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Posted on 02/20/2021 9:17:59 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
During their last meeting ahead of the winter storm that left millions of Texans without electricity and potable water for days on end, top officials at the state electric grid operator spent less than one minute discussing the impending storm and whether the state was prepared.
Bill Magness, president and chief executive officer of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, spoke briefly about the winter weather during his report to the board at the Feb. 9 meeting, the only mention of the incoming storm during the public portion of the virtual meeting, which spanned two hours, 28 minutes.
Magness spoke about the approaching cold front for about 40 seconds:
“It is actually going to be winter here pretty soon. As those of you in Texas know, we do have a cold front coming this way. We’ll probably see our winter peak later this week or in the very early part of next week. And Operations has issued an operating condition notice just to make sure everyone is up to speed with their winterization and we’re ready for the several days of pretty frigid temperatures to come our way.
“So more on that in the next couple of days, but it does look like we’ll have a little bit of winter weather to contend with during the course of the rest of this week. We do have a cold front coming this way.”
As recently as one month ago, operators at ERCOT offered a positive assessment about the preparedness of Texas power plants for winter storms, according to an American-Statesman report.
In an Extreme Weather Reliability Assessment filed Jan. 15 with the Texas Public Utility Commission, ERCOT wrote that a “review of plants indicates that the majority of plants are following their weatherization plans.”
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
ERCOT manages the power. Their job isn’t really to enforce individual power generators to do their job of maintenance and hardening - that’s the job for the generators themselves. ERCOT does need to alter their pricing advantage for subsidized wind so more reliable fossil fuels can stay competitive. Yes it was a problem to have a rolling blackout that lasts for an hour or so, but the bigger problem was the distribution utilities whose switches had not been tested and did not work when they went to turn the power back on.
We do not need a new technology. Coal is wonderful and we have a thousand years of it. It works at night, in still, in calm, in clouds, and there is a 2 or 3 month supply of it at the plant.
Time to drop the green technology pipe dream and embrace reality. The global warming hoax is destructive. No subsidies for solar, wind, or organic lesbian hamsters spinning generator wheels.
The subsidies are difficult for legitimate operators to compete against.
On one hand cold gets unreasonable restrictions that raise their operating prices. And the green industry gets in with subsidies. When the Texas Energy System was run by capitalism the lights always stayed on.
Embrace the magic rocks of unlimited power.
You should listen to the ERCOT board meetings. I am actually listening to this February 9, meeting right now. This is the first meeting for this new out-of-state board member, and she was just elected as board chair.
I will skip on her qualification, but I will say that it is pretty-much a typical, boring board meeting. People presenting information and explaining the goals and expectations of the ERCOT team.
We need to remember that, like most boards, the ERCOT board is more concerned with the long-term needs and requirements of the organization. It leaves the day-to-day operations to the paid staff actually doing their job.
I think the ‘Statesman’ is being a little provocative with this article.
From February 17th:
Headlines from ERCOT media call:
Power will not return to ‘normal’ until tomorrow at the EARLIEST. Possibly “next couple of days” Waiting for it to warm
Winterization NOT mandatory. Inspections this year done virtually
No sign generators went offline to avoid fuel costs
@wfaa
WHO decided to cut electricity to the gas compression stations that are essential to deliver gas to gas generating plants and heaters in homes?
Contrast the idiots at the Weather Channel (global warming, climate change loonies) versus the PROFESSIONALS at
Weatherbell.com. Commericial Industrial weather forecasters.
Joe Bastardi gave a FREE Summary on Saturday 6th Feb. Forecast for the coldest temps/weather in 100 years. Detailed Julian oscillation polar axis maps, the works. Described what was coming as a Winter Hurricane. Projection below zero in most of Texas, and included Houston’s projected numbers.
Weatherbell are not climate change hoaxers or believers, unlike the gubmint bureaucrats who would not lift regulations on power plants for the crisis.
The FACTS are: that the nuclear and coal/oil fired plants had to make up the lost “slack” from totally failed wind and solar crap (with nowhere ever enough storage capacity, and unable contemporaneously to produce power in the grid. Once they dropped off the grid the other plants had to be put on full or over capacity to keep power up, and doing so pushed many plants to an overdrive situation which would damage the plants permanently (years to recover operation)— so they were shut down— as they should have been.
Living proof why everyone should have their own backup survival setups- beyond limited service home generators. Dress warmly , have back up heat not from the grid, etc. Just as people in the Tropics have hurricane stores and supplies always on hand for more than 3 weeks of-— nothing, back to 1800 in terms of utilities and a lot else.
Maybe we could let the free market regulate both PUC and ERCOT?
That, and having any oversight positions be elected representatives, rather than (unaccountable and) appointed. With set term limits.
The problem in Texas all stems from an over-bearing EPA and the Feds going hard on the state of Texas. This from 2014...
>>At issue are new Federal rules to cut pollution from power plants. Each state would have to come up with a plan that would cut carbon pollution, or greenhouse gases, by an average of 30 percent in less than two decades.
Texas, with all its refineries and a lot of coal-burning power plants, is the largest producer of greenhouse gases and is being asked to cut more emissions than other states.
“The plan disproportionately impacts Texas and in our opinion it oversteps the law,” said Mac MarFarland, CEO of Luminant, the biggest electricity utility in Texas.<<
This resulted in our Lignite plants being closed and wind turbines forced on us.
And for the chuckleheads who want to blame Abbott, he fought this for a very long time when he was AG...
>>For years, the State of Texas has been filing lawsuits against the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, trying to stop it from enforcing regulations aimed at reducing power plant pollution.
Texas has lost most of the cases, including a major ruling earlier this summer by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court gave the EPA the go-ahead to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. At the PUC hearing, there was testimony that Texas would again file suit over these latest rules.<<
From 2012
>>The Attorney General has made no secret of the enjoyment he gets out of filing suits against the administration and the EPA. “What I really do for fun is I go into the office,” Abbott said recently, “[and] I sue the Obama administration.”
“When Texas challenges the federal government, it’s about more than money,” Abbott writes today. “It’s about principles — fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution and recently reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.”<<
I will agree that we should get rid of any and all green subsidies. The market should be able to compete effectively.
I will, however, disagree with your statement that the market was once run by capitalism, and the lights stayed on. Prior to market open in 2002, we had a rate regulated public utility system. This is not capitalism. It is, quite literally, fascism ... that is, government-controlled capitalism that mandates how capital is allocated and how capital investment is recovered.
Old news. The gird is up and functioning appropriately at this moment.
Living proof why everyone should have their own backup survival setups- beyond limited service home generators. Dress warmly , have back up heat not from the grid, etc. Just as people in the Tropics have hurricane stores and supplies always on hand for more than 3 weeks of-— nothing, back to 1800 in terms of utilities and a lot else.
That may have been a decision made by the individual TDSP (wires company). ERCOT told the TDSPs to reduce load. They then had to determine which were critical (e.g. hospitals, fire stations, etc) and which were not.
Ping.
While it is fun to point fingers and make blame, a few million Texans did not prepare for a record breaking storm either.
People make decisions based on prior experience, this was outside those parameters. Perhaps using the new parameters to decide how to change the setup for power might be more fruitful than placing blame on the utility commissions lack of precognition.
First change might be stop subsidizing power systems that failed, and focus more on those that preformed best.
Worst, wind and solar
Best coal. Coal burns frozen, gas does not.
ERCOT officials spent 40 seconds on winter storm preparedness at Feb. 9 meeting
“Looks like it is gonna snow”
“Yep”
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I’m only assuming the members of the Texas PUC are intelligent but I doubt they are qualified.
Chairwoman:
Chairman Walker received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Southern Methodist University and a Juris Doctor from South Texas College of Law. She and her husband Ron reside in Austin, Texas.
Commissioner:
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.
Commissioner:
After growing up in Lubbock, Shelly earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. She lives in Austin, Texas.
NOW, don’t all of you Texans feel better knowing your comfort is in the hands of these people?
Stupid is as stupid does?
As for ERCOT, I’ll let you look for yourself to learn the credentials of the board. Mostly lawyers, accountants, economists, a few engineers. It takes a little work to find this so I’ll give you the link.
http://www.ercot.com/about/governance/directors
You won’t wonder much why they gave the incoming cold front only 40 seconds attention at their last board meeting. The subject of reliability, preparation, planning, direction and such of physical systems is just not in their wheel house. They are a lot more interested in things they are familiar with like MONEY.
Most engineers do and fix stuff. Most other professions make deals and count money and laws.
As for ERCOT professionals on the staff? I don’t know but usually the attitude of the staff is a reflection of the attitude of the management.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
What else would you expect from the statesman?
The Big Freeze of 2021 is over. It's now 52 degrees in North Texas, temps to be in the 50s and 60s for the next week.
I'm looking to see a few resignations/firings over the next few weeks. It's apparent more than just a couple of folks were asleep at the switch.
What do you think that “backup capability” will cost? How much of “backup capability” would you deem necessary? How many suppliers would you need? What about the financial requirements of the suppliers who will have all this “backup capability”.
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