Posted on 05/20/2024 8:52:36 AM PDT by george76
With seven people killed and close to a million losing power, the recent storms hit Texas hard. Restoring electricity may take days and may not be completed by Wednesday.
The isolation of the Texas power grid has become a symbol of the state’s independent streak and resistance to federal oversight in recent years. The massive outages during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 were a wake-up call to the vulnerabilities of Texas’ system. But Texas hit the snooze button, resulting in repeated crises in Summer 2022 and Winter 2023. Now it seems Texas is sleepwalking into another avoidable crisis
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ERCOT is regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and is responsible for meeting about 90% of the state’s energy demands.
The flaws of ERCOT were put on full display in February 2021 when a perfect storm of disastrous conditions emerged: just as the cold caused energy demands to spike, natural gas production and power plants were buckling, knocked out by weather conditions that energy providers and weather forecasting services had underestimated. ERCOT reported that demand peaked at 69,000 megawatts, far exceeding any planned worst-case scenario. As a result, over 4.5 million homes lost power, and at least 200 people died from conditions caused by the storm.
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An isolated grid also creates persistent problems even when no foul weather impacts the state. Spot wholesale electricity prices in Texas are $175 per Megawatt-hour (Mwh) for August, up from $90.18 in August 2023. Price increases of this magnitude are not consistent across the United States. California’s spot electricity prices for August are trading for $80 per Mwh, 30% below last year’s average. By allowing these issues to persist, average Texans will continue to bear the brunt of growing costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
removing federal regulation is a big help. But Texas has destroyed most of it’s reliable cheap coal plants that are incredible backups.
They did it because Texas GOPe like Perry, Abbott, and T. Boone Pickens types cashed in on government tax credits for windmills and solar.
Further damage was done by ERCOT and the centralization of local power companies. ERCOT is another pork, laden Wall Street loyal, top heavy with Harvard and out of staters. They even have foreigners like Germans involved.
It’s a NATO of electricity. Mostly existing to create jobs for executives.
Before ERCOT, power outages in Texas were unknown unless the lines were down. The freeze of 2121 simply did not occur. For Texas to experience a blackout because not enough power can be generated it utterly disgraceful and a black eye for Texas GOPe Bushies that have run things for the last three decades. No excuses.
Feds play a part, but this is squarely at the feet of the Texas GOP Bushie hogs. Democrats would be even worse, but this is greed and GOPe. Nothing else.
Excuses excuses. Nobody is talking about the 20s and 30s. I’m talking 60s, 70s and 80s. A shortage of power was utterly unknown. And the shortage isn’t that there are more people. It is that the Texas GOP gorged on federal tax incentives to build windmills and solar, and financialized the ERCOT system into another ENRON.
They have closed 7 huge coal fired plants and are tearing down 4 more in the next 4 years. They pulled 6400 megawatts offline between 2018 and 2020 alone!
This is not that typical bullshit guilt trip crap “increasing population”, “increased usage” etc.
This is greed and malevolence from the Texas GOPe and their nomenklatura. Democrats would be a far worse nightmare, but this does not excuse the Texas GOPe Bushies.
THEY installed unreliable and ugly “renewables”. THEY closed the cheap and reliable coal fired plants. THEY went all over California and New York and the middle east finding everyone they could find to move in... no matter how much their values are Sacramento, Seattle, DC or NYC.
That would be smart. Personal solar panels not connected to grid. And propane. It’s idiotic to be in Texas and freeze to death. And they have trashed the system and I see no signs of them fixing it.
You would be right to look after yourself.
It would be smart here too... but in the north solar just doesn’t do it.
I wish I could but it’s just not worth it unless you live way out in the country. The ‘free’ solar install would charge me the same monthly average I’m currently paying, but I’d also have to pay for anything above solar production that I need during the high-summer months.
Overall solar panels are actually more expensive, without even looking at possible roof damage/insurance issues, battery fire risks, or lost garage space.
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