Blackouts Cascade Beyond Texas in Deepening Power Crisis

[Draco-Onis]

Well in Texas there's a law that essentially caps how much you can raise rates in order to protect the consumer. What basically happened is that because the generators werent selling because they werent getting enough money due to the shortage and damages, another org had to adjust the policy to allow rates to be increased a ton just so that power could flow to the providers and thereby, the consumer.

So Texas does have SOME regulation. Its just the generators got fucking greedy during a disaster and wanted prices to "reflect market conditions".

I am going to be really pissed if bail out money goes to these vipers though it seems inevitable, they are going to get record profits for failing.

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they actually did have a choice, quite a bunch of them

But people getting those bills chose a variable rate contract because it saved money over a fixed rate contract....or so they gambled.

There's a lot wrong with not having electricity for days then getting a 17K+ electric bill, the only question is if the republicans in control of Texas pay a price for this. If history is any guide this will be forgotten in a few months then a few years later we are going to have the same disaster because climate change isn't going away.

[Breccia]

Well in Texas there's a law that essentially caps how much you can raise rates in order to protect the consumer. What basically happened is that because the generators werent selling because they werent getting enough money due to the shortage and damages, another org had to adjust the policy to allow rates to be increased a ton just so that power could flow to the providers and thereby, the consumer.

So Texas does have SOME regulation. Its just the generators got fucking greedy during a disaster and wanted prices to "reflect market conditions".

Somehow, this feels even worse. Maybe I'm just biased against people charging the price of a decent car to people freezing to death.

[Crissi]

Somehow, this feels even worse. Maybe I'm just biased against people charging the price of a decent car to people freezing to death.

I mean, Id support a government takeover of power but that isnt happening. I'm hoping maybe combine bailing out the power providers while fining the shit out of the generators. It isnt the provider's fault beyond not winterising transmission equipment really.

[Crissi]

Went 12 hours without power Monday and 8 hours Tuesday. Thankfully my apartment is all utilities so it won't kill me. the amount of people that are angered at ercot and Abbott is insane right now you even got people ercot and abbott. that is going to be hilarious. the 137 car pile up on the Texas toll road certainly did not help the ntta's case at all either I want to see them fall. Fuck the ntta

Glad you're ok dude! I was 36 hous of no power, and I sitll have no water lols.

I second the fuck the ntta

[Crissi]

We got water surprising with all the issues the apartment has. But we do have to boil it. I guess Arlington got hit hard if y'all still don't have water. Be safe out there

We have a well, so while we avoided the boil water issue, a pipe burst so we cant get to the water. And the repair guys are obviously heavily backlogged.

Oh well, time to do what the ancient Brittish did. Drink beer because its safer.

[Rasulis]

We have a well, so while we avoided the boil water issue, a pipe burst so we cant get to the water. And the repair guys are obviously heavily backlogged.

Oh well, time to do what the ancient Brittish did. Drink beer because its safer.

If it is just an outdoor pipe between the house and the well that broke, you should be able to fix it DIY.

Right now people are only talking about the crazy Griddy electric bills. There will be a lot of screaming when people start renewing their electricity contracts. Sticker shock will be an understatement. Solar panels + Powewall will be very popular.

[Shadowferal]

Off-Grid Solar Kit operates from the stored energy in a battery bank. Solar panels generate power to charge the battery bank. Unlike grid-tied solar systems, off-grid systems have no connection to the utility grid, and must make all the electricity necessary to power.
---
Something I was looking at a while ago.

[Mihalik]

Off-Grid Solar Kit operates from the stored energy in a battery bank. Solar panels generate power to charge the battery bank. Unlike grid-tied solar systems, off-grid systems have no connection to the utility grid, and must make all the electricity necessary to power.
---
Something I was looking at a while ago.

You needn't go full off grid, but if you can afford a powerwall/battery pack you should get one, they can be charged by various means, from the grid, with a generator, with solar panels. If you can also afford solar panels you should absolutely get that too if you live anywhere near where power outages are common. Even if it wouldn't cover ALL your power needs, and let's say you only have 12-16 hours of power a day while being economical, it's still 12-16 hours more than nothing.

As we have already seen, having a generator is one thing, finding fuel for your generator is an entirely different thing.

[Ursus]

Ted Cruz tweeted out a picture of him loading bottled water into someone's Hyundai. Good on him for ignoring quarantine protocols and risking other people's lives so he can salvage what's left of his standing with the voters with a cringeworthy photo-op.

[RadasNoir]

Ted Cruz tweeted out a picture of him loading bottled water into someone's Hyundai. Good on him for ignoring quarantine protocols and risking other people's lives so he can salvage what's left of his standing with the voters with a cringeworthy photo-op.

Watch all of the people that were crying "But what could he do?!?!" suddenly turn around and go "See! He's doing something!!"

[Draco-Onis]

Watch all of the people that were crying "But what could he do?!?!" suddenly turn around and go "See! He's doing something!!"

That excuse is rather laughable considering evil communist AOC has raised millions of dollars for Texas and volunteered on the ground helping people. She is also not the only one countless democrats not from Texas have done more for the state in its time of need than Cancun Cruz.

[Thekri]

Texas electric bills skyrocket, some as high as $17,000.

Hey Texas, how's that deregulation coming? Spending a new car's price in a month? What happens if you don't pay the $17,000 bill they hand you? Pretty sure they're legally allowed to do that. And therefore, they're legally allowed to cut you off if you don't pay.

I truly hope that something will be done about that. Perhaps Gov. Hey Abbott will demand the electric company just forgive all those bills or the company gets shut down. Because if he does nothing, and his voters are forced to pay $17,000 or whatever for one month, a month for which they lost power, and the governor (unlike Cruz who has no real authority here) could have acted and didn't? That state is full of Trump supporters, known murderous insurrectionists. They might kill him.

Death toll at 47.

There is a big problem with Abbott doing that, and that is that those bills were specifically approved by his own administration. Although Texas allows pricing based on market scarcity, there are caps to how high they can go.

In the middle of the Crisis, the Texas Public Utility Commission released this document. It is worth a read, it is pretty shocking stuff. In the middle of a crisis, with millions of people without power, they literally put this quote in the order:

The Commission believes this outcome is inconsistent with the
fundamental design of the ERCOT market. Energy prices should reflect scarcity of the supply. If
customer load is being shed, scarcity is at its maximum, and the market price for the energy needed
to serve that load should also be at its highest.

The effect of the order is what sent prices through the roof, since it maxxed out the allowable price caps, which in turn made the people who lost power the lucky ones. Either you lost power, or you got hit with 5 figure power bills. And yes, Abbott directly enabled that, both of those signatures on the document are Abbott apointees, the Governor controls the Public Utility Commission.

[Draco-Onis]

The effect of the order is what sent prices through the roof, since it maxxed out the allowable price caps, which in turn made the people who lost power the lucky ones. Either you lost power, or you got hit with 5 figure power bills. And yes, Abbott directly enabled that, both of those signatures on the document are Abbott apointees, the Governor controls the Public Utility Commission.

Now would be a very good time to look into how much in donations from energy companies Abbott has gotten.

[Breccia]

The effect of the order is what sent prices through the roof, since it maxxed out the allowable price caps, which in turn made the people who lost power the lucky ones. Either you lost power, or you got hit with 5 figure power bills. And yes, Abbott directly enabled that, both of those signatures on the document are Abbott apointees, the Governor controls the Public Utility Commission.

Incidentally, what we're seeing is a micro-example of "America First". Texas effectively walled themsevles off, then ran ouit of juice. "Fuck you I got mine" is a loathesome attitude, and it only "works" until you run out of something you really need.

Again, my heart goes out to the poor people of Texas who signed onto this either without knowledge of the situation (I mean, who looks into this kind of doomsday really?) or who knew but thought it would never happen. Legal or not, this is either intentional price gouging with hostages freezing to death, or proof that the Texas power grid couldn't handle their shit because they're shit in an emergency. Pick one. I don't think either is sufficient grounds, morally, to charge people the price of a Nissan Sentra while they still freeze to death.

I hope everyone involved learns from example and/or holds those who fucked up accountable. This is the richest country in the world and it's the 21st goddam century. These aren't homeless (I'd be upset about that too but I'd at least understand) these are employed people. They shouldn't freeze to death in their own goddam houses, then be charged bankruptcy-level fines for it. I don't care if it's legal or not, that's extortion.

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Now would be a very good time to look into how much in donations from energy companies Abbott has gotten.

Addendum: how much they've gotten in Texas subsidies.

[Thekri]

Incidentally, what we're seeing is a micro-example of "America First". Texas effectively walled themsevles off, then ran ouit of juice. "Fuck you I got mine" is a loathesome attitude, and it only "works" until you run out of something you really need.

Again, my heart goes out to the poor people of Texas who signed onto this either without knowledge of the situation (I mean, who looks into this kind of doomsday really?) or who knew but thought it would never happen. Legal or not, this is either intentional price gouging with hostages freezing to death, or proof that the Texas power grid couldn't handle their shit because they're shit in an emergency. Pick one. I don't think either is sufficient grounds, morally, to charge people the price of a Nissan Sentra while they still freeze to death.

Completely agree on the price gouging shit, the government is supposed to prevent it, not enable it. As far as the actual quality of the Texas grid... I have some disturbing news for you. The entire North American grid is absolute shit, the Texas grid is not exceptional at all. It is the same issues plaguing the whole thing. Archaic technology linked to new technology, poorly maintained, and a massive brain drain in qualified labor for the employees that maintained it. The whole thing is maintained by a bunch of people in their 50s and 60s, there are basically no young people in the whole industry, and they are retiring en masse right now.

The cherry on top of the shit sundae is that the whole thing is owned by a patchwork of for profit companies. None of them want to cut into their yearly profit margins to improve the resilience of the grid, or protect it from a low risk emergency. Instead, they rely on federal or state grants to do that, which are of course patchwork and never enough. Now the east and west coast grids cover a large enough area that a local crisis can be resolved by bringing in power from elsewhere... unless it is a whole grid failure, which is disturbingly possible.

Texas has some weird history with its grid, it goes back much further then ERCOT, it really starts with the expansion of the US Electrical grid in the 1920s and 1930s, which essentially left Houston and Dallas without the electrical grid access that the East and West Coasts got. With the increasing importance of Electrical infrastructure to commercial development, Texas couldn't wait for the grid to slowly expand across the Gulf Coast and eventually connect them to the East coast. So they built their own grid. It wasn't until recently they managed to drop federal regulation of the grid, but it has been separate for almost a hundred years now.

So yeah, we can talk shit about Texas, and they do need to fix their shit, but it is a microcosm of the much larger problem with our two main grids. That "Infrastructure Week" that was a running joke for the last 4 years is actually desperately needed, but it isn't a week, we need a fundamental shift in how we deal with our utility infrastructure.

[Breccia]

we can talk shit about Texas, and they do need to fix their shit, but it is a microcosm of the much larger problem with our two main grids.

I'm not worried that you're right. I'm worried when you'll have proof. There was an ice storm came through here 30 years ago, the stuff of legends, did around here about half what happened in Texas (because more people here were ready for ice than in Texas, because...duh). I didn't live here at the time but I still know how bad it was.

I don't wish that shit oni anyone.

But not once did I hear "and the power company charged me $17,000 for it".

[Belize]

Anyone thinking Texas won’t actually fix the issues because they think it’s such a rare occurrence that it’s just not worth the cost?

I do.

When have Republicans ever corrected an issue...?

[Thekri]

I'm not worried that you're right. I'm worried when you'll have proof. There was an ice storm came through here 30 years ago, the stuff of legends, did around here about half what happened in Texas (because more people here were ready for ice than in Texas, because...duh). I didn't live here at the time but I still know how bad it was.

I don't wish that shit oni anyone.

But not once did I hear "and the power company charged me $17,000 for it".

Well sure, obviously the Northern Grids are more prepared for that particular scenario, because it is more common. The root causes aren't really related to the actual mechanical failures, those are engineering problems which are solvable. The real issues stem from the "culture" of our grid. IE, where the motivation to maintain and repair it comes from. It is why deregulation is extremely dangerous, as Texas is demonstrating right now, but Trump repealed a ton of regulations that leave the rest of the US grids vulnerable as well. I view the price gouging as a separate, but related issue to the actual failures.

The real concern isn't specifically an ice storm, it is ANY low frequency event that disrupts production. The US is pretty used to losing power distribution, it happens all the time in hurricanes and severe storms. Line breaks, mass transformer outages, etc. We can resolve those issues pretty well. What happened in Texas is that they lost production, which is a much rarer incident, and much harder to recover from (And much more expensive to guard against).

This is why is certain conservative idiots are blaming it on renewables, which has a certain amount of truth, but is totally missing the point. Wind and Solar were not contributing to the grid during the ice storm, which is totally normal and planned for, but the problem is that the combustion sources failed at the same time, which is normally what would take up the slack. This caused a dramatic productivity drop. So yeah, they do have a point. This is the problem with having too much renewables on the grid, I have been saying that for years (Not that Texas is anywhere near that point). That isn't really the point though, the problem is that the whole infrastructure didn't plan for an event that forces both to shut down at the same time, and THAT is something that is common to the entire North American system. Now our production facilities are pretty well geographically separated in the other two grids, dramatically reducing the chances that a single natural event will hit enough to do that to the whole East Coast. The west coast is slightly more vulnerable, but still better off then Texas.

The specific thing most people are really concerned about for the other two grids is a cyber attack. Or worse, a combined cyber/physical attack. That ignores geographical separation, and could absolutely drop the grid for either the east or west coasts for potentially months. And just like Texas didn't invest in weatherproofing their systems, the rest of the US isn't investing in hardening its grid from cyber. I see it as more of a when, not if.

[Rasulis]

You needn't go full off grid, but if you can afford a powerwall/battery pack you should get one, they can be charged by various means, from the grid, with a generator, with solar panels. If you can also afford solar panels you should absolutely get that too if you live anywhere near where power outages are common. Even if it wouldn't cover ALL your power needs, and let's say you only have 12-16 hours of power a day while being economical, it's still 12-16 hours more than nothing.

As we have already seen, having a generator is one thing, finding fuel for your generator is an entirely different thing.

If you are going to the trouble of installing solar and Powerwall, I would think you want to install a full-house generator power back up system. Our 16 kW whole house system cost around 5 k in 2014 including installation. In CA that's around one-third of the cost of the solar panels or the Powerwall, after CA and Federal subsidies. If there is gas service, it can be powered with LNG from the main service line like a stove or heater. If there is no gas service then you need Propane. We leased two 250-gallon tanks which are standard in our area ($60 per year each which included maintenance). One for the house and one dedicated to the generator. At half load, which is where you should be 90% of the time, it uses 1.5 gallon per hour. So 250 gallons is enough for 7 days.

The key to self-sustaining is energy efficiency. An energy efficient home makes a big difference. Good insulation (R-28 exterior walls & R-49 attic), good triple glazed windows and 8-foot ceilings keep your energy consumption low. The high end energy usage for our house is around 400ish kwh per month in Summer and Winter. In Spring and Fall it can go down to 200ish.

As for Solar/Powerwall combo, sized correctly, you never have to use a single watt of the power company electricity. You can stay hooked up as another back up. SDG&E turned off power for 2 days during the last high wind period due to fire hazard. I did not even notice until I left for work and got to the first traffic light.

[Adam Jensen]

Watch all of the people that were crying "But what could he do?!?!" suddenly turn around and go "See! He's doing something!!"

"What could he do?"

Well he could do the things Beto and AoC are doing.

Providing food, water, supplies, warmth, and money to those in need.

But they voted against Beto and shriek insults about AoC on a daily basis so . . .

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When have Republicans ever corrected an issue...?

When they pulverized the Confederacy?

But that was back when they had Abraham Lincoln and principles lol.