My service came back up in about 45 minutes. I had just got my backup gas generator going when it came back up. Nature is a capricious mother. One of the best things I learned as a boy scout was to be prepared. After I was out of power for three days during Harvey, I bought a Generac gas powered generator with enough wattage to power my stove, refrigerator/freezer, AC/Heater, several lamps, internet and TV. I tried to get my dad to buy one back then, now he says he is getting one as soon as the weather clears. Last Friday I bought 10 gallons or non-ethanol gas, should I need to power my generator because ethanol fucks up the carbs of small engines.
I wouldn’t count on that fuckwad Abbott for anything and most certainly not my well being. Also my parents got their plumbing issue fixed this evening.
We haven’t lost power yet - a surgical hospital is about 1/2 mile away, so I’m assuming that’s why - but a gasoline generator will definitely be on my shopping list before the next big winter storm.
Just dropped the thermostats to 65 to try to do our part.
Mine is back on but i saw on Twitter Jayne lost hers. I can’t believe they couldn’t put a damn into place. You knew this storm was coming. Such failed leadership.
And my thermostat was never over 64, I usually hate heaters.
I am thinking of the pre-responders. The linemen who brave any weather to repair and maintain the infrastructure that keeps us all comfortable and allows the first responders to receive notifications. These guys are the unsung heroes. A hardy group, they relish the opportunity to help people by restoring their service. They receive no merchant discounts and get little recognition for their amazing work in the most horrible of conditions.
My power has been out since 2 am on the 15th. A buddy of mine very kindly was willing to come get me and put me up for a day or two until the power is back at least.
Fuck ERCOT and the absolutely shit leadership in this state.
It’s a fucking embarrassment that 2 million people are without power while downtown Austin is lit up like a fucking Christmas tree.
I woke up to see that the PUC passed an emergency order to allow price increases (with a cap), because demand exceeds supply. In some respect, I get the idea that they should discourage use through pricing, but it won’t work that way. Instead, it will just be surprise bills for people who had no idea, or worse yet, people who finally got power and now need to heat their homes. This might have been a better idea if it was done pre cold wave, and shouted from the rooftops; then it might have prevented some blackouts.
Best I can figure is that they didn’t know how to pull off rolling blackouts to equitably distribute the pain, so they went to plan B.
Lots of questions for which to demand answers once this is all over.
From ERCOT:
Natural gas plant outages accounted for most of the drop in planned electric production; why were they unprepared? Even if you want to keep the Texas grid separate, why not build transmission lines, sign agreements, etc. to buy power from the western/eastern interconnects when needed? (I think ERCOT was, and maybe still is, buying power from Mexico for part of this)
From Austin Energy:
Why is 60% of the city deemed critical? Does AE need to split up existing circuits to better accommodate rolling blackouts in a power emergency? How can AE de-incentivize customers on critical circuits from wasting power (e.g. downtown lighting)?
Now, I don’t expect these questions to be answered to anyone’s satisfaction. Republicans at the state level will grumble about the feds and/or California and keep getting re-elected, while the Austin city government will continue to be an unmitigated circus.
That’s the easy narrative. Something like 30,000MW of wind power is out, but ERCOT was only counting on 5,000MW of wind power through all this. 20,000MW of gas power is out, and ERCOT was banking on having all of it. At least, that’s based on things I’ve read.
So I’m not exactly understanding all the power outages. Surely demand is no higher than it is in peak summer months, is it? So is this all an infrastructure failure thing? That’s what the talking heads keep point towards. But then why wail about demand? None of this adds up. Of course, it’s possible I’m just an idiot, and our state government has thought this through to the nth degree.
I’m assuming it takes less energy to cool a house to 72 degrees when it’s 95 outside than it takes to heat house to 65 when it’s 20 outside. And it’s a failure on many levels. People will always complain and look for someone to blame when their comfort level is disrupted.
I’ve read the same that it takes more energy to heat than cool. But the lack of planning. People would have understood roll outs if that has been what happened. It’s not.
It needs to be investigated as this might happen sooner than later with people in charge that don’t believe in climate change.
It’s been around since time began, man’s struggle against Nature, Nature’s battle against man. From tectonic plate movements to simple quicksand, Nature has the power. Nature has the upper hand. The forces of Nature come in many degrees, it could be a forest fire or a plague of killer bees. It could be an earthquake or maybe typhoon, volcano, tornado, blizzard or monsoon. I wouldn’t fight Nature if I had my druthers and I wish I could control the actions of others. We should treat Nature as one of our brothers and you know it’s not nice to fool your mother.
It’s true it takes more energy to heat something than to cool it, thermodynamically at least, but for something like 20-30 degrees, the difference is negligible. And most people, at least that I know, have natural gas as the fuel source for their heating. Yes it requires electricity to operate the furnace, but electricity is not what is generating the heat, it’s the combustion of the natural gas. Most people, I would think, use far less electricity heating their homes than they do cooling them, and I would think that the actual power demand is less in the winter. This takes us back to infrastructure and the failure to be able to provide. This is not so much a demand issue, as it is a planning and preparation issue from the electricity generators. At least that’s my thought. But I’m sure there’s lots of blame to go around.
My lack of understanding aligns with what you said, in that the current demand now is way less than a summer heat wave demand. I thought I read that during summer, ERCOT knows they need more generation and has much more generation on line than in the winter.
One other aspect of the supply/demand issue I saw mentioned is that because overall demand during the winter is usually so much lower, the producers don’t contract for as much natural gas in the winter months and have very little excess capacity. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, and the frozen generation facilities are by far the greater issue, but this may be another problem on the heap.
I’m assuming our esteemed leaders in state government really took this monologue to heart:
The world is full o’ complainers. An’ the fact is, nothin’ comes with a guarantee. Now I don’t care if you’re the pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year; somethin’ can all go wrong. Now go on ahead, y’know, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, ‘n watch him fly. Now, in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else… that’s the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas, an’ down here… you’re on your own.
I’m fairly certain I’ll be fixing water pipes and cutting limbs out of fences for about 2 weeks…if I have all the parts I’ll need. I have no faith in being able to buy anything at a hardware store anytime soon.
…and there’s more snow and ice coming tonight. Yay.
I was tuning in to local talk radio, trying to find some news of what’s going on, and some guy was explaining that it is Texas’ reliance on wind and solar power.
As if this has to do with anything other than extreme weather and Texas’ insistence on above-ground power lines. If the grid can handle peak summer A/C demand, it can handle this heating demand; many houses are heated by gas, but they are all cooled by electricity.
While Texans certainly have a streak of self-reliance, I hope that nobody is getting/giving the cold shoulder from their neighbors. That’s about the only thing you can count on besides yourself. I’ve been checking in with my neighbors the last couple of days, and we’re helping each other out best we can. Elderly couple next door decided they’d take a walk this morning, and dumbass slipped on the ice and got damn near knocked unconscious. I’m hoping she doesn’t need an ambulance, but we’ll see. I keep checking on them.
I hope everyone is helping others, if they’re in a position to do so. Every little bit helps.