Texas Calls for Power Conservation After Six Generators Fail

[SouthernDem4ever]

Source: Bloomberg News

The Texas grid operator called on residents to conserve energy Friday after six generation facilities tripped offline amid hot weather, prompting power prices to spike.

The power-plant failures resulted in a loss of about 2,900 megawatts of electricity, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said in an email statement Friday. That’s enough power for about 580,000 homes and businesses. Natural-gas fired plants make up all of the generation that failed, an Ercot spokesman said.

The Texas grid is being stressed by high heat in a potential preview of peak summertime demand. This summer will test whether Ercot has made sufficient changes to reinforce a system that experienced cascading power-plant failures and deadly blackouts during a historic freeze in early 2021.

On Thursday, the Public Utility Commission of Texas expressed concern that generators haven’t had enough time to perform seasonal maintenance ahead of summer. The risk: summertime maintenance amid stronger heat can lead to supply shortages and potentially rolling blackouts.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-13/texas-calls-for-energy-conservation-after-six-power-plants-fail

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Remember this in November, Texans.

[Grokenstein]

30. Texas Republicans: "...Remember what?"

"You mean remember how Hunter Biden sold the codes to our grid to China?" /s

[DavidDvorkin]

45. Probably

I hope there will be enough Texans who do remember, especially since this is just the beginning of the problem this summer.

[Deuxcents]

2. It's not even summer yet

Big time heat wave going on now. Texas never addressed their grid problems so now, it’s another round of bandaids at Texans expense. They’re getting what was voted for.

[sakabatou]

3. I'm still wondering if the lines have been insulated

[OAITW r.2.0]

4. Republican control of public power systems. Here is the result.

Apparently incompetence is OK as long as you own the Libs....

[ancianita]

19. Totally corporate owned power systems. Texas has no publicly owned utilities.

Just because it's called the Public Utilities Commission, doesn't mean the public owns Texas utilities.

[modrepub]

40. It's Politicians Managing The Grid

Politicians decided to not allow connections to other grids outside TX to prevent federal oversight (under the interstate trade clause). This means TX consumers are beholden solely to TX generators. If something goes wrong on the system, and it almost always does, they can't transfer power from out of state generators to keep the grid functioning. Thus you can strain the system to the point it partially or completely fails. As a side benefit, folks who buy on the spot market get huge bills if their power stays on. As electricity on the grid becomes scarce, the price goes up (for those not locked into a contracted rate, which is typically higher than the spot price).

So yea, TX politicians (Republicans) are to blame if the grid goes wonky. And when the grid goes wonky, TX residential customers who didn't learn from the last time this happened (and buy electricity on contract vs spot) are going to get astronomical electric bills if their power does stays on.

Funny how the party of commerce (Republicans) doesn't seem to understand or appreciate market forces.

[ancianita]

47. Right. I see.

I knew Texas boasted a self contained electrical grid, but I didn't think TX politicians solely made that decision but got on board with a corporate idea. If they had final say, maybe it probably comes from TX secession ideas, and how they'd have their own country. Why Texans stay willing to suffer because of their politicians shows how Republicans are the cautionary tale that never ends.

Thanks for your post.

[imavoter]

5. And that's why I bought a generator

They are asking everyone to keep
their AC set to 78. And we're supposed to
have 99 degree temps starting tomorrow.
We shall see.

[dalton99a]

6. Today is MAY 13th

Meanwhile:

[progree]

17. this!👆 ⇧ ⇧ ⇧ . Not to be overlooked ⇧ ⇧ ⇧

[IronLionZion]

20. Those MoFos need to be regulated better

that is frustrating to use that much power on something that adds no value to anything.

[Fiendish Thingy]

23. How does bitcoin mining "bolster" an electrical grid?

Doesn’t it drain more energy from the grid, making the situation worse?

[dalton99a]

25. More demand will cause more power plants to be built

Last fall, Texas Governor Greg Abbott gathered dozens of cryptocurrency deal makers in Austin where they discussed an idea that, on its face, seemed almost upside down: Electricity-hungry Bitcoin miners could shore up the state’s power grid, a top priority after a deep freeze last winter triggered blackouts that left hundreds dead.

The industry’s advocates have been making that pitch to the governor for years. The idea is that the miners’ computer arrays would demand so much electricity that someone would come along to build more power plants, something Texas badly needs.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-27/texas-governor-eyes-bitcoin-mining-to-fortify-the-electric-grid

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're low on gas, drive FASTER, so you can get more gas SOMEWHERE

[Galraedia]

28. That is the dumbest shit I've heard this week.

Let's put a useless crypto mining operation that uses enough electricity to power a major city and tie it to the electric grid and see how it turns out.

[IronLionZion]

43. If a problem is bad, make it much much worse

until someone else comes along to fix it.

[modrepub]

41. In My Neck Of The Woods

Bit-mine folks have been buying up small waste coal generators to run their computer banks. They also have been buying large generators and hooking them up to gas wells to generate electricity for their computers. You can earn bitcoin by solving difficult algorithms via computers.

When natural gas was expensive back in the 2000s I remember reading how one large natural gas fired power plant shut down, sold all of its gas contracts, bought electricity on the spot market (to cover its electric contracts) and still made a handsome profit.

Market forces can do weird things. In the age of low interest rates, all assets generally become inflated. Bitcoin is thought to be one of those hyper inflated assets (though the blockchain tech probably does have some value). The recent collapse of crypto currencies is probably a direct result of rising interest rates.

[CrispyQ]

59. Is Abbott the dumbest piece of shit ever?

Oh, my bad. That would be the dumbshits that voted for him. Like my BIL.

[Skittles]

62. he is absolutley disgusting

there is not one redeeming feature to that Trump-humping piece of SHIT

[tanyev]

7. Oh, great.

[C Moon]

16. Hang in there. :(

[TomSlick]

8. It gets hot in Texas. Who knew?

I'll grant you it's hotter than usual for mid-May but imagine where they will be come August.

The good people of Texas need to decide they have had enough of the GQP running the State and its power grid.

[3Hotdogs]

9. FUKKIN' GUB'MINT OVER-REGULATION I tell ya.

If they just would let the power companies do their job, fix stuff only when it needs to be fixed, add new power sources when the company needs it, charge what they want so's they can build new stuff when it is needed....

we wound 't have emergency alerts like this.

[mountain grammy]

10. gotta build that wall,send troops to the border and mess with the supply chain.

little money left for anything else.

[peppertree]

11. "But - but - mah FREEDUMB!"

"Cindy Lou! Crank up the AC, the tee-vee, and the dee-vee-DEE!"

[keithbvadu2]

12. Texas electricity Patrick Cruz Paxton blame democrats

Texas electricity Patrick Cruz Paxton blame democrats

Pic Of The Moment: Ah, The Party Of Personal Responsibility

“California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity,” Cruz wrote back then.

[IronLionZion]

22. They still blamed liberals for a non-existent green new deal and windmills

At least Cancun Cruz stayed to help his people

[keithbvadu2]

26. On the road again

[czarjak]

51. True story.

[Traildogbob]

13. Guessing Cruz will be taking

The girls up to Canada for some family time. You go Greg, freedom. Damn Mexican heat is crossing the boarder. Build the wall higher.

[dchill]

14. Seems like a powerful beginning.

[CaptainTruth]

15. Were they solar or wind? Probably not.

One thing I remember from the devastating "Texas freeze" that knocked out 20% of America's oil refining capacity (which increased gas prices, but no one is blaming Texas Republicans for that, & gosh, where was all the Democratic messaging about that? I guess I missed it), anyway, one thing I remember was how all the fossil fuel generation failed but throughout it all the sun didn't stop shining & the wind didn't stop blowing, so all the renewable energy sources just kept on generating.

[CrispyQ]

60. Our side doesn't do marketing.

Besides, we're 40 years behind the 8-ball, now. They have decades of messaging (lies) behind them, a HUGE right-wing media machine. We have crickets.

[TheFarseer]

69. They'll still blame libs because

There’s too much regulation and no one can build power plants because of liberals trying to save some endangered insect or something to do with the global warming hoax. That’s what they’ll say even if there’s not a shred of truth to it so get ready to knock down that talking point.

[intheflow]

18. I can hear the tourism ads in my head.

I mean, the copy practically writes itself!

Come to TEXAS: We guarantee you summers full of sizzling hotness, and the most chill winters south of the Mason-Dixon line!

[IronLionZion]

21. It's only May

It might be a long hot sweltering summer in Texas. Might be time to upgrade their systems

[childfreebychoice]

24. Are there any amt of troubles that will cause rethugs to be voted out, in tx

Just asking for a friend

[Missn-Hitch]

58. No.

[Pas-de-Calais]

27. Got some TX friends who are righteously pissed right now

They’ve said just about all that has been posted under this entry.

Best one?

Let’s vote the bastards OUT!!

[mwb970]

34. But maybe they just mean "We need a different set of republicans!"

[TeamProg]

29. Gov't on the cheap and on the take. n/t

[herding cats]

31. Next week should be fun.

It's not even seriously hot here yet. Next week it will be and it's a strong La Niña pattern. Unless we get some tropical storms in Texas it's going to be a record breaking heatwave this year.

We're in such deep shit here.

[duforsure]

32. Abbotts got to be messing his pants now,

Showing how little he's done to protect the Texas power grid. We haven't got that hot yet. When if fails and people suffer again from Abbotts failures , he'll be good as gone. He'll blame others again , and lie again like he did when the power grid failed from the freeze and he killed hundreds . Has Cruz left for Alaska yet?

[tanyev]

39. He took a pretty easy gamble that the winter after the big power failure would not have another

cold snap like the one that nearly took the power grid completely down. Since we didn't have much trouble last summer, maybe because it was a relatively mild summer, he probably felt like he could keep that gamble going through his reelection. This summer could be miserable, but maybe it will help give us Governor O'Rourke.

[VarryOn]

33. PowerOutage.us is an informative site showing power outages buy state...

I have it booked marked. Look at it 2-3 times per week at list. After a few weeks, one can learn there a ha dful of states with insuffienct capacity.

[Ford_Prefect]

35. So this means Solar is still off the table in TX?

[hunter]

48. Solar won't help if they can't keep the gas plants running.

Electrical demand usually starts to peak in the late afternoon just as solar power is fading.

Here in solar-friendly California that's when the gas plants power up. A number of gas plants are always kept hot, not generating power but ready to pick up the load whenever wind and solar power fade.

Wind and solar are the best thing that could have happened to the natural gas industry. They will only prolong our dependence on natural gas. Wind and solar cannot displace natural gas entirely because there is no technically feasible way to store solar and wind energy away for days or weeks the wind isn't blowing briskly and the sun isn't shining brightly.

The situation in Texas ought to be alarming for Texans. Their state is beginning to resemble one of those "developing" nations that can't keep the lights on. An electric grid is nothing you can fix with prayer or psychopathic political and economic theories. A state or nation has to listen to the engineers and make sure they get whatever resources they need to fix the problem. If your political system doesn't allow for honest engineering because of corruption or regulatory incompetence the lights won't stay on.

[NickB79]

49. Needs battery backups

Either grid-scale, or home-based like a Tesla PowerWall or the F-150 Lightning's system.

But those systems would need to be scaled up a LOT. And we are rapidly running out of time to do so.

[hunter]

55. The population of Texas is approaching 30 million.

I don't think all these people can afford Tesla PowerWalls or Ford F-150 Lightnings.

The much celebrated grid scale battery systems have a capacity measured in minutes. When solar or wind power unexpectedly drop out, as they do because of weather, these battery systems immediately pick up the load giving less nimble fossil fuel power plants a little extra time to power up.

The technology is not perfected. Many of these grid scale battery systems have been knocked out of service by fires. This has happened multiple times on some sites.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/second-battery-malfunction-in-less-than-6-months-reported-at-moss-landing-power-plant/39083568

[Ford_Prefect]

50. Thanks for the perspective. My remark was rhetorical.

If I recall correctly Texas did what a number of other GOP led states have done and made investing in personal solar installations more than mildly expensive in order to give the edge to utility companies who build acres of arrays to control your cashflow.

Given the situation they still need all the alternative sourcing it is possible to install.

As you correctly point out the Untility industry in Texas is as corrupt as they come. They pull plants from production to squeeze customers into accepting higher rates. Their maintenance record is an industry joke. ...And as we have seen recently they have no coordinated planning to cope with weather outages despite the frequency of hurricanes.

Since they can count on regulators to look the other way on issues like these, or worse yet enact anti-consumer legislation, they have no incentive to do anything that would resemble best practices or responsible public service management.

[womanofthehills]

71. Out here in NM the sun is always shining brightly and the

Wind sure blows where I live at 6500 ft. It’s wind farm city around here - monster transmission lines -problem is - almost all the power generated is going to Arizona and California for big bucks. Our Gov just said we will have to open up our closed coal fire plants or we will have rolling blackouts this summer. Huh!!!

[yellowcanine]

36. The wind mills must have frozen again. Oh wait....

Never mind.

[Achilleaze]

37. Fuggin Republican could screw up a free sandwich

So typical

[mahatmakanejeeves]

38. Texas officials assure public that power grid, while not operational, is free of transsexuals or CRT

Texas officials assure public that power grid, while not operational, is free of transsexuals or CRT

Link to tweet

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

42. Motto of the Texas GOP: "The beatings will continue until morale improves". nt

[twodogsbarking]

44. Maybe Mexico will help.

[hunter]

53. There are some moribund electrical ties between Mexico and Texas...

... and more have been proposed but Mexico is not going cooperate with a racist temper-tantrum throwing man-child who breaks things.

And Texas fears such trade would invite Federal regulation, which is the same reason it's not connected to the grids of other states. It seems Texas would rather fester in their own corruption and irrational economic theories than acknowledge it has a problem.

Texas voters need to evict the psychopathic clowns that run their state.

[myohmy2]

46. and...

...we want to power our vehicles off the grid?

...we can't even keep the air-conditioners going...

...good luck...

[czarjak]

52. Thanks, Greg. Dannie Scott Goeb's advice sucks.

[henbuck]

54. Dumb

They are more worried about abortion than having enough electricity. How can they keep voting for these clowns?

[Paladin]

56. I'd put up with any number of hot, powerless days...

...if it were enough to sweep Abbott out of office.

[AllaN01Bear]

57. cheep electricity my eye.

the electric generation ppl say that is in line for ca.

[Hassler]

61. But what about Texassistan'a god given freedom to use as much energy as possible?

[moonshinegnomie]

63. cut the power to the governors mansion and the homes of every GOP legislator

to conserve power....

[Marcuse]

64. Cruz says, "Let them broil in the dark."

[IzzaNuDay]

65. Wonder where his next vacation will be

He’s now earned a reputation for bailing in energy crises. Since it’s going to be hot in Texas, maybe Antarctic beaches.

[SWBTATTReg]

67. I see Cancun Ted is on the escape again. What a dork.

[samsingh]

66. an example of republican management in a state run by republicans for as long as i remember

[Martin68]

68. Chickens coming home to roost, you reap what you sow, pride goeth before a fall.

[OldBaldy1701E]

70. Aww... neglected infrastructure there, Texas?

Just call up the state and tell them those pesky generators are having abortions. That seems to get money flowing, now doesn't it?

[ck4829]

72. K&R