Texas in Crisis

[Jimmy Higgins]

So Texas stripped its energy grid from the national grids in order to have more freedom.

You might see where this is going.

Texas power companies heated up some customers' homes last week by remotely controlling their smart thermostats, KHOU 11 reported Thursday.

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

It turns out they had enrolled their thermostats in an energy-conservation promotion called Smart Savers Texas, run by a company called EnergyHub, in partnership with power companies. The program gives EnergyHub permission to adjust participants' smart thermostats remotely during times of peak energy demand, in exchange for entry into a sweepstakes.

"During a demand-response event, Smart Savers Texas increases the temperature on participating thermostats by up to 4 degrees to reduce energy consumption and relieve stress on the grid," Erika Diamond, EnergyHub's vice president of customer solutions, told Insider, adding that "the ability to reduce energy consumption is critical to managing the grid, in Texas and nationwide."

So, the companies are forcing people to raise their thermostats. The irony of going from rule of the Government to rule of the Corporation.

Deregulation has saved you on rates and because we can no longer provide you with the comfort you'd like, you are also saving some cash there too. You're welcome.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So Texas stripped its energy grid from the national grids in order to have more freedom.

You might see where this is going.

Texas power companies heated up some customers' homes last week by remotely controlling their smart thermostats, KHOU 11 reported Thursday.

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

It turns out they had enrolled their thermostats in an energy-conservation promotion called Smart Savers Texas, run by a company called EnergyHub, in partnership with power companies. The program gives EnergyHub permission to adjust participants' smart thermostats remotely during times of peak energy demand, in exchange for entry into a sweepstakes.

"During a demand-response event, Smart Savers Texas increases the temperature on participating thermostats by up to 4 degrees to reduce energy consumption and relieve stress on the grid," Erika Diamond, EnergyHub's vice president of customer solutions, told Insider, adding that "the ability to reduce energy consumption is critical to managing the grid, in Texas and nationwide."

So, the companies are forcing people to raise their thermostats. The irony of going from rule of the Government to rule of the Corporation.

Deregulation has saved you on rates and because we can no longer provide you with the comfort you'd like, you are also saving some cash there too. You're welcome.

Huh? This sounds like they knowingly signed up for it and forgot about it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So Texas stripped its energy grid from the national grids in order to have more freedom.

You might see where this is going.

Texas power companies heated up some customers' homes last week by remotely controlling their smart thermostats, KHOU 11 reported Thursday.

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

It turns out they had enrolled their thermostats in an energy-conservation promotion called Smart Savers Texas, run by a company called EnergyHub, in partnership with power companies. The program gives EnergyHub permission to adjust participants' smart thermostats remotely during times of peak energy demand, in exchange for entry into a sweepstakes.

"During a demand-response event, Smart Savers Texas increases the temperature on participating thermostats by up to 4 degrees to reduce energy consumption and relieve stress on the grid," Erika Diamond, EnergyHub's vice president of customer solutions, told Insider, adding that "the ability to reduce energy consumption is critical to managing the grid, in Texas and nationwide."

So, the companies are forcing people to raise their thermostats. The irony of going from rule of the Government to rule of the Corporation.

Deregulation has saved you on rates and because we can no longer provide you with the comfort you'd like, you are also saving some cash there too. You're welcome.

Huh? This sounds like they knowingly signed up for it and forgot about it.

Yeah, for a chance at a sweepstake, they sold out on rights. To save a few bucks, they also sold out on almost certain access to power. Some choices shouldn't be left to people to make. ERCOT and the Pandemic have proven it.

 

[TomC]

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

OMFG!

Expected to survive 78F temperatures in Texas in the summer?!?!

Oh the inhumanity!
Oh the problems first World people must face!

Tom

 

[marc]

So, the companies are forcing people to raise their thermostats. The irony of going from rule of the Government to rule of the Corporation.

 

[Elixir]

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

OMFG!

Expected to survive 78F temperatures in Texas in the summer?!?!

Oh the inhumanity!
Oh the problems first World people must face!

Tom

Snowflakes! I remember enduring 95 degree heat without a whimper.
Must have something to do with THE TEXAS GOOBERMINT deciding how hot they should be.
Time to break out those AR-15s and fight the oppression!

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

OMFG!

Expected to survive 78F temperatures in Texas in the summer?!?!

Oh the inhumanity!
Oh the problems first World people must face!

Tom

That's what I was thinking.

Thanks for the reality check.

I'm hopeful no one succumbed to the utterly oppressive 78 degree heat.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Huh? This sounds like they knowingly signed up for it and forgot about it.

Yeah, for a chance at a sweepstake, they sold out on rights. To save a few bucks, they also sold out on almost certain access to power. Some choices shouldn't be left to people to make. ERCOT and the Pandemic have proven it.

Pay more attention to the situation!

I don't know how the program works in Texas, but around here if they trigger it the thermostats go up 4 degrees. It is not an insane choice, there's no reason it shouldn't be left to the people. This is no catastrophe, this is simply idiots. Setting your thermostat to 78 is horrible?? Our house is set higher than that, simply dress lightly and it's fine.

 

[ZiprHead]

Editorial: Abbott and ERCOT should face facts: The grid isn't fixed

Growth and climate change are straining the electricity grid. Elected officials and energy regulators must get serious about finding solutions.

www.statesman.com

It’s been almost a year since Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed that he and state lawmakers did “everything that needed to be done” to prevent electricity blackouts like the one that left hundreds of Texans dead and millions more shivering in the dark for days during a brutal freeze in 2021.

But as temperatures soared toward triple digits this month and the Texas grid manager twice resorted to urging conservation measures normally reserved for summer, Abbott’s boast appeared to be little more than hot air. The conservation warnings had some Texans bracing for the worst, and it's easy to understand why. The grid reform bill Abbott signed last year fell short of the structural overhaul many experts believe is needed to protect us.

Even as it issues conservation notices, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – or ERCOT – continues to assert that the grid is stable. Naturally, some Texans fear another catastrophe on the scale of the 2021 freeze, when we briefly risked losing electricity for months. They wonder if this problem will ever get fixed. Sadly, experts predict more pain unless politicians confront reality and tackle structural grid problems in earnest.

We hope ERCOT's predictions of stability this summer are accurate, but recent events don't inspire confidence. The Texas Tribune reported last week that ERCOT, which manages the grid, canceled crucial spring repairs at at least one power plant on May 12 and required it keep producing electricity through the unseasonably hot weather. The plant broke down under the strain, as did five others that were asked to postpone maintenance. An ERCOT spokesperson denied that maintenance delays caused the failures, but power plant officials said they know better.

Texas will make a great third world country when they secede.

 

[Elixir]

experts predict more pain unless politicians confront reality and tackle structural grid problems in earnest

That would cost money, which costs votes. Why should they do that when the Fed will always bail them out?

 

[Jarhyn]

Editorial: Abbott and ERCOT should face facts: The grid isn't fixed

Growth and climate change are straining the electricity grid. Elected officials and energy regulators must get serious about finding solutions.

www.statesman.com

It’s been almost a year since Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed that he and state lawmakers did “everything that needed to be done” to prevent electricity blackouts like the one that left hundreds of Texans dead and millions more shivering in the dark for days during a brutal freeze in 2021.

But as temperatures soared toward triple digits this month and the Texas grid manager twice resorted to urging conservation measures normally reserved for summer, Abbott’s boast appeared to be little more than hot air. The conservation warnings had some Texans bracing for the worst, and it's easy to understand why. The grid reform bill Abbott signed last year fell short of the structural overhaul many experts believe is needed to protect us.

Even as it issues conservation notices, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – or ERCOT – continues to assert that the grid is stable. Naturally, some Texans fear another catastrophe on the scale of the 2021 freeze, when we briefly risked losing electricity for months. They wonder if this problem will ever get fixed. Sadly, experts predict more pain unless politicians confront reality and tackle structural grid problems in earnest.

We hope ERCOT's predictions of stability this summer are accurate, but recent events don't inspire confidence. The Texas Tribune reported last week that ERCOT, which manages the grid, canceled crucial spring repairs at at least one power plant on May 12 and required it keep producing electricity through the unseasonably hot weather. The plant broke down under the strain, as did five others that were asked to postpone maintenance. An ERCOT spokesperson denied that maintenance delays caused the failures, but power plant officials said they know better.

Texas will make a great third world country when they secede.

Until they're annexed by mexico.

 

[Gospel]

Editorial: Abbott and ERCOT should face facts: The grid isn't fixed

Growth and climate change are straining the electricity grid. Elected officials and energy regulators must get serious about finding solutions.

www.statesman.com

It’s been almost a year since Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed that he and state lawmakers did “everything that needed to be done” to prevent electricity blackouts like the one that left hundreds of Texans dead and millions more shivering in the dark for days during a brutal freeze in 2021.

But as temperatures soared toward triple digits this month and the Texas grid manager twice resorted to urging conservation measures normally reserved for summer, Abbott’s boast appeared to be little more than hot air. The conservation warnings had some Texans bracing for the worst, and it's easy to understand why. The grid reform bill Abbott signed last year fell short of the structural overhaul many experts believe is needed to protect us.

Even as it issues conservation notices, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – or ERCOT – continues to assert that the grid is stable. Naturally, some Texans fear another catastrophe on the scale of the 2021 freeze, when we briefly risked losing electricity for months. They wonder if this problem will ever get fixed. Sadly, experts predict more pain unless politicians confront reality and tackle structural grid problems in earnest.

We hope ERCOT's predictions of stability this summer are accurate, but recent events don't inspire confidence. The Texas Tribune reported last week that ERCOT, which manages the grid, canceled crucial spring repairs at at least one power plant on May 12 and required it keep producing electricity through the unseasonably hot weather. The plant broke down under the strain, as did five others that were asked to postpone maintenance. An ERCOT spokesperson denied that maintenance delays caused the failures, but power plant officials said they know better.

Texas will make a great third world country when they secede.

Until they're annexed by mexico.

If they agree to build a new wall they may get Trump's approval.

 

[Jarhyn]

Editorial: Abbott and ERCOT should face facts: The grid isn't fixed

Growth and climate change are straining the electricity grid. Elected officials and energy regulators must get serious about finding solutions.

www.statesman.com

It’s been almost a year since Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed that he and state lawmakers did “everything that needed to be done” to prevent electricity blackouts like the one that left hundreds of Texans dead and millions more shivering in the dark for days during a brutal freeze in 2021.

But as temperatures soared toward triple digits this month and the Texas grid manager twice resorted to urging conservation measures normally reserved for summer, Abbott’s boast appeared to be little more than hot air. The conservation warnings had some Texans bracing for the worst, and it's easy to understand why. The grid reform bill Abbott signed last year fell short of the structural overhaul many experts believe is needed to protect us.

Even as it issues conservation notices, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – or ERCOT – continues to assert that the grid is stable. Naturally, some Texans fear another catastrophe on the scale of the 2021 freeze, when we briefly risked losing electricity for months. They wonder if this problem will ever get fixed. Sadly, experts predict more pain unless politicians confront reality and tackle structural grid problems in earnest.

We hope ERCOT's predictions of stability this summer are accurate, but recent events don't inspire confidence. The Texas Tribune reported last week that ERCOT, which manages the grid, canceled crucial spring repairs at at least one power plant on May 12 and required it keep producing electricity through the unseasonably hot weather. The plant broke down under the strain, as did five others that were asked to postpone maintenance. An ERCOT spokesperson denied that maintenance delays caused the failures, but power plant officials said they know better.

Texas will make a great third world country when they secede.

Until they're annexed by mexico.

If they agree to build a new wall they may get Trump's approval.

The my would definitely get Mexico's approval...

I bet they're wishing there was a wall right about now seeing how things are going here

 

[bilby]

Editorial: Abbott and ERCOT should face facts: The grid isn't fixed

Growth and climate change are straining the electricity grid. Elected officials and energy regulators must get serious about finding solutions.

www.statesman.com

It’s been almost a year since Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed that he and state lawmakers did “everything that needed to be done” to prevent electricity blackouts like the one that left hundreds of Texans dead and millions more shivering in the dark for days during a brutal freeze in 2021.

But as temperatures soared toward triple digits this month and the Texas grid manager twice resorted to urging conservation measures normally reserved for summer, Abbott’s boast appeared to be little more than hot air. The conservation warnings had some Texans bracing for the worst, and it's easy to understand why. The grid reform bill Abbott signed last year fell short of the structural overhaul many experts believe is needed to protect us.

Even as it issues conservation notices, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – or ERCOT – continues to assert that the grid is stable. Naturally, some Texans fear another catastrophe on the scale of the 2021 freeze, when we briefly risked losing electricity for months. They wonder if this problem will ever get fixed. Sadly, experts predict more pain unless politicians confront reality and tackle structural grid problems in earnest.

We hope ERCOT's predictions of stability this summer are accurate, but recent events don't inspire confidence. The Texas Tribune reported last week that ERCOT, which manages the grid, canceled crucial spring repairs at at least one power plant on May 12 and required it keep producing electricity through the unseasonably hot weather. The plant broke down under the strain, as did five others that were asked to postpone maintenance. An ERCOT spokesperson denied that maintenance delays caused the failures, but power plant officials said they know better.

Texas will make a great third world country when they secede.

Blackouts are an inevitable result of ‘for profit’ electricity supply systems.

The cost of reliability increases dramatically at the top end; it’s VASTLY more expensive to have a grid with blackouts once a decade than it is to have a grid with blackouts once a year. Similarly, it’s VASTLY more expensive to have a grid that can recover from a blackout condition when one does arise in minutes, than it is to have one that takes hours to recover, or one that takes days.

A socialist system, that is mandated to provide reliable infrastructure despite that sometimes costing more than it can reasonably earn, is always going to be less prone to blackouts than a capitalistic system that requires profitability even where that implies occasional outages.

Infrastructure isn’t supposed to be profitable; its job is to support the existence of other, profitable, businesses. Infrastructure is supposed to be reliable.

Electricity grids are infrastructure. They aren’t, and cannot be made to be, profitable businesses. You can hive off bits of the system as profit centres, but ultimately that just makes the rest of the system more expensive and less reliable.

One of the key differences between the developed and developing world is the reliability and availability of infrastructure.

Congolese entrepreneurs aren’t too stupid, idle, or ignorant to set up profitable and efficient businesses; They lack the reliable infrastructure to make such businesses viable.

Texan entrepreneurs have been spoiled for so long by the presence of reliable infrastructure that they fail to notice its existence, (much less the importance to their ventures of supporting it through their taxes) until it’s suddenly not there anymore.

 

[Tigers!]

Blackouts are an inevitable result of ‘for profit’ electricity supply systems.

I wonder.
I remember all too clearly in the 70s & 80s the blackouts that occurred in Victoria during the days of the SECV (State Electricity Commission Victoria), a not-for-profit government commission.
Both forms (state owned or private) electricity grids will have blackouts. The questions are how many, how often, how long, how widespread?
Under the SECV the blackouts were infrequent, went for a long time and were widespread. Under the privatised model now in operation blackouts seem to be more frequent, shorter and far more localised.
How to measure? Blackouts minutes/year/area?
Other metrics? Which is the best measure?

 

[bilby]

The questions are how many, how often, how long, how widespread?

The answer is “how much are you prepared to pay?”

In a private for profit company, the answer is always “as little as we can get away with”.

In a government owned utility, the answer is “as little as the voters will tolerate”.

The difference being that, as retail electricity is a natural monopoly (people don’t want and won’t pay for multiple parallel grids with several sets of redundant cabling to each property), a “for profit” company only has to answer to their shareholders, who may well not be their customers - the customers can’t go elsewhere, and don’t have a say. The government run utility has to answer to the voters, who are typically also the customers.

Of course, you can end up with blackouts in either system, if it’s poorly run. But a “for profit” system has a certain level of blackouts built in as an inevitable result of cost minimisation, in an environment where profits come ahead of service provision.

If the company is sufficiently tightly regulated as to put service provision ahead of profit, then it is just a government utility with extra steps (and those extra steps are typically exploited to funnel public cash into the pockets of the mates of the people in government).

It’s noticeable that large, private, for profit companies are almost invariably run as centrally planned economic units under the control of a politburo board of directors. That’s because that system of governance is the one that actually works, for organisations with a narrow focus.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

So, we need to seriously send in the national guard with the army corps of engineers, else expect the electric company to fix things (they are the ones who turned it off on purpose), and get power back on.

None of Texas was built for this shit.

This is a crisis, and the Texas government is dropping the ball. There has been no power for quite some time now. People are dying and something needs to be done about this.

Biden has gotten his first natural disaster with a human cost. Let's see how he handles it.

The Texas power grid does not connect outside of Texas. Long ago, Texas went this route to make sure Texas was not In any way affected by the Federal government, or it's laws and regulations. Biden can do very little relalistically. By design. Texas has been run for decades by the GOP. George "The Shrub" Bush, Rick "Dumbass" Perry, and Greg "The Incomptent" Abbott. This whole Jujuflop Situation did not happen suddenly. It was years in the making. The most Biden could realistically do is to come down to Texas to bitch slap Abbott.

 

[Patooka]

The grid's fine. Rafael Cruz hasn't left the state yet.

 

[Jarhyn]

So, we need to seriously send in the national guard with the army corps of engineers, else expect the electric company to fix things (they are the ones who turned it off on purpose), and get power back on.

None of Texas was built for this shit.

This is a crisis, and the Texas government is dropping the ball. There has been no power for quite some time now. People are dying and something needs to be done about this.

Biden has gotten his first natural disaster with a human cost. Let's see how he handles it.

The Texas power grid does not connect outside of Texas. Long ago, Texas went this route to make sure Texas was not In any way affected by the Federal government, or it's laws and regulations. Biden can do very little relalistically. By design. Texas has been run for decades by the GOP. George "The Shrub" Bush, Rick "Dumbass" Perry, and Greg "The Incomptent" Abbott. This whole Jujuflop Situation did not happen suddenly. It was years in the making. The most Biden could realistically do is to come down to Texas to bitch slap Abbott.

In the original viewpoint, I was thinking the Army Corps of Engineers could do as had been done elsewhere and they could move a large number of generators from army bases where they see regular PMCS and not much else, to Texas, and have communities where people needed heat reconnected to temporary support.

Even a few days of some generator support might have made the difference for many of those hundreds who died.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The cost of reliability increases dramatically at the top end; it’s VASTLY more expensive to have a grid with blackouts once a decade than it is to have a grid with blackouts once a year. Similarly, it’s VASTLY more expensive to have a grid that can recover from a blackout condition when one does arise in minutes, than it is to have one that takes hours to recover, or one that takes days.

A socialist system, that is mandated to provide reliable infrastructure despite that sometimes costing more than it can reasonably earn, is always going to be less prone to blackouts than a capitalistic system that requires profitability even where that implies occasional outages.

This. Reliability is expensive. We see it in the Texas utilities. We see it with some old, cheap drugs: The government forces the price as low as possible (they can with something mostly paid by Medicaid) and when the supply chain hiccups the patients are left to suffer. Look at what has happened with Abbott--some contaminated packaging (no contaminated product was ever found) shut down a factory and we have a big hiccup in specialty baby formula and some other products they produce.