve margins, or extra supply, out of any grid system in the United States this summer. If customers had needed more electricity than predicted, there wouldn’t be much room for error, and ERCOT might have needed to initiate rolling blackouts to prevent a larger, more dangerous power outage.” The state was warned a decade ago that this might happen. And they did nothing. “The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” an expert told the Houston Chronicle. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.” In other words, a lack of capable governing allowed an important and life-sustaining system to rust. 

No one I’ve talked to in Texas has mentioned the government. They know better than to expect anything from it. Anyone who has lived in Texas for any period of time and experienced any kind of dire need knows that the government is not going to help you. It’s controlled by men who care more about their pockets than their people. It’s one thing to come to terms with that level of neglect when it’s being enacted in the service of denying people individual rights to decisions over their body, or ensuring that everyone can carry a gun at all times. But it’s something else to see the consequences of the government’s callousness borne out in the crashing of a power grid. Even libertarians think that the government should make sure the roads are safe and that people can heat their homes. 

Texas isn’t the only state that’s been forced to bear these failures of government. In January 2016, the Michigan governor promised to look into how American citizens in Flint had ended up with tap water that ran brown and was poisoning people. The scandal got so large that Presidential candidates went to the tiny town to say their piece. And what happened? Basically nothing. No one went to jail. In 2019, they said they would keep investigating, but nothing has happened. People are going to be sick for the rest of their lives and the people responsible will pay no price. 

There’s New York, too, and Iowa and California and Florida and so many other states where thousands upon thousands of people have needlessly died due to state and local governments botching their pandemic response. Americans are being failed in every state. They are dying and suffering while our representatives are arguing over whether to give us 1,400 more dollars in the 11th month of a pandemic. Every level of the United States government is lying to you right now. They are looking you dead in the eye as your family members freeze and cough and drown in debt and telling you that, actually, you’re fine.

“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” former Texas Governor Rick Perry said in a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”  

Current Texas Governor Greg Abbott went on Fox News to place the blame for Texas’s blackouts on green energy sources, and to wield the grid’s failure as a dire warning against the Green New Deal. He was lying, the same way Andrew Cuomo lied when he wrote an entire book about his masterful leadership through the coronavirus pandemic while 15,000 New Yorkers died in nursing homes as a direct result of his policies. He was lying the same way Barack Obama lied when he went to Flint in 2018 and pretended to take a sip of water in front of an outraged community. 

It’s not about governing. It’s about lying frequently and passionately enough to bend the narrative to your will. It’s about being right. It’s about making your point. It’s about telling the right story on TV so that you can get re-elected and use taxpayer dollars to get your friends richer while telling a little lie whenever you need to, and then throwing your hands up when people die because of it. 

They do this because they know how to get away with it. They know that the very worst thing that can happen to them is losing some public support and having a hard time getting re-elected, and that even those shallow pitfalls can be avoided through more committed mendacity. So far the only powerful person who has paid any kind of consequence as a result of the failure in Texas is Senator Ted Cruz, who had to abruptly return to the state after being caught getting on a plane to Cancun. He then seemed to claim that he only ever got on the plane to accompany his family on the start of their vacation, and always intended to fly right back to Texas. It’s possible that this little political embarrassment be the worst thing that happens to Ted Cruz for the rest of his life.

We know they will always get away with it. We know they aren’t going to help us. Tweets and graphics with information about mutual aid groups to donate to are going viral on every platform. We know better after this year, after this summer, than to trust that the government will do anything at all. This has been a year of sending donations via cash-sharing apps to bail funds, to mutual aid groups, and to individuals because we know that there isn’t help coming from anywhere else. 

Last night, President Biden ordered federal assistance be sent to Texas. But we’ve seen federal assistance before. We’ve seen it for hurricanes, deadly viruses, fires, tornados, and floods. It’s never enough. The systemic failures that brought Texas to this point will be ignored or forgotten, and the toll this week has taken will be chalked up to a fluke of nature, just another disaster that nobody could have seen coming or been prepared for. And in the end nobody will suffer any consequences, except for all of us.