Posted on 03/04/2021 10:11:36 PM PST by george76
The president and CEO of the Texas power grid has been fired after mounting calls for his ouster following the deadly blackouts that left millions of people without electricity and heat for days in subfreezing temperatures.
Bill Magness was given a two-month termination notice Wednesday by the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a cooperative responsible for 90 percent of the state’s electricity.
On Monday, the state’s top utility regulator resigned in the wake of the one of the worst blackouts in US history.
....
Grid operators disconnected more than 4 million customers as the system buckled, which Magness has said was necessary to avert an even greater catastrophic blackout that could have lasted months.
The power grid was “four minutes 37 seconds away from a total collapse”
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During the storm, 356 generators were knocked offline, nearly doubling what Texas experienced during its last major winter storm in 2011
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The prolonged outages escalated to a crisis of tragic proportions, as residents trying to keep warm died of carbon monoxide poisoning and others froze to death.
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At least six ERCOT board members have stepped down in the aftermath of the blackouts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You’re right that Texas had the ability to implement sensible policies because they have their own grid, but the energy board decisions were based on the cockamamie green energy policies of the federal government. They were adhering to rules and regulations that were certain to fail. They shut down coal and nuclear plants to go green. Big mistake! Texans should make their own energy policy decisions based on what’s good for Texans.
So if because it's their own grid Texas is able to implement sensible policies then wouldn't that mean that the cockamamie green energy policies that Texas implemented was because they wanted to and not because they were forced to? It being their own grid and all?
They were forced to follow federal green energy policies in making their decisions in order to comply with federal regulations. If they refused to follow federal regulations and did what was best for Texas then they wouldn’t have shut down their coal and nuclear plants. Understand?
Nat gas and coal certainly did go down as well. It was all about not winterizing and this year, due to covid, they did virtual inspections of the plants to check for winterization.
“Ok, now hold your phone up to where that weatherstripping should be”.
A lot of FL homes have no heating system. Same with a lot of TX power plants and wind turbines.
Maybe they can put the money saved from getting rid of some people into winterizing the plants.
Gov Abbott needs to resign, he is the one responsible for making us rely on unreliable wind power. 25% of our power comes from wind.
Resign Gov Abbott, that deadly blackout is all on you.
“Magness — who made over $876,000 in salary and other compensation in 2019...”
Why in the world would a utility company president make this much?
In the continued absence of a Mr. Fusion, it’s pretty expensive to produce all of one’s desired electricity.
In the continued absence of a Mr. Fission, it’s pretty expensive to produce all of one’s desired electricity. /Fixed
mad_as_he$$ wrote:
“Excellent idea.
One lesson from this crisis is that one cannot currently count on the natural gas supply. I use propane onsite for my generator. Yes it is a finite fuel supply but one I can manage.”
The question then becomes, how much propane is needed, and how much is allowed by the particular city to be stored on ones property.
The entire Board/entity should be abolished.
#FireERCOT
It’s nothing but a payback scheme.
Board members are appointed by PUC Commissions....whose ‘leaders’ are appointed by......Gov Abbott.
The entire, appointed hierarchy failed.
“Magness — who made over $876,000 in salary and other compensation in 2019...”
Exactly.
And, what is his departing compensation?
Here’s some info on the basics:
https://motorsnorkel.com/propane-consumption-rate/
I think it’s safe to say the “typical” 500 gallon tank used for home propane would last a long time powering a small gen set.
No. They had their own power grid so that they wouldn't have to follow federal regulations. Texas has two nuclear power plants and haven't shut any of them down that I'm aware of. And Texas, like power plants all over the country, have switched to natural gas over the years because it's cheaper than coal. I would expect that's especially true in Texas which produces almost a quarter of all natural gas in the country.
How about the EPA & Biden officials who REFUSED to let Texas operate their power plants at 100% capacity——because of CLIMATE CHANGE???
They called the Feds & asked permission to do so, and were denied/rebuffed.
I had a buddy in this industry in Texas. He made WAY more than that in salary / bonuses / stock options etc.
he retired at age 46.
No, you’re wrong. Even though Texas has made efforts to isolate themselves from the power systems that include other states, they have always adhered to federal oversight and federal environmental regulations and restrictions on operations and power generation. The decisions to go green were made as attempts to meet emissions targets and renewable power source goals established by the federal government. Instead of building new gas-fired plants or coal plants, or even nuclear plants, ERCOT went along with the green enery initiatives required by the federal government and built wind turbines instead, which aren’t even profitable without government subsidies, let alone inefficient as a power source. The notion that Texas operated outside of federal government control and without following any directives from the EPA is nonsense. They should have, though. If they had, they likely would have developed a coherent strategy that met the needs of the Texans instead of making poor decisions based on the politicians whims in DC.
Good for your friend. I can’t fault anybody that does something like that legally.
Say what you will about China...but if this guy was a Chinese CEO...he would’ve been led outside and executed.
True. That is a concern. So far I am not limited in my local(with in reason). But many cities have a limits.
Large scale power plants are expensive to build (in significant part due to liberal mandates) but not that expensive to operate. Capital costs can be amortized over long periods of time.
February 1989, there was a total natural gas curtailment.
The difference was utilities were required to have a backup fuel supply.
The natural gas generators could burn fuel oil.
They were compensated in their rate base.
A labor intensive process.
Dereg said, no dollar’s for you.
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