Texas Power Grid Collapse 2021

[Little Raven]

I live with a couple of lizard-ladies who like it hot, so our thermostat never goes below 78 unless company is coming over. These days, my wife is setting it at 83 during the day, which is warm but tolerable.

[Blackhawk]

We set the window units (three of them total) to 72 during the day, and close all of the blinds and curtains that face the sun anytime the outside temp is forecast at 85+. At 90+, we close 'em all. That's just enough to keep the house hovering 79-80 degrees.

[em2nought]

We set the window units (three of them total) to 72 during the day, and close all of the blinds and curtains that face the sun anytime the outside temp is forecast at 85+. At 90+, we close 'em all. That's just enough to keep the house hovering 79-80 degrees.

Window units are really really inefficient. The next time a window unit goes out consider getting a mini-split to replace it.

[LordMortis]

I hear there's a once in generation weather event causing power problems in Texas.

[Isgrimnur]

I hear there's a once in generation weather event causing power problems in Texas.

Once a year, maybe.

[LordMortis]

Hope ally'all are doing OK. I'm used to power outages here. I seem to get several a month, but not actual power insecurity. Given how much power Texas generates, it's hard for me to understand why Ercot is now having annual events. It's not like weeks of 100+ weather is new there. I remember when I hired at my last company and had to fly down to San Antonio during 115 degree weather 25 years ago. I was not happy, being a cold weather creature but people were were working through it, they just had to work in quick shifts.

[Smoove_B]

Looking forward to hearing from all the TX elected officials on how they feel about this:

The Texas Division of Emergency Management will receive $60.6 million from the federal government to help utilities strengthen infrastructure on the state’s electricity grid.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that it will award the funds so that Texas’ power grid might better withstand extreme weather events. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created the grant program.

“These grants will help modernize the electric grid to reduce impacts of extreme weather and natural disasters while enhancing power sector reliability,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

State emergency officials will develop parameters for how to use the money. The funds could go toward programs such as trimming trees around power lines or improving how equipment functions in extreme heat or cold, for example.

[Smoove_B]

Haven't had one of these in a while:

Two U.S. electric grids may not have enough power to meet demand plus required reserves on Thursday as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape a brutal heat wave blanketing Texas and other U.S. Central states.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers, urged residents to voluntarily conserve power on Thursday as it expects a "reserve capacity shortage with no market solution available."

...

AccuWeather forecast temperatures in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, would reach 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 degrees Celsius) on Thursday. That compares with a normal high of 94 F (34 C) for this time of year.

ERCOT forecast demand would reach 84,928 megawatts (MW) on Thursday, just shy of its 85,435 MW record set Aug. 10.

Even though demand was not expected to hit a record, ERCOT forecast reserves would fall short because some power plants may not be available on Thursday.

[waitingtoconnect]

The hot weather on the east coast is all down to the portal to hell that is in the Oval Office of the Biden White House. It’s blowing hot air down to Texas. Duh.

If you left wing woke liberals don’t believe me ask Roger Stone.

https://sports.yahoo.com/trump-confidan ... 23063.html

[malchior]

Folks don't realize how hard it is to keep the grid up when it is running at the edge of capacity. One unexpected forced outage will make the whole thing tumble.

[waitingtoconnect]

The weirdos shooting it up also doesn’t help.

[malchior]

Texas grid has another close call again tonight.

The state’s power grid operator triggered its emergency operations on Wednesday evening, allowing it to call on all available power generation to stay ahead of demand — and bringing it a step closer to a worst-case scenario of ordering rotating power outages.

If the Electric Reliability Council of Texas takes that step, the location and duration of power outages would be controlled by individual electric utilities. For example, CPS Energy President and CEO Rudy Garza in San Antonio said last month when conditions looked tight that outages would last between 10 and 15 minutes for their customers.

Representatives for other utilities said the duration of power outages and whether they would rotate would depend on what they hear from ERCOT, which calculates how much demand must be reduced to keep the grid from failing.

ERCOT triggered the emergency operations at 7:25 p.m. Wednesday. An hour later, the grid appeared to be recovering and had a healthy margin between supply and demand.

[LawBeefaroni]

ERCOT keeps on winning....

Texas Energy Grid Paid Bitcoin Miner $31.7 Million to Stop Working Amid Heatwave

Les said the $31.7 million it received from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Texas’ independent energy operator, came out to around the value of 1,136 bitcoin. That’s worth around three times as much as the Bitcoin the company actually mined in August.

[malchior]

I'd bet some bitcoins that there is something shady there.

[Smoove_B]

It's only a 20% chance. Why bother?

ERCOT has canceled a program to boost power reserves for what could be a precarious winter for Texas’ electric grid after no energy companies volunteered to fire up their shuttered plants.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas had sought enough additional electricity generation to power about 600,000 homes to shore up reserves after it forecast a near 20% chance of reaching emergency conditions this winter.

However, the power grid operator canceled the program on Friday after it received offers for only enough power for 2,200 homes, all of which came from companies willing to shed electricity usage during emergency conditions.

[malchior]

Trying to 'take back' a failure sometimes is just reminding people...what a piece of utter shit they are.

[LordMortis]

I take you are about experience a once in a generation cold event?

[Smoove_B]

It really is depressing:

“Due to continued freezing temperatures, very high demand and unseasonably low wind, operating reserves for the Texas power grid are expected to be low Monday morning, Jan. 15, before sunrise,” the release stated, adding that “ERCOT is not experiencing emergency conditions at this time.”

At about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, as temperatures dipped into the teens and the windchill reached below zero at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, thousands of Oncor customers were without power, the company’s online outage map showed.

About 6,000 of those were from the Dallas-Fort Worth area as of 9 p.m., according to the online map.

Hundreds died the last time, but I guess that ultimately didn't matter.

[malchior]

They claim that they did far more winterization after that event. We'll see. I have my doubts but the fact that heating in the vast majority of homes in Texas is based on resistive heating is no help either.

[Unagi]

Trying to 'take back' a failure sometimes is just reminding people...what a piece of utter shit they are.

wait, this is real?

[coopasonic]

I take you are about experience a once in a generation cold event?

Once in a generation.. every winter for the past 3 years running. 3 straight days without ever going above freezing. Luckily there was limited precipitation. Still, today is the third day and roads are completely clear. I am the only person on any of my teams that came into the office. Currently 25 outside. Warmest it has been since Saturday. Not what someone in Dallas is used to.

On the plus side, no outages for us at all.

[LordMortis]

I wonder how my old company is doing. In the last decade we've had to send so many blankets and winter coats to Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras. They've never been ready for it and much of Northern Mexico rely on Texas for power, which gets shut off when South Texas is having winter. One would think Mexico would seek a different arrangement after the last 15 years of literally being left in the cold.

[waitingtoconnect]

I take you are about experience a once in a generation cold event?

Once in a generation.. every winter for the past 3 years running. 3 straight days without ever going above freezing. Luckily there was limited precipitation. Still, today is the third day and roads are completely clear. I am the only person on any of my teams that came into the office. Currently 25 outside. Warmest it has been since Saturday. Not what someone in Dallas is used to.

On the plus side, no outages for us at all.

It’s all the fault of Joe Biden. Somehow.

[Kraken]

I take you are about experience a once in a generation cold event?

Once in a generation.. every winter for the past 3 years running. 3 straight days without ever going above freezing. Luckily there was limited precipitation. Still, today is the third day and roads are completely clear. I am the only person on any of my teams that came into the office. Currently 25 outside. Warmest it has been since Saturday. Not what someone in Dallas is used to.

On the plus side, no outages for us at all.

It’s all the fault of Joe Biden. Somehow.

Global warming is a Democrat hoax!