ERCOT, PUC, and deregulation got us here

[David Dennison 18,672]

2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Eastwood is right, it is a little early to tell and to allocate "blame."  But there is a WSJ story upthread, the second one that I linked (not the bullshit oped), that explains the various failure points in a summary fashion that I think is pretty accurate.  There are also a number of articles by academics that are pretty good, but a little denser.

Blame lies with the Republican legislators and executives who have dominated state politics since 1994.

[TwiceHorn 31,313]

4 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Blame lies with the Republican legislators and executives who have dominated state politics since 1994.

As mentioned before, that is accurate from the policy perspective.  Some are also interested in the technical perspective.

When someone asks what went wrong, I default to the technical answers first, rather than the policy stuff.  The policy answer is pretty clear.  The fixes maybe less so.

Edited February 20, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Brisketexan 104,725]

Eastwood is right, it is a little early to tell and to allocate "blame."  But there is a WSJ story upthread, the second one that I linked (not the bullshit oped), that explains the various failure points in a summary fashion that I think is pretty accurate.  There are also a number of articles by academics that are pretty good, but a little denser.

Yep. This was a total systemic failure. Which means that our entire “system” is broken. And as our entire “system” is simply institutionalized profit maximization with zero consideration of the common good (hell, it’s worse than that - the “common good” would mean money spent on something instead of being profits, so really, it’s the “common bad”), and of course ALL rules and regulations are bad, and are pure communism and anti-American...this is the system we get.

It’s actually fascinating, seeing extremism at work. We all grew up laughing and shaking our heads at the Soviets and other commie countries, with their crumbling infrastructure, regular power blackouts, unsafe drinking water, bread lines, all that shit. But as a society, we forgot that an anarchy-capitalist approach could breed just as much corruption, and just as much contempt from the elites dooming the masses to literally freeze to death in their own homes. Soviet elites were senior Politburo officials. American elites are “captains of industry.”

Either way, they enjoy luxuries, wanting for nothing, with special privileges (private jet outta here!) presiding over a crumbling society without giving a rat’s ass about the people they rule.

[David Dennison 18,672]

1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

As mentioned before, that is accurate from the policy perspective.  Some are also interested in the technical perspective.

Shit got cold and didn't work because the state government doesn't require providers to winterize equipment to withstand what we just went through.

Am I close?

[freyguy 4,245]

20 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'd like to know exactly what ERCOT could have done to "prepare".  Were they going to order power providers to winterize their equipment in a matter of days?

All they could do was try to mitigate supply and demand.

Set and enforce higher standards (quality & robustness) on valves, electricals, equipment, etc.)

[TwiceHorn 31,313]

2 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Shit got cold and didn't work because the state government doesn't require providers to winterize equipment to withstand what we just went through.

Am I close?

Don't be fatuous, Jeffery.

One thing I am extremely curious about is that Austin and Houston, especially Austin, seemed to have more trouble with rolling the blackouts than DFW.  That is partially explained I think by more ice causing more mechanical failures, but I don't think it's the complete answer.

Even in a good policy environment, there would be technical problems and this would have been a shitshow, most likely.

[Eastwood 4,394]

29 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'd like to know exactly what ERCOT could have done to "prepare".  Were they going to order power providers to winterize their equipment in a matter of days?

All they could do was try to mitigate supply and demand.

It is my understanding that they could have started shedding load early. The load frequency plummeted to a low at 59.3, when it should be 60. I had read online people claiming to be in the know that 59.7 starts triggering some automatic shutdowns, which caused the initial blackouts. If ERCOT had planned to shed load earlier and started rolling blackouts sooner, they could have had actual rolls instead of only being able to roll what was left. Basically, they only started rolling after the uncontrolled blackouts occurred. Those that blacked out stayed out, those that were part of the rolls that never came back online were kept offline because capacity kept dropping and they had to start rolling those who were still on rather than bring others back online. 

In theory, supposedly (qualifiers galore), they could have coordinated a state wide rolling blackout system that kept everyone online for long enough to not freeze to death or lose water. We won't know for months, probably, whether or not that holds true.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Eastwood

[TwiceHorn 31,313]

1 minute ago, freyguy said:

Set and enforce higher standards (quality & robustness) on valves, electricals, equipment, etc.)

I don't believe they have that power, especially the enforcement part.

[jimmyjazz 45,589]

4 minutes ago, freyguy said:

Set and enforce higher standards (quality & robustness) on valves, electricals, equipment, etc.)

In 6 days?

[Llano Estacado 1,257]

4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

As mentioned before, that is accurate from the policy perspective.  Some are also interested in the technical perspective.

When someone asks what went wrong, I default to the technical answers first, rather than the policy stuff.  The policy answer is pretty clear.  The fixes maybe less so.

Genuinely curious on your and @PenelopeWitherspoon opinion of this early postmortem piece I saw via Twitter. Think it mostly in agreement with how this threads track so far. The personal opinion section at the bottom gets a little in the weeds and talking points about tax incentives and unreliability of renewable energy. As someone who works directly in the  O&G industry I’m familiar with these points, but fact of the matter is it’s never going to apples to apples in regards to taxes, “subsidies”, or “incentives” unless we completely rewrite the federal tax code. 

Note: I have no idea who Judith Curry is or her possible political or industry ties are  

https://judithcurry.com/2021/02/18/assigning-blame-for-the-blackouts-in-texas/amp/

[freyguy 4,245]

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

In 6 days?

No, from the fucking beginning.

[jimmyjazz 45,589]

3 minutes ago, Eastwood said:

It is my understanding that they could have started shedding load early. The load frequency plummeted to a low at 59.3, when it should be 60. I had read online people claiming to be in the know that 59.7 starts triggering some automatic shutdowns, which caused the initial blackouts. If ERCOT had planned to shed load earlier and started rolling blackouts sooner, they could have had actual rolls instead of only being able to roll what was left.

I suppose it's possible.  Austin in particular seems to be in a tenuous situation where critical loads are common enough that they couldn't even "roll" the outages.

In a smart-grid world, I would like to think providers could limit power to individual customers, instead of just the binary on/off solution that exists now.

[Bookman 4,611]

1 hour ago, Buzzrock said:

What’s the CR consensus after a week of frozen hell? The WSJ says the problem was an over-reliance on renewables that were built out in a race for subsidies and rebates. NPR says that’s not true, all kinds of power production failed, and a lack of connection to other state grids plus a lack of extreme cold prep was a disaster waiting to happen.

What says the hive mind after a few days to process?

Honestly it looks like everything worked like it was designed to.

[jimmyjazz 45,589]

Just now, freyguy said:

No, from the fucking beginning.

OK, that's unrelated to the discussion or my point, but carry on.

[TwiceHorn 31,313]

1 minute ago, Llano Estacado said:

Genuinely curious on your and @PenelopeWitherspoon opinion of this early postmortem piece I saw via Twitter. Think it mostly in agreement with how this threads track so far. The personal opinion section at the bottom gets a little in the weeds and talking points about tax incentives and unreliability of renewable energy. As someone who works directly in the  O&G industry I’m familiar with these points, but fact of the matter is it’s never going to apples to apples in regards to taxes, “subsidies”, or “incentives” unless we completely rewrite the federal tax code. 

Note: I have no idea who Judith Curry is or her possible political or industry ties are  

https://judithcurry.com/2021/02/18/assigning-blame-for-the-blackouts-in-texas/amp/

I defer to Penelope on the financial economic stuff.  I have run my mouth on it, but I don't know shit about any of it.

I have enough knowledge to be dangerous on the electro-mechanical shit, but I am extremely curious about it.

[freyguy 4,245]

5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I don't believe they have that power, especially the enforcement part.

So the "R" doesn't stand for Reliability?

[hpslugga 4,050]

On 2/16/2021 at 7:47 AM, cactusflinthead said:

 

Misleading. Power was out all over the PC's. It's just that these rich fucks have generators (nearly all of our block does), so there's less incentive to call and bitch to Oncor. Those little bubbles only reflect reported outages, not necessarily actual ones.

But yes, more importantly to your point about deregulation, of course that's what it's about. Anyone who argues that deregulation somehow helps the consumer is an absolute fool. Of course it's about skirting regs in order to trim costs and maximize profit. That's a given to serious people. When you hear Republicans ranting and raving about regulations, you're not hearing "alternative points of view." You're hearing the ravings of retarded people parroting corporate talking points that have zero to do with the public good. That much is obvious to a serious person.

[cactusflinthead 27,595]

6 minutes ago, hpslugga said:

Misleading. Power was out all over the PC's. It's just that these rich fucks have generators (nearly all of our block does), so there's less incentive to call and bitch to Oncor. Those little bubbles only reflect reported outages, not necessarily actual ones.

But yes, more importantly to your point about deregulation, of course that's what it's about. Anyone who argues that deregulation somehow helps the consumer is an absolute fool. Of course it's about skirting regs in order to trim costs and maximize profit. That's a given to serious people. When you hear Republicans ranting and raving about regulations, you're not hearing "alternative points of view." You're hearing the ravings of retarded people parroting corporate talking points that have zero to do with the public good. That much is obvious to a serious person.

I've regretted that post several times. It's not accurate and wasn't exactly helpful. I'll own it. Now its purpose is give y'all an opportunity to speak up and I'll eat every slice of humble pie I'm served.

Edited February 20, 2021 by cactusflinthead

[YChang 3,432]

1 hour ago, gmr548 said:

The fuck is evidence based research? You’re just trying to mix and match buzzwords

Not defending fake, but evidence-based research is not a buzzword. I mean in the research/evaluation world it’s a framework. <shrug>

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,096]

44 minutes ago, Llano Estacado said:

Genuinely curious on your and @PenelopeWitherspoon opinion of this early postmortem piece I saw via Twitter. Think it mostly in agreement with how this threads track so far. The personal opinion section at the bottom gets a little in the weeds and talking points about tax incentives and unreliability of renewable energy. As someone who works directly in the  O&G industry I’m familiar with these points, but fact of the matter is it’s never going to apples to apples in regards to taxes, “subsidies”, or “incentives” unless we completely rewrite the federal tax code. 

Note: I have no idea who Judith Curry is or her possible political or industry ties are  

https://judithcurry.com/2021/02/18/assigning-blame-for-the-blackouts-in-texas/amp/

 

42 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I defer to Penelope on the financial economic stuff.  I have run my mouth on it, but I don't know shit about any of it.

I have enough knowledge to be dangerous on the electro-mechanical shit, but I am extremely curious about it.

I will take a read.  I just woke up.  🤭

[YChang 3,432]

I know there’s a whole thing going on being upset at Griddy or the customers who signed up for it being shocked at their bill... but look at what this person is directing his tweet. I both feel bad for him, not sorry enough, and a bit angry. 

[Bookman 4,611]

What potential causes of action do these electric providers that got fucked by the gas companies have?

Duress, unconsionability, unjust enrichment, tortious interference with existing business relationships?

 

[SaucyJack 3,487]

19 hours ago, DonkeyCigars said:

Gotcha. that 4% chance of paying 500% more for electricity came up snake eyes. I doubt people made enough in savings during the other 96% to even halve what they lost. Interesting.

2.77%.  I play craps and gamble, but not degenerately.

 

18 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

Yeah, my problem isn’t about them signing up for the service, my issue is those bitches crying now and the media framing them as victims.  

A little off topic, but you get my drift.

Edited February 20, 2021 by SaucyJack

[FartingMonk 3,606]

It simply became down to economics.  If you buy a car and thr sales guy says hey you want snow tires and the extreme winter package?  It's only 10k more.  That's exactly what happened.  You would say fuck no.  I don't need that.  That's exactly what all the big plants said. We don't need the freeze protection.  It's too expensive.

The blame that ERCOT needs to shoulder is they didn't activate LAARS.  

It is simple greed that caused all of this.  Oil and gas prices are about to shoot through the roof too because they made the business decision to keep running.  Now you got tons of ruined equipment

[Bullneck 19,025]

15 hours ago, JimmyJames said:

I’m unclear after reading the article. Of which party is he a member?

Hmmm.  Hmmm. 

Just based on his behavior I'd hazard a guess . . . Republican?  

Am I right?  What do I win?

[Bullneck 19,025]

2 hours ago, hpslugga said:

Misleading. Power was out all over the PC's. It's just that these rich fucks have generators (nearly all of our block does), so there's less incentive to call and bitch to Oncor. Those little bubbles only reflect reported outages, not necessarily actual ones.

But yes, more importantly to your point about deregulation, of course that's what it's about. Anyone who argues that deregulation somehow helps the consumer is an absolute fool. Of course it's about skirting regs in order to trim costs and maximize profit. That's a given to serious people. When you hear Republicans ranting and raving about regulations, you're not hearing "alternative points of view." You're hearing the ravings of retarded people parroting corporate talking points that have zero to do with the public good. That much is obvious to a serious person.

A guy I worked for years ago once said, "The people who bitch the most about regulation are the ones who need to be regulated."

[Brisketexan 104,725]

A guy I worked for years ago once said, "The people who bitch the most about regulation are the ones who need to be regulated."

Es la verdad. Todo de la verdad.

[gmr548 16,531]

Not defending fake, but evidence-based research is not a buzzword. I mean in the research/evaluation world it’s a framework.

As opposed to... made up shit based research? Weird term. Kind of the definition of a useless buzzword. I’ll eat crow for assuming it wasn’t a thing.

[Dahobbs 17,454]

2 hours ago, hpslugga said:

Misleading. Power was out all over the PC's. It's just that these rich fucks have generators (nearly all of our block does), so there's less incentive to call and bitch to Oncor. Those little bubbles only reflect reported outages, not necessarily actual ones.

But yes, more importantly to your point about deregulation, of course that's what it's about. Anyone who argues that deregulation somehow helps the consumer is an absolute fool. Of course it's about skirting regs in order to trim costs and maximize profit. That's a given to serious people. When you hear Republicans ranting and raving about regulations, you're not hearing "alternative points of view." You're hearing the ravings of retarded people parroting corporate talking points that have zero to do with the public good. That much is obvious to a serious person.

Over regulation can be bad if it distorts the market in a way that prevents it from addressing needs. But a completely free market is also bad because (1) the efficient market hypothesis is horseshit and (2) it usually fails to account for externalities. The answer to problems like we just faced isn't regulation period, but rather good regulation.  

[washparkhorn 9,935]

3 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Just for some perspective, that is a Board of Directors meeting, not an internal operation meeting.  You wouldn't really expect a deep dive on readiness to the Board.

Perhaps we should expect a little more from Board of Directors Members making $90,000+ a year for 5-15 hours of work in a week.  It shouldn't be a ceremonial position. 

https://nonprofitlight.com/tx/austin/electric-reliability-council-of-texas-inc

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by washparkhorn

[mchookem 16,242]

not directly germane to the thread but it's a political question so asking here...

a rural relative is in a snit that Biden 'only' approved aid for 77 (most populous) counties (not hers)... the reason is obvious, but is this SOP? more to come? 

i don't particularly care as it seems pretty logical, but it's cheap ammunition for the 'dems hate country folk!!' crowd and i'd like to counter...

[jimmyjazz 45,589]

2 minutes ago, mchookem said:

not directly germane to the thread but it's a political question so asking here...

a rural relative is in a snit that Biden 'only' approved aid for 77 (most populous) counties (not hers)... the reason is obvious, but is this SOP? more to come? 

i don't particularly care as it seems pretty logical, but it's cheap ammunition for the 'dems hate country folk!!' crowd and i'd like to counter...

Well, the easiest rebuttal is the fact that Texas has 254 counties, and only 22 went for Biden.  That means at least 55 which received support went for Trump.

[jimmyjazz 45,589]

Just now, jimmyjazz said:

Well, the easiest rebuttal is the fact that Texas has 254 counties, and only 22 went for Biden.  That means at least 55 which received support went for Trump.

EDIT:  I think I miscounted, 23 went for Biden.  Same basic story.

[elfenix 34,190]

3 hours ago, kevwun said:

Yes, that is a good way to put.  Everything failed because not a single aspect of our power grid was required to prepare for extreme cold weather because it eats in to profit margins and regulations in general are socialism.

and pipes burst each year even though houses could be built in such a manner that pipes don't have to burst every year.  but instead of the homeowner being able to have the expectation that they can buy a house that can withstand common weather in texas, the expectation is that the homeowner not only know but also be handy enough to do proper winterization themselves.  and then @notactuallyalonghorn comes by and trolls the board when some genrator's employee who definitely built his own house rather than buying a tract home from a huge builder has his pipes burst too.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep. This was a total systemic failure. Which means that our entire “system” is broken. And as our entire “system” is simply institutionalized profit maximization with zero consideration of the common good (hell, it’s worse than that - the “common good” would mean money spent on something instead of being profits, so really, it’s the “common bad”), and of course ALL rules and regulations are bad, and are pure communism and anti-American...this is the system we get.

It’s actually fascinating, seeing extremism at work. We all grew up laughing and shaking our heads at the Soviets and other commie countries, with their crumbling infrastructure, regular power blackouts, unsafe drinking water, bread lines, all that shit. But as a society, we forgot that an anarchy-capitalist approach could breed just as much corruption, and just as much contempt from the elites dooming the masses to literally freeze to death in their own homes. Soviet elites were senior Politburo officials. American elites are “captains of industry.”

Either way, they enjoy luxuries, wanting for nothing, with special privileges (private jet outta here!) presiding over a crumbling society without giving a rat’s ass about the people they rule.

In the USSR, Moscow controlled business. In the USA, business controls Washington. Same results. 

[washparkhorn 9,935]

20 minutes ago, mchookem said:

a rural relative is in a snit that Biden 'only' approved aid for 77 (most populous) counties (not hers)... the reason is obvious, but is this SOP? more to come? 

Yes - standard operating procedure. Counties may be added if damage warrants inclusion.

In other words, FEMA is required to follow the law when looking at county requests for Major Disaster Classification. Most likely, your relative has local/county political leadership without skills, if it truly qualifies for Major Disaster Classification. 

https://www.fema.gov/disasters/how-declared

Edited February 20, 2021 by washparkhorn

[elfenix 34,190]

3 hours ago, Llano Estacado said:

Genuinely curious on your and @PenelopeWitherspoon opinion of this early postmortem piece I saw via Twitter. Think it mostly in agreement with how this threads track so far. The personal opinion section at the bottom gets a little in the weeds and talking points about tax incentives and unreliability of renewable energy. As someone who works directly in the  O&G industry I’m familiar with these points, but fact of the matter is it’s never going to apples to apples in regards to taxes, “subsidies”, or “incentives” unless we completely rewrite the federal tax code. 

Note: I have no idea who Judith Curry is or her possible political or industry ties are  

https://judithcurry.com/2021/02/18/assigning-blame-for-the-blackouts-in-texas/amp/

judith curry is a climate change skeptic. 

[Biff Tannen 45,509]

1 hour ago, Bullneck said:

Hmmm.  Hmmm. 

Just based on his behavior I'd hazard a guess . . . Republican?  

Am I right?  What do I win?

You win...a failing democracy!

[Mole 4,320]

1 hour ago, gmr548 said:

As opposed to... made up shit based research? Weird term. Kind of the definition of a useless buzzword. I’ll eat crow for assuming it wasn’t a thing.

As opposed to do-your-own-research.

[elfenix 34,190]

23 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

So is this just another case of an entity signed up for wholesale pricing to save money, and got bit?  Just happens this customer is a municipality so the usage is huge?

or will this repeat with many or most municipalities?

the city of denton is in the position of an electric middleman.  it probably has some long term contracts with generators to deliver X amount of electricity at Y price and if there's more demand than that the city has to go out onto the spot market to buy electricity. 

 

i wonder how many electric middlemen are going to fail from having to buy so much on the spot market this last week?

[Pato del Muerto 52,356]

22 minutes ago, elfenix said:

the city of denton is in the position of an electric middleman.  it probably has some long term contracts with generators to deliver X amount of electricity at Y price and if there's more demand than that the city has to go out onto the spot market to buy electricity. 

 

i wonder how many electric middlemen are going to fail from having to buy so much on the spot market this last week?

So around 2006 I moved to the Houston area and used the power to choose site to select a provider.  I wasn’t aware of how things worked at that time, but as it happened I chose a little company I believe called Riverside because they had the lowest locked rate at that moment.  A few months go by and I get an email from them saying that the market jumped up sky high for whatever reason and they immediately went bankrupt, and we were now on the POLR which was reliant.  I didn’t hurry to get a new program locked in. By the time I got with reliant to get into a decent rate, the cost of power for those few days was around double the normal cost. So not back breaking but annoying. I think that has happened occasionally when an underfunded startup type provider gambles on the rates and gets hung out to dry. 
 

maybe @PenelopeWitherspoon or @SydneyCarton recall that company since they were in Houston and seem to be generally aware of the industry. 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Pato del Muerto

[Buzzrock 14,877]

5 hours ago, Eastwood said:

Pieces are being written before the dust has even settled because people are running to the press with their side of the story. A highly credible source with impressive credentials in the energy field gives a breakdown of a failure that occurred in the grid. Of course the press is going to run the story. Problem is that it was a system wide failure. Everyone is blaming everyone else because everyone failed. That's what is so wild. Nobody is really wrong when they point out another company or organization's failure in all this. Some are saying that they failed only because someone else failed first, but in reality, everyone would have failed anyway. Nobody winterized, the infrastructure of the grid was weak, ERCOT didn't plan for the storm, and PUC kept things deregulated for decades. A cascade failure of the grid was happening regardless of which producer went down first. ERCOT didn't plan for the storm, but even if they planned, things got so bad that even nuclear plants had to shut down. But plants had to shut down because they didn't winterize. They didn't winterize because PUC didn't make them. If I would call this situation anything, it would be a feedback loop of failure.

So, Chernobyl but less radioactive?

[C-Man 27,075]

I love Dave Lieber. I used to work with him at the StartleGram. I think he's a funny dude and he's great as the DMN's Watchdog Columnist. Here's his take:

Quote

Now you hear it everywhere in this state. People are talking and understanding what our leaders’ laissez faire disregard for oversight has done to us. Those beloved words “free market” have left us cold, without water, in the dark. The energy capital of America is a laughingstock, and deservedly so.

Who knew that our own leaders could destroy us?

The enemy is within. It’s not California values. It’s not the federal government. It sure isn’t windmills.

For a decade, I’ve been knocking my head against the wall, pleading, yes, begging state lawmakers in The Watchdog column to take a hard look at the state’s deregulated electricity marketplace and fix its flaws. I call it Version 2.0.

They mostly ignored this, just like they ignored warnings after the 2011 Super Bowl ice storm. Nothing to see here, say energy industry lobbyists who hold sway.

Year after year, state lawmakers listened to the Public Utility Commission boast that the system is fabulous, best in the country, unregulated free market, blah, blah, blah.

But I listened to your complaints about a system that is purposely confusing to consumers and filled with unpunished marketing deceptions designed to get you to overpay for electricity.

Hundreds of Texans joined me in this quest that fails every other year in the Legislature. We sent emails and filed complaints. But former Gov. Rick Perry and Gov. Greg Abbott never cared. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick turns away.

Who do we blame for this weather catastrophe? That’s easy. The ones who blame the others.

Blame former 14-year-long Gov. Rick Perry, who the other day said, “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.”

Perry, with his stream of pro-industry appointees to the Public Utility Commission, was ringleader of the gang that fights for a hands-off attitude.

Blame Abbott, forever to be known as the governor who couldn’t keep the lights on. Like so many areas where we’re behind in our state, he never made it a priority to update our busted electricity system, from the grid all the way to the consumer end users.

The Texas economic miracle that Abbott touts has little to do with his leadership. It has to do with the good fortune that we live on land with trillions of dollars’ worth of precious liquid gold, oil and gas resources buried beneath.

Blame, of course, ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, because if you’re going to pay your chief executive Bill Magness an annual compensation of $883,000 to run the state grid, he better be the Jackie Robinson of the electricity world. And if you believe his latest story about how we were “seconds” from a full-scale blackout, I have a few days of an unused Ted Cruz vacation package I’m happy to sell you. Magness waited until the fourth day to bring this up.

Blame the people who work for Magness, of which 20 earned more than $200,000 a year with seven getting above $300,000, two earning over $400,000 and one making $500,000, according to nonprofit ERCOT’s 2018 federal tax filing. If you make that much to keep the lights on and fail, how can you sleep at night?

Blame the PUC, which is so pro-industry/anti-consumer. A few years ago, I publicly stripped it of the “P” in its name because they don’t care about the public. It truly is the Utility Commission. And once and for all, don’t believe the Texas myth that we have lower electricity costs. Basic kWh rates are lower in some cases, but what about the add-ons? One trusted study reported two years ago that there are 28 different extra fees tacked on by some electric companies to jack up bills. UC doesn’t care.

Blame the Texas Railroad Commission, a leading member of this circus, which regulates oil and gas in Texas. In recent days, it failed to answer important questions about its responsibilities to force natural gas suppliers to weatherize.

Blame ONCOR for its weak delivery of crucial information to the public. ONCOR’s poor storm communication skills are nothing new.

And throw shade at the Texas Legislature, which in recent years has done next to nothing on electricity reform. Aside from a few who care — state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, and state Reps. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, and Gene Wu, D-Houston, come to mind — it’s been dead quiet. Don’t count on state lawmakers to admit culpability. And don’t trust their coming investigations to be unbiased.

It took a killer storm, but finally, the charade is over. You hear it everywhere in this state now.

“This incompetence is unforgiveable,” Kyle Keifer tells me.

Steve Rosson says, “Funny to see Gov. Abbott and the Legislature suddenly take an interest in energy oversight. Are they now going to try and look like heroes by swooping in?”

Maxwell Kashiwa asks, “Why are the governor and others enticing businesses to move here if we don’t have resources to support more people?”

Kendra Liester says, “No one takes responsibility. They just pass the blame on down the line.”

Several years ago, rather than create a protest petition, I took a big “P” I bought at a crafts store and decorated it with the names of hundreds of consumers who agreed with me. I sent the P to the UC.

My reporting has focused on the consumer end of this, your monthly bill, not the Lone Star grid. But in my research I discovered a definite ethos, a see-no-evil culture when it came to the way UC commissioners and staffers approach their jobs.

UC spokesman Andrew P. Barlow, who you might have seen on TV last week, attempted to discredit me. Two years ago, In a memo to his bosses, Barlow called me “an unprincipled, self-promoting huckster.”

He cooked up this cockamamie scheme about me: “Given his proclivity for grandstanding,” Barlow wrote his bosses, “it wouldn’t surprise me if he were to interrupt an open meeting, but I’ll work to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’d hate for his prank-style antics to culminate in footage of him being dragged from our hearing room by a state trooper.” I discovered his fantasy through an open records request.

My most recent report on the UC revealed how commissioners, who are appointed by Abbott, abolished its enforcement division. What’s the purpose of being a regulator if you don’t have an enforcement division? What message does that send?

As for ERCOT, The Watchdog is hereby stripping the Texas grid operator of its “R,” which is for reliability.

What can we do with that “R”? Well, if we take the word outage and add that “R,” we’ve got outrage.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2021/02/19/no-surprise-our-electricity-system-is-the-laughingstock-of-the-us-only-customers-cared-until-now/?fbclid=IwAR3EHsklaPKI7tMWgEr1AALo0DZvhRmmrghU4TMRnF1_rfyGRRKe3JtAiqA

Edited February 20, 2021 by C-Man

[SydneyCarton 47,932]

1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

So around 2006 I moved to the Houston area and used the power to choose site to select a provider.  I wasn’t aware of how things worked at that time, but as it happened I chose a little company I believe called Riverside because they had the lowest locked rate at that moment.  A few months go by and I get an email from them saying that the market jumped up sky high for whatever reason and they immediately went bankrupt, and we were now on the POLR which was reliant.  I didn’t hurry to get a new program locked in. By the time I got with reliant to get into a decent rate, the cost of power for those few days was around double the normal cost. So not back breaking but annoying. I think that has happened occasionally when an underfunded startup type provider gambles on the rates and gets hung out to dry. 
 

maybe @PenelopeWitherspoon or @SydneyCarton recall that company since they were in Houston and seem to be generally aware of the industry. 

That company doesn’t ring any bells. But the the rates certainly go up when there’s a shortage or crisis. The rates of a company are their discretion, although rates generally speaking are tied to the cost of natural gas. POLR typically has super high rates for whatever plan they roll you into...that’s their idea of security for taking on “risky” customers 

Theres been dozens of companies that have gone belly up since we deregulated. Some spectacularly, some just quietly sell their book to someone and exit the market. It certainly happened more before 2012 oe thereabouts. Early on, the cost requirements to be a REP were MUCH MUCH cheaper then they are now, because of what you’re describing. It’s hard for a guy to be “underfunded” and start a REP now. They needs millions to open the door and typically have a deal with a credit facility, which covers losses in those situations. Although this cold snap might bankrupt some because the credit calls might be millions upon millions of dollars. I don’t think @elfenix’s boys Griddy will survive. Fun fact, my buddy had his small business on Griddy, and didn’t get switched off in time. His bill, typically a few hundred, is currently $11,000 and change for the month of February. 

[Mdhorn 5,912]

Protesting the petroleum industry can get you jail time:

Industry-designed bills to silence climate protests are under consideration in Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota and Montana. More are likely to come.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fossil-fuel-protest_n_602c1ff6c5b6c95056f3f6af

https://theintercept.com/2019/08/19/oil-lobby-pipeline-protests/

Cancel culture is real, but it's not limited to Liberals.  

[Llano Estacado 1,257]

judith curry is a climate change skeptic. 

I see that now, both via her larger website and a simple Google of her name. Apologies for my ignorance. Does that disqualify everything in her blog post?

As I mentioned, that post seems to track pretty well with the larger attitude of this thread in regards to the failure.

1) All types of power generation failed to properly winterize.
2) PUC/ERCOT and RRC failed to properly forecast the impact of demand, but even if they had properly forecast they have no levers on the market place to spool up additional generation
3) The market, politicians, nor regulators offered any incentive to properly prepare after 2011.
4) A capacity market wouldn’t fix all of our problems, but it should likely be action item #1 once the dust settles

Now knowing she’s testified to Congress about the impacts climate change, I’m even more curious about the latter part of her post and personal views vis-a-vis the Surl hive mind.

I’m in the O&G business. My bubble and I would generally agree that battery storage to the scale we need to continue to increase dependence on renewables isn’t there and we increase our incentives and reliance on solar and wind without dependable back-up for demand spikes/on site storage of fuel energy to the grid’s and our own peril.

Diverse energy market, great. Artificial markets amplifying undependable energy sources while existing cheap reliable power (especially carbon neutral nuclear) is passed over and moth-balled, not so great.

[Pato del Muerto 52,356]

Oh, moving here I’ve never paid less for electricity.  It’s delivered by the town, and it’s hydroelectric. And our lines are all buried.  Feels like a very robust system. 
I know that Texas can’t go burying all of its lines to avoid breakage, and can’t build dams all over the state, but it also shouldn’t really be touting itself as the best system in the country. And if it’s going to be independent from the rest of the grid, it should be overly robust as there’s no safety net. Seems the politicians and businesses only wanted to deal with the positives of deregulation and ignore the negatives.  
 

if I was a Republican that thought like a Texas Republican, I’d try to deny federal help on this because Texas chose to be separate and apart to avoid federal regulations, so it should have to deal with its own consequences that arise from that decision. 
 

but I’m not heartless, and have friends and family all over Texas, so I’m all for your federal aid.  You do pay federal taxes and all. Just know that others are tired of hearing about how independent Texas is from Texans, as the state comes hat in hand over and over to the federal government looking for help from all manner of disasters, with this latest one at minimum being entirely preventable from the regulation you purposefully dodged and ignored. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19,152]

7 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

In a smart-grid world, I would like to think providers could limit power to individual customers, instead of just the binary on/off solution that exists now.

Hell yeah they can do that.  Don’t pay your bill for a couple of months and see if they turn off just your shit or the whole neighborhood.

[YChang 3,432]

1 hour ago, Llano Estacado said:

I’m in the O&G business. My bubble and I would generally agree that battery storage to the scale we need to continue to increase dependence on renewables isn’t there and we increase our incentives and reliance on solar and wind without dependable back-up for demand spikes/on site storage of fuel energy to the grid’s and our own peril.

Diverse energy market, great. Artificial markets amplifying undependable energy sources while existing cheap reliable power (especially carbon neutral nuclear) is passed over and moth-balled, not so great.

Out of curiosity—you mentioned amplifying renewable energy as a negative. Especially since battery technology isn’t quite there yet to apply renewable as the “main” source and it’s an artificial market. 

I kind of see your point but I also  can’t quite imagine yet especially in Texas, where gas is so cheap and plentiful, that whatever surge in renewable investment will overtake gas any time soon. Especially unless there’s a battery breakthrough. I just can’t see the 2 sources being on par for several decades yet. And during that ramp up, why can’t we have a system where we take advantage of renewables in situations where they’re good and have gas/oil/coal step in when needed? 

So why the angst? Or if not angst, negative attitude toward renewable investments?  

[jimmyjazz 45,589]

14 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Hell yeah they can do that.  Don’t pay your bill for a couple of months and see if they turn off just your shit or the whole neighborhood.

I wasn't clear -- I was talking about capping available power to individual customers.  Say, 5 kW over the next 2 days, or something like that.