Why Texas is in so much trouble -

[DURHAM D]

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[Gothmog]

1. Texas GOP and ERCOT-Preparation is for wimps

It is tough living in Texas at times. The GOP has set up ERCOT which is a separate Texas only power grid that is not well planned. The Texas GOP was proud of Texas being independent of the rest of the United States and now we are paying for this arrogance

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[marble falls]

3. Republicans did not set up Ercot. Texas set up Ercot -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_United_States_Senate_elections

The south was solidly Democratic and the nation had FDR and a Democratic Congress. LBJ had more to do with the electrification of rural Texas than almost anyone else in the nation.

ERCOT was more about Texas than it was about the parties.

[Gothmog]

9. The GOP has been in control of Texas since the early 1990s

You are totally wrong here

[marble falls]

13. Curiously enough, ERCOT was actually established in 1940 ...

Republicans may have modified it in the nineties, but it was absolutely not a "Republican" Plan. Or a Democratic plan except it was conceived in response to a Democratic President's programs for the rural Electrification program and a response to WWII; voted on by a Democratic Congress w/ a Texan Democratic Majority Leader, and Democratic Speaker of the House.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Reliability_Council_of_Texas

"The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power on the Texas Interconnection that supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers – representing 90 percent of the state's electric load.[1] ERCOT is the first independent system operator (ISO) in the United States[2] and one of nine ISOs in North America.[3] ERCOT works with the Texas Reliability Entity (TRE),[4] one of eight regional entities within the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that coordinate to improve reliability of the bulk power grid.[5]


History

At the beginning of World War II, several electric utilities in Texas agreed to operate together as the Texas Interconnected System (TIS) to support the war effort. Excess power generation was sent to industries on the Gulf Coast, providing a more reliable supply of electricity for production of metal and other material needed for the war.

Recognizing the reliability advantages of remaining interconnected, TIS members continued to operate and develop the interconnected grid. TIS members adopted official operating guides for their interconnected power system and established two monitoring centers within the control centers of two utilities, one in North Texas and one in South Texas.

In 1970, ERCOT was formed to comply with NERC requirements. Throughout the 1980s, the organization continued to take over functions from TIS and eventually became the central operating coordinator for Texas.

The Texas Legislature amended the Public Utility Regulatory Act in 1995 to deregulate the wholesale generation market. The PUC then began the process of expanding ERCOT’s responsibilities to enable wholesale competition and facilitate efficient use of the transmission system by all market participants.[2]

On August 21, 1996, the PUC endorsed an electric utility joint task force recommendation that ERCOT become an ISO. This ensured that an impartial, third-party organization was overseeing equitable access to the transmission system among competitive market participants. In September 1996, the change became official when the ERCOT Board of Directors initiated operations as a nonprofit ISO, the first in the United States.

The Texas Legislature restructured the Texas electric market in 1999 by unbundling the investor-owned utilities and creating retail customer choice in those areas, and assigned ERCOT four primary responsibilities:

System reliability – planning and operations
Open access to transmission
Retail switching process for customer choice
Wholesale market settlement for electricity production and delivery


There are a lot of reasons why Texas is its own ISO - being the biggest state in the Union at that time and with poor electrification service one of them.


Maybe you'd like to cite your source of this "Republican" plot? I promise not to get snippy with you.

[Gothmog]

20. Again your attempt at analysis is both amusing and wrong

The GOP had made Texas a single state market to avoid regulation of Texas energy prices by FERC. I am amused by your silly claims.

[Major Nikon]

25. I kinda feel the same way about yours

Your latest statement still contains zero nexus between cause and effect. So I’m not sure what you are amused by other than a failure to supply the evidence you are so convinced of, whatever that is.

It’s also true that Texas has invested far more in wind power than any other state. We produce 3 times more than our closest competitor and 4 times more than California. Electricity is also cheaper here than just about any other state. Meanwhile the huge investment Texas made in wind and natural gas is largely the cause of our problems as they are more difficult to protect against winter storms.

So is that because of or in spite of our rejection of federal regulation?

[58Sunliner]

2. Scary. Incompetent and dangerous.

[UTUSN]

4. There had to be a reason for Texas. Actually, always the *SAME* reason.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Yet, ERCOT maintains 3 ties to Mexico and pulled power from them during a 2011 blackout.

.

Fuck the Feds, but Build-The-Wall Mexico is A-OK.

Their minds are infested with brain worms.

.

[yaesu]

6. its been holding well above 4 million outages in the state tonight and Tuesday morning will be the

worst of the cold temps.

[sarcasmo]

7. Free Dumb

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/16/electricity-retailer-griddys-unusual-plea-to-texas-customers-leave-now-before-you-get-a-big-bill/

[calimary]

33. Dayum. Keeping this. Good stuff.

My best friend lives in Texas now. And she’s freezing. Had to check into a hotel to get any heat!

Good to know.

[sarcasmo]

35. Tell her about the price gouge, near 9 dollars a khw. Crazy.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. So why are they begging the Federal Government for help?

I thought the Great State of Texas didn't need no stinking federal government.

While I don't wish bad things on the ordinary citizens, the entire state needs to experience the logical consequences of their choices.

Think real hard about who you vote for next time around. Meanwhile, live with your decisions.

[Major Nikon]

18. Is this also true for California's power grid problems?

Do they also need to feel the pain of their political choices?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. I don't think California has rejected the

federal government in the first place. Somewhat unlike Texas. And I do know that in the past California has been at the mercy of outside power companies.

I do think that states that consistently reject the federal government as being legitimate really ought to feel the pain of their political choices. Yeah, I realize that in any state not everyone does so, and it's too bad we can't separate out the different people, but I am thoroughly sick and tired of those who reject legitimate federal government assistance. Let them suffer the consequences.

I've also lived in states (Kansas, specifically) where outlying counties want to secede from the state. Those counties never understand how much they actually benefit from the rest of their state. Honestly, I say, let them go. And let them finally understand their actual connectedness to the rest of us.

[Major Nikon]

24. That's kind of the whole point

Certainly California hasn’t rejected federal assistance and the same thing happened. Nebraska hasn’t rejected federal assistance and the same thing happened. Kinda seems less than apparent federal assistance is the issue, so why jump to that conclusion and wish suffering on people when you don’t know?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. I have pretty much had it with

those who condemn government and do their very best to destroy it until all of a sudden they are in need. They don't want any of us to have services or benefits or even basic health care or a living wage. They need to live by their beliefs.

[Major Nikon]

31. That's certainly a fair point

Just not sure if it has anything to do with the matter at hand.

[JI7]

10. So it was about sticking it to the libs ?

[Grokenstein]

11. Whither #TEXIT now, Yee-Haws?

Rhetorical question; I know when spring is well underway you'll be back to "rolling coal" and bellowing for secession.
...Those of you who survive, anyway.

[Progressive Jones]

12. And they want to be a "Sovereign Nation" ??? Good Luck !!! nt

[NBachers]

14. All'n yew corporations sicka them California regyoolayshuns? Comeon down ta the Free State o' Texas!

[summer_in_TX]

34. All'n yew?

Make that "y'all." No self-respecting native Texan would say "all'n yew."

[Chicago1980]

15. In other words...

Things wouldn't look too good if they were their own separate nation.

[roamer65]

16. Given the state of the TX power grid, it is good that there are no interconnects.

It very well may have brought down or caused major problems to the large parts of the Eastern power grid.

Interconnects should not be allowed for ERCOT, until they have fixed all of the problems.

[Major Nikon]

17. I'm pretty sure the issue is a bit more complex

It’s nice to point out Texas power grid isn’t federally regulated, but the source doesn’t even begin to explain how federal power regulation would have prevented this.

Texas does have emergency connections to adjacent power grids. Those connections haven't helped us much.

California is federally regulated and connected to a huge power grid. That didn’t stop them from rolling blackouts last year. The cause there was poor planning which is the same cause in Texas now.

[EndlessWire]

21. As stimulating as this whole discussion is

is that gif in your signature real?

[Major Nikon]

23. Cat tax must be paid

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

27. .

.

[Klaralven]

22. The core of the problem is that 34,000 megawatts of generation are off line

Some of this is wind power, but it looks like the majority of the off line generators are coal and gas fired thermal plants.

Apparently, when the generation was separated from distribution by deregulation, nobody thought to tell the generating companies that they had to be able to run their plants in cold weather.

It all seems very odd, since generating plants in the Upper Midwest run fine at 0 degrees in a snowstorm.

Some of the problem for gas powered generators may be low pressure in their gas supplies as more gas is demanded for residential heating and there is also some news that gas wells are being shut in due to the cold. This is also sort of weird, since gas wells in Pennsylvania and New York apparently have no such issues.

[Major Nikon]

26. Water is required for natural gas power generation

The water supplies are the problem along with wind turbines freezing up. These things can be protected, but weather like this in Texas is a once in a lifetime event. You can’t always plan for every single contingency

[Klaralven]

29. Oddly enough, the generation companies don't appear to be obliged to produce power when it is cold

If they were liable for frozen plumbing repairs due to their failure to generate electricity, then the costs of preventative measures would be offset by the liability expense savings and the market would work more effectively.

As the ERCOT market currently works, there seems to be no disincentive to the electricity generation companies shutting down when it is cold. The distribution companies then have to shut off customers to prevent network collapse.

The temperatures being experienced now seem to happen every couple to few decades. They are not 100-year events.

[Major Nikon]

30. There's a huge incentive

Wholesale prices of electricity go up when demand goes up. It's more accurate to say there would be less incentive if the market prices were more highly regulated.

I have seen low temperatures in Texas. I have never seen such sustained low temperatures. Usually they are gone with a day or two and we are above freezing again.

[czarjak]

32. Thanks, rubes.