Snowpocolypse: rolling blackouts instituted

[baseline bum]

Keeping the lights on and the water running.

Looks like the blackouts are coming with the forecast shortfall this afternoon

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/supplyanddemand

[Winehole23]

Looks like the blackouts are coming with the forecast shortfall this afternoon

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/supplyanddemandmust be pretty serious if Texans are being asked to conserve energy. you know they hate to do that.


ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, asked Texans to turn up their thermostats and postpone running major appliances between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday. ERCOT has also called on large electric customers to lower their electricity use.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/10/texas-blackouts-power-ercot/

1546322184502648832

[Winehole23]

As recently as May, ERCOT predicted that demand this summer would peak in mid-August at about 77,300 megawatts. But peak demand already has outstripped that projection on both weekdays and weekends, driven in part by record heat that began in May and has not abated as of early July. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Record-heat-drives-another-Texas-electricity-17295889.php

[Winehole23]

1546493403147472896

[Winehole23]

1546502867292495872

1546502869779709955

[baseline bum]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Record-heat-drives-another-Texas-electricity-17295889.php

And still a month away from the worst of the summer heat. Saw how ugly June was and figured well July will probably be like June since June was already much worse than most Augusts, but July has been way worse than June and can only expect August to be a lot worse than July too.

[DMC]

say aren't you the guy who recently said Joe Biden wrecked the country? :lol

Nobody catastrophizes around here like the right, tbh.

You've made a career of it. I'd rather be dead than to spend my life worrying incessantly about dying.

[Winehole23]

You've made a career of it. I'd rather be dead than to spend my life worrying incessantly about dying.I'm not worried. Are you clairvoyant?


:lol

[DMC]

I'm not worried. Are you clairvoyant?


:lol

You just gravitate toward and regurgitate articles about impending doom. :lol

Nope, not at all a reflection of your true thoughts.

[ElNono]

And still a month away from the worst of the summer heat. Saw how ugly June was and figured well July will probably be like June since June was already much worse than most Augusts, but July has been way worse than June and can only expect August to be a lot worse than July too.

Isn't this an election year there? Maybe Abbott can talk to AMLO and ask them to supply them for the summer.

[baseline bum]

Isn't this an election year there? Maybe Abbott can talk to AMLO and ask them to supply them for the summer.

Since Texas is becoming into Mexico might as well swim back the other way across the river.

[ElNono]

Since Texas is becoming into Mexico might as well swim back the other way across the river.

That's what Cruz did. Bet you Cancun doesn't have any electricity problems...

[Winehole23]

You just gravitate toward and regurgitate articles about impending doom. :lol

Nope, not at all a reflection of your true thoughts.this is a current affairs forum. people don't drop in to follow stories about bake sales and treed cats saved by firemen. if you think the trend of posting here portends imminent doom, that's on you.

[Winehole23]

anything on topic, DMC, or are you just here to snap your towel?

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DiligentCheeryAddax-size_restricted.gif

[Winehole23]

1546493393651499010

1546493398709809152

[baseline bum]

https://i.redd.it/m4trsijcvza91.png

[Winehole23]

https://i.redd.it/m4trsijcvza91.png
What he did to our electric bills is worse, tbh.

[Winehole23]

Texas guaranteed windfall profits (from artificially prolonged disaster pricing) for producers and passed the cost to utilities -- the ones that weren't bankrupted, anyway -- onto the ratepayers.

1521283524216696833

1521291553448284161For those of you with short memories, Abbott unilaterally pegged pricing to the max level for weeks after the 2021 winter storm passed, and the Texas lege wrote a $7 billion dollar bond to bail out the energy companies. We'll be paying that off for 20-30 years.

[DarrinS]

For those of you with short memories, Abbott unilaterally pegged pricing to the max level for weeks after the 2021 winter storm passed, and the Texas lege wrote a $7 billion dollar bond to bail out the energy companies. We'll be paying that off for 20-30 years.


I wish I had that person's bill. Mine will be over $600

[Winehole23]

A few relevant highlights:

https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289387&page=55&p=10550446&viewfull=1#post10550446
https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289387&page=57&p=10616827&viewfull=1#post10616827



Monday, February 15. In the hours after the blackouts, ERCOT tried to shore up electricity reserves to stabilize the grid. The computer system that runs the market, though, interpreted this as an oversupply (in the middle of blackouts!) and dropped prices. When ERCOT and the PUC realized what was happening, officials decided to bypass the market and, on Monday evening, manually set prices at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour. (By comparison, the average hourly price in 2020 was $25.73.) For fear that restarting the market and letting prices fluctuate in the midst of blackouts would lead to instability, officials kept prices at that artificially inflated level until Friday.


As a result, Texans spent an exorbitant amount on electricity during a week in which most of them couldn’t get much electricity. For the entirety of 2020, Texans paid $9.8 billion to keep the juice flowing. On February 16 alone, they spent roughly $10.3 billion. Costs for the month of February totaled more than $50 billion.


The bill for this pricing disaster is coming due. The Legislature approved the issuance of what will likely end up being about $5 to $6 billion in bonds to pay back some of these costs. That form of borrowing creates an obligation of about $200 for every adult and child in Texas.


Of the 2,500 participants in the ERCOT market—power plant owners, electricity marketers, electric cooperatives, creditors, and traders—many are privately held and don’t disclose their profits and losses. But some of the big shareholder-owned electricity generators were stuck with major losses because, while electricity prices were astronomical, natural gas prices were even higher.


As a result, anyone who had natural gas to sell came away a winner. Large Dallas-based pipeline owner Energy Transfer posted a net profit of $3.29 billion for the first three months of 2021; it had never posted even a $1 billion quarterly margin before. The company chalked up its profits to preparation—it had forked over the money to winterize parts of its facilities, so they remained up and running during the storm. Kinder Morgan made $1.41 billion, its best quarter ever. British oil giant BP, which supplies more gas in the U.S. than any other company, was coy. “It was a very exceptional quarter in gas trading,” CEO Bernard Looney told Bloomberg, which pointed to an estimate suggesting that the firm reaped $1 billion during that stretch. Gas producer Comstock Resources president Roland Burns put it much more plainly, saying it was “like hitting the jackpot.”https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-po...ilure-warm-up/ (https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-electric-grid-failure-warm-up/)


The storm provided some oil and gas executives with a windfall of biblical proportions—according to Bloomberg, more than $11 billion in five days, including some $2.4 billion for Energy Transfer, run by GOP mega-donor Kelcy Warren. In the aftermath of the blackout, Abbott’s PUC head, in a private call with big energy investors, reassured them that he was working hard to safeguard their profits (https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/wall-street-profited-off-texas-blackouts/). Three months later, Kelcy Warren cut Abbott a $1 million check (https://www.texasobserver.org/after-kelcy-warrens-energy-transfer-partners-made-billions-from-the-deadly-texas-blackouts-he-gave-1-million-to-greg-abbott/) for his campaign account.https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/2022-bum-steer-greg-abbott/

[Winehole23]

Reviewing the thread, I misremembered a couple of things here.

Reciting facts by heart isn't the best idea. My bad.


For those of you with short memories, Abbott unilaterally pegged pricing (incorrect: he declined to intervene with the PUC, which he had the power to do) to the max level for weeks after the 2021 winter storm passed (32 hours, not 32 days; resulting in ~$16B in overcharges), and the Texas lege wrote a $7 billion dollar bond (correct) to bail out the energy companies. We'll be paying that off for 20-30 years. (in line with reported estimates)

[SnakeBoy]

I wish I had that person's bill. Mine will be over $600

It's a doctor complaining about a $239 bill :lol

[ElNono]

It's a doctor complaining about a $239 bill :lol

It's Texas though

[Winehole23]

It's Texas thoughdoc getting clowned by a poster who complains about $4/gallon gas

[ChumpDumper]

doc getting clowned by a poster who complains about $4/gallon gas:lmao

[ElNono]

doc getting clowned by a poster who complains about $4/gallon gas

rofl

[DMC]

Reviewing the thread, I misremembered a couple of things here.

Reciting facts by heart isn't the best idea. My bad.

Wall of Shame is like a roach motel, you can check in but you can't check out.

[Winehole23]

Wall of Shame is like a roach motel, you can check in but you can't check out.there's nothing shameful about correcting one's own mistakes, I don't recall that you've ever admitted one.

[DMC]

there's nothing shameful about correcting one's own mistakes, I don't recall that you've ever admitted one.

This is you lifting yourself above me and calling it "admitting mistakes".

[Winehole23]

This is you lifting yourself above me and calling it "admitting mistakes".Nah, it's neutral description.

[Winehole23]

ERCOT Interim CEO, Brad Jones, setting reasonable expectations:


"Now, I am concerned that there will be more (generation) outages because just the way we're running them this summer, not even the conservative operations, just how we're running in the summer. It puts a lot of wear and tear on some of these older machines. So I am concerned about their reliability all the way through the summer, but right now they are performing extraordinarily with low outage rates..
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/ERCOT-didn-t-think-the-Texas-summer-would-be-as-17299561.php

[Winehole23]

Thus far in 2022, renewables—especially solar—have provided a bulwark that’s kept the lights on and the AC blasting through an especially miserable summer—and they’ve done it affordably, even as natural gas prices skyrocket because of global energy prices. “Those costs are outrageously high,” Lewin told me. “I shudder to think about what this would look like if we didn’t have zero marginal cost fuel like wind and solar on the system at the scale we do.”https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/renewable-energy-texas-grid-heat-wave/

[CosmicCowboy]

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/renewable-energy-texas-grid-heat-wave/


Consider the case of Texas. Last month, renewable boosters in the state were crowing about how renewables were "bailing out" the Texas power grid. Yet those boosters have been silent lately. Why? Over the past few days, as temperatures have soared to over 100 degrees and electricity use in Texas has been setting new records, ERCOT, the state's grid operator, has been asking residents to use less power.

Texas doesn't have enough juice because at the same time that power demand is soaring, output from the 35,000 megawatts of wind capacity in the state has been falling to near zero.

According to data published by ERCOT, on both July 10 and July 11, at about 1 pm, when power demand was rising dramatically, the output from all of that wind capacity was only about 1,000 megawatts or roughly 3 percent of its potential output. The wind energy was just... disappearing.

https://www.newsweek.com/energy-crises-germany-texas-are-exposing-folly-renewable-energy-opinion-1724084

[baseline bum]

ERCOT Interim CEO, Brad Jones, setting reasonable expectations:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/ERCOT-didn-t-think-the-Texas-summer-would-be-as-17299561.php

Looks like demand is projected to overshoot their quick start capacity from 2PM until 10PM today. Fuck this backwards ass state.

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/supplyanddemand

People should go burn down that bitcoin farm in Rockdale that uses 400 MW.

[Winehole23]

https://www.newsweek.com/energy-crises-germany-texas-are-exposing-folly-renewable-energy-opinion-1724084Wind generation was in line with ERCOT's week ahead estimate and a normal level for a hot summer day. By contrast,~12Gw thermal energy was offline, far short of the week ahead estimate. That's roughly as much energy as NYC uses on a hot summer day.

[Winehole23]

Looks like demand is projected to overshoot their quick start capacity from 2PM until 10PM today. Fuck this backwards ass state.

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/supplyanddemand

People should go burn down that bitcoin farm in Rockdale that uses 400 MW.I notice there's no advice to conserve even though the projected shortage is greater than Monday's. I wonder whether ERCOT is asking generators to spin up plants closed for maintenance, or quietly asking industry to shut off power.

Today might be another good day to turn up the thermostat and spare the dishes and the laundry til nighttime.

[ChumpDumper]

https://www.newsweek.com/energy-crises-germany-texas-are-exposing-folly-renewable-energy-opinion-1724084

Disingenuous. Wind and solar have been performing as predicted. Fossil fuels have not.

Focusing on only one renewable is just stupid. This guy is clearly running interference for the gas/coal plant failures during this time.

[ChumpDumper]

I notice there's no advice to conserve even though the projected shortage is greater than Monday's. I wonder whether ERCOT is asking generators to spin up plants closed for maintenance, or quietly asking industry to shut off power.

Today might be another good day to turn up the thermostat and spare the dishes and the laundry til nighttime.

This is insane. If a company owns enough generators, there is an incentive to take a small or large part of production offline to increase profits. Amazing how many plants are going down for maintenance now when they are needed.

[Winehole23]

This is insane. If a company owns enough generators, there is an incentive to take a small or large part of production offline to increase profits. Amazing how many plants are going down for maintenance now when they are needed.This is sort of a tangent, but the flipside of taking power offline to juice profits is capital strikes to limit capacity, thereby protecting profit margins. Oil refiners like to blame regulations for not building new plants, but that's a good way to keep prices higher, too.

[Winehole23]

But you're right that as currently designed, Texas's power market rewards sharp practices like taking capacity off the market when we need it the most. Like happened the week before winter storm Uri.

[Winehole23]

2nd time in three days

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXY1eCTWIAEiT1g?format=jpg&name=large


1547274100804128768

[Winehole23]

But you're right that as currently designed, Texas's power market rewards sharp practices like taking capacity off the market when we need it the most. Like happened the week before winter storm Uri.Another confounding factor is ERCOT's new conservative operating policy and a much hotter than usual spring; generators were kept online during the part of the year when they would usually close for maintenance. The ERCOT CEO mentioned his concern about wear and tear a few posts upstream.

[ChumpDumper]

2nd time in three days

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXY1eCTWIAEiT1g?format=jpg&name=large


1547274100804128768

But that guy said it's the wind.

[Winehole23]

But that guy said it's the wind.ERCOT knows wind generation is lower on hot days, but can't accurately predict thermal capacity seven days ahead.

1547274008403623942

[vy65]

Thank god the Tex COA abolished sovereign immunity for these fucks. Probably gets reversed though.

[Winehole23]

1547308174906167296

1547295940549255168

[Winehole23]

Reportedly, ERS deployments are very rare.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXkpOhEXgAIlymg?format=jpg&name=4096x4096


Emergency Response Service

ERCOT procures Emergency Response Service (ERS) by selecting qualified loads and generators (including aggregations of loads and generators) to make themselves available for deployment in an electric grid emergency. ERS is a valuable emergency service designed to decrease the likelihood of the need for firm Load shedding (a.k.a, rolling blackouts.) Customers meeting ERS criteria may offer to provide the service through their qualified scheduling entities (QSE).ERCOT procures ERS four times during the ERS calendar year which begins with December and ends in November.

The Standard Contract Terms (SCT) are as follows: December-March, April-May, June-September and October-November. For each SCT ERCOT procures ERS according to two different response times—thirty minutes ("ERS-30") and ten minutes ("ERS-10"). ERS is authorized by Public Utility Commission Substantive Rule §25.507.
https://www.ercot.com/services/programs/load/eils

[baseline bum]

78,711 MW committed capacity as of 3:20PM
77,857 MW of demand as of 3:20PM

Bend over, looks like we're a cunt hair from blackouts starting with prices crossing the $5000 MW hr line a few minutes ago.

[baseline bum]

78411 MW committed capacity as of 3:25PM
77919 MW demand as of 3:25PM

492MW difference. Just a little more than that piece of shit bitcoin farm in Rockdale uses.

[boutons_deux]

Too much fucking heat

Two little fucking water

Ercot sez it did not expect it to be so hot, which allows the Capitalist electric energy owners not to spend any profits

[Winehole23]

Background from last year:


The cliff-hanging moment came around 1:50 a.m. on February 15. The transmission frequency which normally operates around 60 Hertz (Hz) dropped below 59.4 Hz for over four and a half minutes.

Shortly before then, ERCOT began instituting rotating outages that turned into prolonged blackouts.

In ERCOT’s estimation, if frequency remains below that line longer than nine minutes, the volatility from its mean can rupture the alternating current (AC) connections and create very real equipment and infrastructural damage.
https://thetexan.news/texas-grid-was-4-minutes-and-37-seconds-from-a-statewide-blackout-per-ercot/

18 min ago:

1547314345025077248

3 min ago:

1547318586296893443

[Winehole23]

Frequency very jumpy in both directions in the last 50 minutes

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/ancillaryservices

[Winehole23]

We're currently at "Conservation Alert"


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXZMOr5WIAUO5TZ?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

1547343865954410496

[baseline bum]

1547339948939825152

[SnakeBoy]

Frequency very jumpy in both directions in the last 50 minutes

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/ancillaryservices

Did we survive?

[Winehole23]

Did we survive?course we did, silly

but it was another close shave.

[Winehole23]

are you worried about the ongoing political damage?

[SnakeBoy]

are you worried about the ongoing political damage?

There's like 50 pages of you hoping for another disaster. You thought you had one when a water pipe broke. I don't think your Beto stands much of a chance whether you get your disaster or not.

[Winehole23]

There's like 50 pages of you hoping for another disaster. You thought you had one when a water pipe broke. I don't think your Beto stands much of a chance whether you get your disaster or not.I just follow the news.

Abbott and the Texas lege said they had this shit fixed. That clearly isn't the case.

[Winehole23]

Price of power was pegged out at the regulatory cap -- $5000/kwH -- for four hours today. That's gonna show up on a lot of power bills.

Oklahoma prices were $108/kwH during the same period. Texas is fucked up.

[ElNono]

Price of power was pegged out at the regulatory cap -- $5000/kwH -- for four hours today. That's gonna show up on a lot of power bills.

Oklahoma prices were $108/kwH during the same period. Texas is fucked up.

At least you can easily get a gun to shoot yourself, tbh... freedumb!

[Winehole23]

At least you can easily get a gun to shoot yourself, tbh... freedumb!No thanks...believe it or not I've seldom been better!

[baseline bum]

There's like 50 pages of you hoping for another disaster. You thought you had one when a water pipe broke. I don't think your Beto stands much of a chance whether you get your disaster or not.

No one's hoping for a disaster. Yeah we all want our AC going off when it's fucking 105.

[Winehole23]

No one's hoping for a disaster. Yeah we all want our AC going off when it's fucking 105.the power going off when we need it the most can be life threatening, as we well know from last year. extreme heat is a killer, too.

[Spurminator]

Weird how we're not hearing any "personal freedom" whining from GOP state reps at the requests to turn thermostats up.

I do wonder what general TX Republicans are doing. Are they conserving energy for the greater good because Greg Abbott asked them to? Or are they still ignoring requests like this but just keeping quiet about it?

[RandomGuy]

Did we survive?

Republican control of Texas may not. Talk about an easy thing to run on for Dems. :lol

muh bathroom bills hurr dee dur why is the air conditioning not working?

[SnakeBoy]

Weird how we're not hearing any "personal freedom" whining from GOP state reps at the requests to turn thermostats up.

I do wonder what general TX Republicans are doing. Are they conserving energy for the greater good because Greg Abbott asked them to? Or are they still ignoring requests like this but just keeping quiet about it?

Mine's on 68F. If the grid dies, it dies.

[Winehole23]

Mostly small talk and personal gossip from red team -- anything to avoid the topic.

[ElNono]

Mine's on 68F. If the grid dies, it dies.

:lmao shithole Texas

[CosmicCowboy]

Its a shame Whinehole and RG don't run ERCOT. We could have unlimited cheap energy.

[ChumpDumper]

Its a shame Whinehole and RG don't run ERCOT. We could have unlimited cheap energy.

Do you like our state's having the price of electricity ~50 times higher than Oklahoma?

[CosmicCowboy]

Do you like our state's having the price of electricity ~50 times higher than Oklahoma?

More Chump lying bullshit

https://paylesspower.com/blog/electric-rates-by-state/

[DMC]

There's like 50 pages of you hoping for another disaster. You thought you had one when a water pipe broke. I don't think your Beto stands much of a chance whether you get your disaster or not.

:lol the water pipe saga, all of 2 hours. Oh no, the end is nigh.

[ChumpDumper]

More Chump lying bullshit

https://paylesspower.com/blog/electric-rates-by-state/
How is it lying?

Wholesale prices go up to $5,000/MWh these days.

They're ~$110/MWh at the same time in Oklahoma.

[Winehole23]

:lol the water pipe saga, all of 2 hours. Oh no, the end is nigh.said no one in this thread.

I thought you'd take a keener interest in the official corruption and overbilling angles, which I've posted on extensively, but no.

[Winehole23]

We need an all-of-the-above strategy informed by climate science and pragmatism. What we don’t need is more disinformation from state officials and politicians designed to benefit their campaign donors.https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/Tomlinson-Fact-checking-the-GOP-s-false-claims-17315531.php

[Winehole23]

Throw this on top of surcharges the Texas lege passed last year.

Those surcharges will defray the cost of disaster pricing to power companies during winter storm Uri. ~$7 billion.

These surcharges are keeping the lights on (e.g., Texas is now importing power from other states) as ERCOT shambles toward its reliability mission.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYg_RlKXkAITCzL?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

Mandatory deferred maintenance strains reliability.


“We had a scheduled major maintenance outage beginning Friday, May 13, but it was cancelled by ERCOT on May 12,” a Calpine spokesperson said in a statement, adding that May is a “shoulder month” during which power generators historically take power plants offline to do repairs and maintenance during cooler weather.


But this month has been warmer than most Mays of the past decade, leading to higher electricity demand and causing ERCOT to scramble to keep as many plants operating as possible.


Several other power plants broke down Friday and couldn’t produce electricity after agreeing — at ERCOT’s request — to postpone planned maintenance shutdowns, said Michele Richmond, who represents power plants across the state as executive director of the Texas Competitive Power Advocates.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/17/texas-power-plant-failure-repairs-ercot/

[Winehole23]

:tu

1551981763593125888

[boutons_deux]

Fucking greedy Capitalists/investors pocket $Bs of what should go to investment,

then underinvestment (aka "the shittiest possible product") kills people when their shittiest electric grid fails, aka "designed to fail",

and

then they pocket $9B in one Uri week and then reward $10Ms to Repug pols to keep their scam going

after charging Texas $28B more in 10 unregulated years than Texas' regulated system.

Corrupt shithole Texas.

[Winehole23]

Wind power goes to waste for lack of transmission lines


The state’s High Plains region, which covers 41 counties in the Texas Panhandle and West Texas, is home to more than 11,000 wind turbines — the most in any area of the state.
The region could generate enough wind energy to power at least 9 million homes. Experts say the additional energy could help provide much-needed stability to the electric grid during high energy-demand summers like this one, and even lower the power bills of Texans in other parts of the state.


But a significant portion of the electricity produced in the High Plains stays there for a simple reason: It can’t be moved elsewhere. Despite the growing development of wind energy production in Texas, the state’s transmission network would need significant infrastructure upgrades to ship out the energy produced in the region.



“We’re at a moment when wind is at its peak production profile, but we see a lot of wind energy being curtailed or congested and not able to flow through to some of the higher-population areas,” said John Hensley, vice president for research and analytics at the American Clean Power Association. “Which is a loss for ratepayers and a loss for those energy consumers that now have to either face conserving energy or paying more for the energy they do use because they don’t have access to that lower-cost wind resource.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/02/texas-high-plains-wind-energy/amp/

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZQOfcxXwAIjxsW?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

1554880639031279620

[baseline bum]

1554880639031279620

Think that tweet got deleted

[Winehole23]

Greg Abbott reportedly rewrites ERCOT press releases if he doesn't like them.

1557362858714959872

[Winehole23]

On Monday, the board called a meeting and went immediately into a closed executive session, before emerging about an hour later to say members would ratify what was discussed when they convened for their regular meeting on Tuesday. It was unclear whether the board took a vote during the closed session, which would be illegal under the Texas Open Meetings Act.

As a private nonprofit, however, ERCOT is not subject to the law, even though it is responsible for managing the flow of electricity to 90 percent of Texas.

“As a transparency attorney, it's outrageous than an organization with this level of impact is not covered by a law that would require them to specifically state which action they are taking in a public vote,” said Bill Aleshire, an Austin-based attorney who specializes in government transparency. “This is a horrible policy that needs to be challenged.”

ERCOT Board Chair Paul Foster said Tuesday the urgent meeting was held because Vegas’ name had been leaked to others within the industry and the media, which posed “a risk to the agreement” between ERCOT and Vegas. He said the vote to approve Vegas was unanimous.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/ERCOT-names-Pablo-Vegas-as-new-CEO-after-17376610.php

[Dirks_Finale]

Gr:cryg Abb:crytt reportedly r:crywrites ERCOT pr:cryss releases if he d:cryesn't like them.

1557362858714959872

[Winehole23]

Governors shouldn't get to massage ERCOT announcements for political expedience, how extravagant.

Also, how convenient for Greg Abbott the year after the Texas grid blacked out.

:lol

[Winehole23]

Neither demand nor temperatures are particularly high today, but ERCOT is struggling to maintain energy reserves.


1563967075177172998

[Winehole23]

Head scratcher, radio silence from ERCOT

1564010810191618053

[Winehole23]

1564042908273098753

[Winehole23]

Maybe ERCOT can clarify.


It seems like deploying most of your non-spin reserves is something you would do if you were nearing an emergency situation.

[Winehole23]

PUC mulling capacity market and a gas monitor

1569764264403177472

[Winehole23]

1501597205987086337

[Winehole23]

according to Doug Lewin, the cost of the Brazos Electric Coop bankruptcy settlement -- a direct result of disaster pricing during winter storm Uri in 2021 -- will be socialized

1571885708041719809

[DMC]

Ritalin dude

[Winehole23]

Ritalin dudenothing stronger than coffee needed to read the news

[DMC]

nothing stronger than coffee needed to read the news

Regurgitating every tweet you read isn't "reading the news".

[Winehole23]

Regurgitating every tweet you read isn't "reading the news".sure it is, news is news. Lewin's a great source on the regulatory beat.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

sure it is, news is news. Lewin's a great source on the regulatory beat.

Sorry wine. I have him in a tizzy over in the school shooting thread and he always goes on these rampages when he's insecure.

[DMC]

sure it is, news is news. Lewin's a great source on the regulatory beat.

You're getting a ton of discussion on it :lol

[Winehole23]

You're getting a ton of discussion on it :lolDoesn't matter, the info is there. People can do with it what they will or won't. Abbott locked in disaster pricing for energy when the Texas grid nearly shit the bed and the Texas lege shifted the cost from utility providers to ratepayers, which we'll be paying off for decades. A large coop went bankrupt because of it and now, looks like, we'll have to pick up the tab for that too.

Does that strike you as equitable, or good government?

[Winehole23]

Windfall profits socialized to save power companies from going bust, is that capitalism, or is it a public subsidy for a market that failed?

Other states were hit by the same storm noncatastrophically, winter storm Uri wasn't a local event.

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuX0owEXcAk7r3N?format=jpg&name=medium

[Winehole23]

Guaranteeing safe water and reliable power is basic, nuts and bolts government shit, right?

If the providers and regulators shit the bed and hang us out to dry, why should we pay for it and not them?

[Winehole23]

Spain, for example, recently clawed back windfall profits and rebated the public. In principle, the Texas lege could do that. Why isn't that an option?

The ratepayers didn't fuck up here. Texas and gas companies did.

[Ef-man]

Guaranteeing safe water and reliable power is basic, nuts and bolts government shit, right?

If the providers and regulators shit the bed and hang us out to dry, why should we pay for it and not them?

No state plans or regulations to assist consumers when utility companies have profits (to make up for this fuck up and handout)?

[Winehole23]

No state plans or regulations to assist consumers when utility companies have profits (to make up for this fuck up and handout)?The plan as currently conceived is to save windfall profits for energy producers and screw the public. I doubt any other options were ever considered

[boutons_deux]

Capitalism, shittiest possible product for highest possible price

Texas had most U.S. weather-related outages in last 20 years

Texas had the most weather-related outages (https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/CPS-Energy-paid-1-billion-for-fuel-amid-winter-15992724.php) in the U.S. over the past two decades,

with most of them occurring between 2011 and 2021, according to the report.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/texas-power-outage-weather-17444071.php

Shitbag Repugs were bribed to deregulate shithole TX electricity market in 1995

[Winehole23]

Guaranteeing safe water and reliable power is basic, nuts and bolts government shit, right?

If the providers and regulators shit the bed and hang us out to dry, why should we pay for it and not them?

https://i.gifer.com/g2vI.gif

[Ef-man]

The plan as currently conceived is to save windfall profits for energy producers and screw the public. I doubt any other options were ever considered

State had companies over a barrel and could have had them sucking dicks to avoid bankruptcy. Shame,

[pgardn]

Windfall profits socialized to save power companies from going bust, is that capitalism, or is it a public subsidy for a market that failed?

Other states were hit by the same storm noncatastrophically, winter storm Uri wasn't a local event.

Markets tend to fail like this when you subsidize companies who dont give a shit.
And the red team gripes about socialism...

But... but... we are business friendly TEXAS.
Hypocrisy and lies continue with Fabbot.

[Winehole23]

Grid not fixed, says new Ercot chief

1593262703950417920

[baseline bum]

Grid not fixed, says new Ercot chief

1593262703950417920

Yeah but we took care of the important shit like critical race theory and rolling back women's rights.

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fh3vLbrXEAoBDmB?format=jpg&name=large

[Winehole23]

Yeah but we took care of the important shit like critical race theory and rolling back women's rights.The GOP sure sucks at governing.

[ElNono]

Yeah but we took care of the important shit like critical race theory and rolling back women's rights.

Don't forget motorboats to chase messicans...

[Winehole23]

"Merry Christmas two days early. We sent our customer service reps home to be with their families while you freeze."

1606440158177501186

[Winehole23]

Problems this time around -- by no means massive, but that makes little difference to the end users who lost power -- relate to transmission rather than the grid with this cold snap.

ERCOT's usage estimate was low by 23%, and a bunch of coal and gas went offline. Conservation and weatherproofing are areas we could definitely improve on too.

[Winehole23]

Before winter storm Uri, Texas was 41st in energy reliability to the end user. That's just greed and incompetence. Not sure that's changed much

[Winehole23]

Energy Twitter said there wasn't much chance of blackouts, but ERCOT was gripping.

1606530215836110855

[baseline bum]

Problems this time around -- by no means massive, but that makes little difference to the end users who lost power -- relate to transmission rather than the grid with this cold snap.

ERCOT's usage estimate was low by 23%, and a bunch of coal and gas went offline. Conservation and weatherproofing are areas we could definitely improve on too.

Looks like they're underestimating demand again tonight. Have it way lower than last night (57000MW forecast tonight vs 64000MW used yesterday) despite tonight being similarly cold. Plus no one is going to be using power for things like parties, staying up late to watch movies, getting up super early to plug in their PlayStations, etc on the night of Christmas Eve / morning of Christmas are they?

[Winehole23]

Looks like they're underestimating demand again tonight. Have it way lower than last night (57000MW forecast tonight vs 64000MW used yesterday) despite tonight being similarly cold. Plus no one is going to be using power for things like parties, staying up late to watch movies, getting up super early to plug in their PlayStations, etc on the night of Christmas Eve / morning of Christmas are they?Merry Christmas!

ERCOT gripped.

1606775698429194240

[Winehole23]

Windfall profits socialized to save power companies from going bust, is that capitalism, or is it a public subsidy for a market that failed?

Other states were hit by the same storm noncatastrophically, winter storm Uri wasn't a local event.dogavoidingmouse.gif

[Winehole23]

Doesn't matter, the info is there. People can do with it what they will or won't. Abbott locked in disaster pricing for energy when the Texas grid nearly shit the bed and the Texas lege shifted the cost from utility providers to ratepayers, which we'll be paying off for decades. A large coop went bankrupt because of it and now, looks like, we'll have to pick up the tab for that too.

Does that strike you as equitable, or good government?dogavoidingmouse.gif

[boutons_deux]

CPS customers raped for $Bs for the emergency loan CPS had to acquire to pay for natgas during URI.

TX grid designed to fail, to rip off customers.

A report a year or two ago, said TX electricity dereg cost TX customers $10Bs more than regulated.

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/ says TX pays $0.095/kwh, CPS bills me $0.145

[Winehole23]

Austin failed to learn its lessons from 2021 and screwed up again.


But critics and residents — many still raw from the statewide power outages in 2021 — had little room for forgiveness as this week’s ice storm proved an early test of Watson’s administration just weeks after he took office. In fact, many of the missteps this week suggest little was learned about emergency communications in the past two years. A city report (https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Auditor/Audit_Reports/Disaster_Preparedness_November_2021.pdf) from November 2021 reviewing that response then hammered Austin’s lack of planning, but particularly its history of lackluster communication skills during an emergency event.

Watson and Austin Energy officials waited more than 24 hours after people began losing power this week to hold the first press conference. And hours after they spoke Thursday, the electricity provider walked back its estimate that power would be restored by the end of the third day of outages, extending the sense of uncertainty. As just under 150,000 customers (https://outagemap.austinenergy.com/) sat without power Thursday afternoon, Austin Energy said it could no longer promise when electricity would be fully restored.


“By having a black hole in communications, unfortunately, the city of Austin has set themselves up for a narrative that they can’t deliver on the services,” said Steven Pedigo, the director of the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ Urban Lab, which focuses on urban policy.

And so it was that Austin, a city of explosive growth and a hub of tech and crypto talent, could not manage to do the seemingly simplest of tasks: send text messages to tell residents when they’d get their power back or that they should prepare for days in the dark.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/02/austin-ice-storm-power-outages/

[baseline bum]

crypto talent

:lmao What the hell is that shit? :lmao

[pgardn]

:lmao What the hell is that shit? :lmao

Maybe reference to Musk and his big investments in Austin area?
And his primary residence is in Austin. But who knows what a primary residence is with that kind of wealth.
I guess you would have to look at his taxes.

[leemajors]

Austin failed to learn its lessons from 2021 and screwed up again.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/02/austin-ice-storm-power-outages/

My power was out from 7am Feb 1 to a few hours ago, that really sucked but my employer gave me disaster pay like in 21. Utter incompetence from Austin Energy leadership, but those workers got it done. The online and phone reporting was bullshit.

[pgardn]

My power was out from 7am Feb 1 to a few hours ago, that really sucked but my employer gave me disaster pay like in 21. Utter incompetence from Austin Energy leadership, but those workers got it done. The online and phone reporting was bullshit.

I go to Austin quite often and one big difference I have noticed is the number of power lines that are not maintained properly, they have trees all over them.
My friends live in North Austin close to Pflugerville and somewhat close to the soccer stadium....off of Braker down Schweringen (sp). They had very large trees in their backyard that abutted with a transforming station in back. The trees from their backyard were right in the power lines coming from the transforming station. I asked them to call the power company about cutting down their trees that were interfering with the lines. They did but the power company only got to half of them. We cut down the others ourselves. It was dangerous. But they avoided a huge mess as these were cut in the summer.

Now I know you guys got a shitload of ice on trees, but a shitload of ice on things like Pecan trees, Arizona Ash, hackberry (limbs always coming down) and then on the oaks that have limbs that go sideways with a huge surface area of leaves still on the trees in winter had to big problem you guys were way behind on. In SA along the bike trails up north a ton of tree branches came down but they are not next to power lines. SA tries to maintain the lines all year round. It leads to an uglier city but it is done for a reason. My chainsaw has been sharpened about three diff times now between Austin cutting and San Antonio. And I know there was a lot of misinformation about getting stuff back online and such. But weather as a problem for trees in the first place was pretty clear. I am not entirely clear what the other incompetence involved was.

[leemajors]

I go to Austin quite often and one big difference I have noticed is the number of power lines that are not maintained properly, they have trees all over them.
My friends live in North Austin close to Pflugerville and somewhat close to the soccer stadium....off of Braker down Schweringen (sp). They had very large trees in their backyard that abutted with a transforming station in back. The trees from their backyard were right in the power lines coming from the transforming station. I asked them to call the power company about cutting down their trees that were interfering with the lines. They did but the power company only got to half of them. We cut down the others ourselves. It was dangerous. But they avoided a huge mess as these were cut in the summer.

Now I know you guys got a shitload of ice on trees, but a shitload of ice on things like Pecan trees, Arizona Ash, hackberry (limbs always coming down) and then on the oaks that have limbs that go sideways with a huge surface area of leaves still on the trees in winter had to big problem you guys were way behind on. In SA along the bike trails up north a ton of tree branches came down but they are not next to power lines. SA tries to maintain the lines all year round. It leads to an uglier city but it is done for a reason. My chainsaw has been sharpened about three diff times now between Austin cutting and San Antonio. And I know there was a lot of misinformation about getting stuff back online and such. But weather as a problem for trees in the first place was pretty clear. I am not entirely clear what the other incompetence involved was.

It was mainly communication. We were told 12-24 hours, then all of a sudden a few days later it was most people should be back online by the 12th. The vendor who handled their map was abysmal, updates were not posted and no one knew what was going on. My neighborhood was a simple fix but we were told two days ago the remaining outages were in outlying areas and were very complicated. I live in 78757 in North Central Austin. It was just a shitshow, and to me really showed how easily the infrastructure can crumble anywhere these days with the right pressures.

[pgardn]

It was mainly communication. We were told 12-24 hours, then all of a sudden a few days later it was most people should be back online by the 12th. The vendor who handled their map was abysmal, updates were not posted and no one knew what was going on. My neighborhood was a simple fix but we were told two days ago the remaining outages were in outlying areas and were very complicated. I live in 78757 in North Central Austin. It was just a shitshow, and to me really showed how easily the infrastructure can crumble anywhere these days with the right pressures.

Yeah my friends had various people at their work who were without power for way too long as well.
I guess the city manager's response will be critically reviewed.
I heard something about an "act of God" excuse for the extended outages after the power lines got cleaned up.
Also it looks like you guys will have a lot of wood for fireplaces if you need it.

[Tyronn Lue]

I go to Austin quite often and one big difference I have noticed is the number of power lines that are not maintained properly, they have trees all over them.
My friends live in North Austin close to Pflugerville and somewhat close to the soccer stadium....off of Braker down Schweringen (sp). They had very large trees in their backyard that abutted with a transforming station in back. The trees from their backyard were right in the power lines coming from the transforming station. I asked them to call the power company about cutting down their trees that were interfering with the lines. They did but the power company only got to half of them. We cut down the others ourselves. It was dangerous. But they avoided a huge mess as these were cut in the summer.

Now I know you guys got a shitload of ice on trees, but a shitload of ice on things like Pecan trees, Arizona Ash, hackberry (limbs always coming down) and then on the oaks that have limbs that go sideways with a huge surface area of leaves still on the trees in winter had to big problem you guys were way behind on. In SA along the bike trails up north a ton of tree branches came down but they are not next to power lines. SA tries to maintain the lines all year round. It leads to an uglier city but it is done for a reason. My chainsaw has been sharpened about three diff times now between Austin cutting and San Antonio. And I know there was a lot of misinformation about getting stuff back online and such. But weather as a problem for trees in the first place was pretty clear. I am not entirely clear what the other incompetence involved was.
They trimmed the trees in our complex in the fall, didn't have any limbs down. Can't say the same for the subdivision across the way.

[Winehole23]

oozes contempt for ratepayers already burdened with $16B in extra charges from Uri, by the Texas Lege


1633985162923978752

[boutons_deux]

I read that "some" are worried if ERCOT will make thru the summer with brown/black outs

[Winehole23]

Luminant's lawsuit against the PUC will proceed.

1636772240329932801

[Winehole23]

Texas lege is building a moat around large oil and gas companies. Putting the cost on ratepayers with no probable gain in reliability.

1638884334009499649

[Winehole23]

are oil and gas companies unable to build more plants, or just unwilling to?


The company Berkshire Hathaway is first to speak in support of Texas government financing new fleet of gas power plants. Company had introduced the idea last session saying it would build the plants...https://twitter.com/MoseBuchele/status/1638907819616354306

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Natural Gas Demand Exceeds Supply As LNG Exports Jump



Strong LNG exports have helped boost U.S. gas demand in 2022.
U.S. natural gas prices have dipped in recent months due to warmer-than-usual winter weather.
The EIA expects 2.4% less U.S. natural gas consumption in 2023 than in 2022.


https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-Natural-Gas-Demand-Exceeds-Supply-As-LNG-Exports-Jump.html

btw

my CPS Energy price/KwH was down from 0.14 to 0.10 this month. WTF

Unregulated, unreliable TX electricity has one of the highest prices in USA.

[SpursforSix]

U.S. Natural Gas Demand Exceeds Supply As LNG Exports Jump



Strong LNG exports have helped boost U.S. gas demand in 2022.
U.S. natural gas prices have dipped in recent months due to warmer-than-usual winter weather.
The EIA expects 2.4% less U.S. natural gas consumption in 2023 than in 2022.


https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-Natural-Gas-Demand-Exceeds-Supply-As-LNG-Exports-Jump.html

btw

my CPS Energy price/KwH was down from 0.14 to 0.10 this month. WTF

Unregulated, unreliable TX electricity has one of the highest prices in USA.

You'll have to provide some backup. Looks like Texas is under the USA average. Not saying it shouldn't be cheaper as Texas is the highest producer of NG in the country.

[boutons_deux]

avg is 0.11, TX was 0.14+ unti last month

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/

TX gas consumers compete with the international market that pays more FOB TX,

even after gas is LNG and shipped around the planet

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Natural Gas Demand Exceeds Supply As LNG Exports Jump



Strong LNG exports have helped boost U.S. gas demand in 2022.
U.S. natural gas prices have dipped in recent months due to warmer-than-usual winter weather.
The EIA expects 2.4% less U.S. natural gas consumption in 2023 than in 2022.


https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-Natural-Gas-Demand-Exceeds-Supply-As-LNG-Exports-Jump.html

btw

my CPS Energy price/KwH was down from 0.14 to 0.10 this month. WTF

Unregulated, unreliable TX electricity has one of the highest prices in USA.

We all know what happens when supply fails to meet demand, and

Fed can't do shit about supply, can only crush demand

[boutons_deux]

Changes to Texas’ energy market could cost CPS Energy customers

Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM)

A PCM would require electricity providers to

pay additional money to generators, who would in turn promise to have enough power available when demand spikes

— as it does every summer and did in February 2021, after a massive winter storm led to energy shortages, days-long blackouts and hundreds of deaths.

called it untested, expensive and convoluted (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/ercot-grid-plans-pcm-drrs-17813506.php). The Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT, unanimously approved the idea in January, but it’s unclear whether lawmakers will approve or direct the agency to tweak it in some way.

Energy researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, led by Michael Webber, have argued (https://theconversation.com/two-years-after-its-historic-deep-freeze-texas-is-increasingly-vulnerable-to-cold-snaps-and-there-are-more-solutions-than-just-building-power-plants-198494)

there are far less costly ways to increase grid reliability,

as the Texas Legislature now requires electricity generators like CPS Energy to do.

https://sanantonioreport.org/changes-texas-energy-market-affect-cps-energy-customers

[boutons_deux]

San Antonio officials are losing sleep over a threat to CPS Energy finances. What to know

Texas Senate Bill 1110 would prevent utilities from transferring revenue to the cities that own them.

That would gut San Antonio's city budget.

a bill that would limit or bar municipally owned utilities such as San Antonio’s CPS Energy (https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/tax-bill-utility-revenue-17851583.php) from providing revenue to the cities that own them.

it would gut the city’s credit rating and force steep cuts in services, possibly including police and fire protections, libraries and recreation.

How much money are we talking about?

A lot. CPS Energy is expected to hand over nearly $392 million to the city during this fiscal year.

That’s 26 percent of the city's $1.5 billion general fund,

which pays for police and fire protection, street repairs, sidewalks, libraries, senior centers, drainage projects and other services.

“would cause a catastrophic loss in revenue that would negatively impact services to our community, the city's bond credit ratings and capital programs.”

the city will have to cut services significantly and might have to raise taxes to make up for the lost revenue.

Assistant City Manager Jeff Coyle called the legislation "the biggest, potentially most damaging piece of legislation we've ever seen."

Like many things that affect San Antonio, it started in Austin. :lol

By some accounts, Schwertner became interested in the issue after hearing about an Austin City Council member’s complaint

that the city’s publicly owned power provider, Austin Energy, could charge lower rates if it didn’t have to transfer money to the city budget.

But Schwertner’s bill wouldn’t apply only to Austin.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/cps-energy-explainer-17856435.php

shitbag Repugs greatest sadistic creativity is when they are screwing over blue cities.

[Winehole23]

San Antonio officials are losing sleep over a threat to CPS Energy finances. What to know

Texas Senate Bill 1110 would prevent utilities from transferring revenue to the cities that own them.

That would gut San Antonio's city budget.

a bill that would limit or bar municipally owned utilities such as San Antonio’s CPS Energy (https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/tax-bill-utility-revenue-17851583.php) from providing revenue to the cities that own them.

it would gut the city’s credit rating and force steep cuts in services, possibly including police and fire protections, libraries and recreation.

How much money are we talking about?

A lot. CPS Energy is expected to hand over nearly $392 million to the city during this fiscal year.

That’s 26 percent of the city's $1.5 billion general fund,

which pays for police and fire protection, street repairs, sidewalks, libraries, senior centers, drainage projects and other services.

“would cause a catastrophic loss in revenue that would negatively impact services to our community, the city's bond credit ratings and capital programs.”

the city will have to cut services significantly and might have to raise taxes to make up for the lost revenue.

Assistant City Manager Jeff Coyle called the legislation "the biggest, potentially most damaging piece of legislation we've ever seen."

Like many things that affect San Antonio, it started in Austin. :lol

By some accounts, Schwertner became interested in the issue after hearing about an Austin City Council member’s complaint

that the city’s publicly owned power provider, Austin Energy, could charge lower rates if it didn’t have to transfer money to the city budget.

But Schwertner’s bill wouldn’t apply only to Austin.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/cps-energy-explainer-17856435.php

shitbag Repugs greatest sadistic creativity is when they are screwing over blue cities.


big government conservatism in action, trashing big cities and local control.

[Winehole23]

Screwing ratepayers and fellating oil and gas companies behind closed doors is thematic. Wonder what Texas is hiding this time.

1646133795123257348

1646133798986215425

[leemajors]

gross

[Winehole23]

grossposting substitute versions of bills as soon as they're filed could be easily done, but the lege prefers to keep us in the dark.

[Winehole23]

1653879027839426564

1653879031991787520

1653879036353957889

1653879040925741056

[Winehole23]

Conservation is underrated.

1653970483757318144

[Winehole23]

Transferring costs from industrial to residential customers, too.

1653925758845308929

[Winehole23]

1656341944446926850

[boutons_deux]

Could Texas lawmakers end the state’s renewable boom?

Critics argue the bills they’ve proposed would do little to keep the lights on — while chilling solar and wind projects despite historic federal support for those technologies.

state House where lawmakers seem less bullish on upturning the energy market.

Others would target the laissez-faire regulatory environment that has allowed renewable energy to flourish, including by requiring renewable energy projects to pay for backup power or by adding new grid connection fees.

Clean energy developers say the proposals are already influencing investment decisions in the nation’s second-largest state by population.

“We’ve got billions of investment dollars that we’re hoping to bring to Texas, and that’s at risk if the government is going to be punitive.”

The bills exemplify recent efforts in Republican-controlled states to

boost fossil fuels at the expense of renewables amid rapid changes to the energy resource mix.

Renewable energy was not the root cause of the 2021 blackouts. A report from federal agencies (https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/final-report-february-2021-freeze-underscores-winterization-recommendations) found that all forms of power failed, but the failure of natural gas plants to function in extreme cold was a driving factor behind the power losses.

S.B. 6 (https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000187-9a15-daaa-a5e7-be1f93cb0000), which would use surplus taxpayer money to pay electric utilities to build up to 10,000 megawatts of natural gas power plants.

For perspective, energy consumption in Texas last winter hit a new peak of 74,427 MW.

https://www.eenews.net/articles/could-texas-lawmakers-end-the-states-renewable-boom/

Taxpayers pay for the Capital investment, then pay heavily to buy the electricity from those investments.

Corrupt, shithole Texas

[boutons_deux]

Texas bills would set state against federal oil and gas regulation, renewables

A Texas bill would bar state officials from helping enforce any federal oil and gas law that contradicts the state’s own laws.

the bipartisan bill would potentially hamstring attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate pollution by the oil and gas industry, putting the state — by far the nation’s largest source of planet-warming emissions from fossil fuels — on a collision course with both the Biden (https://thehill.com/people/joe-biden/)administration and future attempts to slow climate change.

proposed legislation aimed at growing the Texas oil and gas industry while weakening the federal government’s ability to regulate it —

despite attempts to do so currently remaining hypothetical.

build a fleet of new gas plants (https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2023-03-10/texas-state-lawmakers-unveil-plan-to-curb-renewable-energy-subsidize-natural-gas) while raising taxes on Texas’ wind and solar industry (https://legiscan.com/TX/supplement/SB7/id/325492), which is the largest in the nation.

Yet another Senate bill would

require all wind and solar projects in Texas to go through stringent environmental and permitting regulations — including notifying all property owners within 25 miles —

that the oil and gas industry remains exempt from (https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/html/SB00624I.htm).

(That bill would require all existing renewable generation to go through the same process retroactively.)

https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/3924460-texas-bills-would-set-state-against-federal-oil-and-gas-regulation-renewables/

TX Repugs are two-bit cheap whores as bribed and owned by the BigCarbon

[Winehole23]

Subsidizing -- and building a moat around -- oil and gas.

Big government conservatives coddling donors, deciding winners and losers. The ultimate losers here are residential ratepayers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/opinion/texas-renewable-energy.html

[Winehole23]

1657376094633226243

[Winehole23]

The GOP gave up governing for culture war bullshit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwBPRymWAAMpg6Y?format=png&name=large

[Winehole23]

renewable energy is one of the things Texas has been really great at.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwGXE1OXwAAJFQs?format=jpg&name=small

[Winehole23]

1658218986130092032

1658218994094964736 (https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1658218994094964736?s=20)

[boutons_deux]

shithole TX's shitbag Repugs are excluding wind/solar from the successor of 313

and

using "the administrative state" to obstruct, punish wind and solar, like new difficult permitting with retroactive, ex post facto penalties.

[Winehole23]

Doug Lewin isn't predicting blackouts, but wear and tear on energy plants during heat waves/cold snaps is more or less intuitive. One hopes the grid won't be reliability challenged again anytime soon.

1669088876697202688

[Winehole23]

1670963774751121415

[Winehole23]

1671228724153286671

[Winehole23]

The Supreme Court of Texas narrowly decided (https://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/orders-opinions/2023/june/june-23-2023/) Friday that sovereign immunity, which largely shields government agencies from civil lawsuits, also protects the operator of the Texas electric grid.

The 5-4 opinion will likely free (https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/09/texas-ercot-immunity-supreme-court-lawsuits/) the nonprofit corporation from lawsuits filed by thousands (https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/14/texas-winter-storm-lawsuits-anniversary/) of Texans for deaths, injuries and damages following the deadly 2021 winter storm, unless lawyers find another way forward.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the power supply for most of Texas, qualifies for immunity because it “provides an essential governmental service,” Chief Justice Nathan Hecht (https://www.texastribune.org/directory/nathan-hecht/) wrote in the majority opinion. State law intended for ERCOT to have the power of an “arm of the State government,” Hecht wrote. If anyone is going to hold ERCOT accountable for its actions, Hecht wrote, it should be state regulators or the Legislature, not the courts.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/23/ercot-lawsuits-winter-storms/

[FuzzyLumpkins]

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/23/ercot-lawsuits-winter-storms/

LLC laws are up their with LEOBOR laws in needing a repeal.

At this point I would take any actions on the recommendations of the Sunset Commission though.

[Winehole23]

LLC laws are up their with LEOBOR laws in needing a repeal.

At this point I would take any actions on the recommendations of the Sunset Commission though.Closing the courtroom doors to the public to seek redress, how convenient.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Closing the courtroom doors to the public to seek redress, how convenient.

Not sure what your getting at here. Sunset has been ignored straight up and is only an advisory board.

One main thrust of their report was that ERCOT had no clue what the state of the grid was making their reports not based on reality. They recommended several solutions to this issue which were ignored.

The state is being intentionally obtuse. Their strategy seems centered around limiting liability as opposed to governing.

[Winehole23]

Not sure what your getting at here. Sunset has been ignored straight up and is only an advisory board.

One main thrust of their report was that ERCOT had no clue what the state of the grid was making their reports not based on reality. They recommended several solutions to this issue which were ignored.

The state is being intentionally obtuse. Their strategy seems centered around limiting liability as opposed to governing.I broadly agree with all that. Governing badly on purpose seems to be the strategy, it has almost a gnostic feel, as if they were trying to hasten the last judgment by their own sins.

[Winehole23]

Not sure what your getting at here. the courtroom doors have been slammed shut.


The Supreme Court of Texas narrowly decided (https://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/orders-opinions/2023/june/june-23-2023/) Friday that sovereign immunity, which largely shields government agencies from civil lawsuits, also protects the operator of the Texas electric grid.

The 5-4 opinion will likely free (https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/09/texas-ercot-immunity-supreme-court-lawsuits/) the nonprofit corporation from lawsuits filed by thousands (https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/14/texas-winter-storm-lawsuits-anniversary/) of Texans for deaths, injuries and damages following the deadly 2021 winter storm, unless lawyers find another way forward.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the power supply for most of Texas, qualifies for immunity because it “provides an essential governmental service,” Chief Justice Nathan Hecht (https://www.texastribune.org/directory/nathan-hecht/) wrote in the majority opinion. State law intended for ERCOT to have the power of an “arm of the State government,” Hecht wrote. If anyone is going to hold ERCOT accountable for its actions, Hecht wrote, it should be state regulators or the Legislature, not the courts.

[Winehole23]

first of a four-parter.

paywalled, sadly.

1689292315234349056

1689292317671198720

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/texas-2021-blackouts-pipeline-lawsuits-18266638.php

[Winehole23]

Oklahoma and Kansas have sued pipeline companies for manipulating prices just before Uri struck in 2021.


“Aggravating an already stressed market, on the morning of February 16, 2021, Macquarie entered into an economically irrational natural gas trade in which it purchased natural gas for next-day delivery within Southern Star at the single highest price ever paid for Southern Star natural gas,” the suit alleges. “The trade was not a fiasco for Macquarie, but instead a resounding financial success – because the actual effect … was to manipulate the Platts Southern Star Gas Daily price for February 17, 2021, upwards.”

[Winehole23]

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, one of the state’s top oil and gas regulators asked the attorney general to investigate pipeline operators and gas traders for market manipulation that cost the state $3 billion. (https://kaynewscow.com/2023/03/03/occ-anthony-files-deliberations-statement-in-2021-fuel-cost-review-cases/)Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony was exasperated because his colleagues would not look into evidence of illegal behavior (https://kaynewscow.com/2023/03/03/occ-anthony-files-deliberations-statement-in-2021-fuel-cost-review-cases/).

“All the same questions raised … about utility management decision-making during the February 2021 Winter Storm are relevant again here, as are the questions about price-gouging, fraud and market manipulation,” Anthony wrote in an official commission filing.


FAILURES OF POWER: 'Collective amnesia': Texas politicians knowingly blew 3 chances to fix the failing power grid (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/texas-politicians-power-grid-failures-blackout-16185399.php)

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond agreed and began recruiting outside law firms to bring suit (https://www.fox23.com/news/video-oklahoma-ag-considering-legal-action-over-alleged-market-manipulation-during-2021-winter-storm/video_88946e47-b25f-5405-b07a-2de6e21b985b.html).

In 2021, San Antonio’s city-owned utility CPS Energy sued 16 natural gas companies over $850 million in surprise fuel bills from the 2021 storm. In some cases, (https://www.expressnews.com/sa-inc/article/CPS-Energy-legal-war-following-2021-17716438.php)CPS has reached settlements but the details remain secret (https://www.expressnews.com/sa-inc/article/CPS-Energy-legal-war-following-2021-17716438.php).

“I wouldn’t have gotten that good of a deal if everybody else in the market knew the company was giving us that deal,” Shanna Ramirez, CPS Energy’s general counsel, told my Hearst Newspapers’ colleague Diego Mendoza-Moyers. “I know that I’m asking people to trust me. I am doing this because it is in the best interest of our customers.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/winter-storm-pipelines-kansas-oklahoma-investigate-18266653.php

[boutons_deux]

Why Texas regulators refuse to investigate role pipelines played in 2021 blackouts


(https://www.expressnews.com/author/chris-tomlinson/)https://www.expressnews.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/why-texas-regulators-refuse-investigate-pipelines-18266659.php

[Winehole23]

(Pull quote from the above article)


In a pending lawsuit, Houston energy data firm CirclesX alleges pipeline operators routinely manipulate natural gas supplies to drive up prices during weather events.


These companies went too far in February 2021, CirclesX says, inadvertently triggering statewide blackouts that left hundreds of Texans dead.

[Winehole23]

CirclesX’s lawsuit seeks the return of those profits on behalf of all Texans, which would go to repay public debt issued in 2021.

[Thread]

^^^^^^^^^
You could give 2 shits for any of that nonsense. You want that governorship, bub. And ya's ain't gettin' it.

[Winehole23]

Greed kills, Texas turns a blind eye.

1693612704265605241

[Thread]

Greed kills, Texas turns a blind eye.

1693612704265605241

You're wasting your time, Winester. You ain't a gonna turn Texas, son. No.

[Winehole23]

adding battery storage capacity is one thing Texas did right to contribute to reliability


A battery boom is helping to stabilize the Texas power grid, offering a template for utilities that want to cut their greenhouse gases even as air conditioners hum wildly during heat waves.
The growth of batteries was evident last week when energy storage facilities injected a record amount of power into Texas’ electric system. It was badly needed on an evening when the state’s primary grid operator had called on consumers to conserve energy.

“I think it's a really big deal. I think it's underappreciated and under-talked about at this point,” said Doug Lewin, an Austin, Texas-based energy consultant who authors the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter. Without batteries, he said, “I think it's likely that on Thursday night, we would have been in the emergency conditions.”



Batteries represent the next chapter in Texas’ evolution because they stabilize the grid in the evening, when energy demand is high and solar generation plummets. Texas has installed 2.5 gigawatts of battery capacity over the last five years — about a quarter of total U.S. battery capacity. Only California has installed more.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-heat-waves-roast-texas-batteries-keep-power-grid-humming/

[Winehole23]

via Doug Levin

this is another good move, a distributed energy pilot program


Two ‘virtual power plants’ (VPPs) are now qualified and able to provide dispatchable power to the Texas electric grid, which is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). This marks a first for the state’s electricity market and is part of the Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) pilot project the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) directed ERCOT to begin developing in June 2022. The pilot project tests how consumer-owned, small energy devices, such as battery energy storage systems, backup generators, and controllable Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers, can be virtually aggregated and participate as a resource in the wholesale electricity market, strengthening grid reliability. “Small energy resources found in homes and businesses across Texas have incredible potential to continue improving grid reliability and resiliency by selling the excess power they generate to the ERCOT system,” said PUCT Commissioner Will McAdams. “It’s a win-win for Texas. Home and business owners get paid for power they supply and consumers in ERCOT get more reliability.” “This ADER pilot project is an example of the electric industry, PUCT and ERCOT developing a pilot to solve issues rather than just studying them. The collaboration achieved the clear goals outlined by the Commission and is a model for future projects at the PUCT,” said PUCT Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty. “We have a market in ERCOT that allows us to innovate and learn through real time experimentation with real-world impact.” Texans are increasingly investing in small energy resources, such as backup generators or solar panels connected to battery energy storage systems, for their homes and businesses. There are currently 2.3 GW of these small (less than 1 MW each) resources across the state, with 300 MW added so far in 2023 alone. An ADER represents the aggregation of devices that are located at multiple sites as a single resource. The ADER coordinates the operation of individual devices to collectively reduce demand or feed power to the grid. Through an automated process, the ADER responds to specific ERCOT instructions, allowing participating customers to sell their surplus power to the grid when called upon or reduce use. This is an additional source of dispatchable power for the ERCOT grid.


ADERs are formed and operated by retail electric providers or utilities that sell electricity to homes and businesses. In this pilot project, compensation terms and participation requirements will vary depending on the provider operating the ADER. To qualify for the pilot project, an ADER must be able to produce at least 100 kW, and each individual device in the ADER must be less than 1 MW. The average residential battery is about 5 kW. The pilot project is currently capped at80 MW of total participation to ensure a safe and controlled roll out.“As generation and distribution technology continues to improve, we expect to see more Texans taking advantage of these small energy resources in the future,” said ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas. “This pilot project is an opportunity for us, the electric industry, and participants to learn how to harness these resources to support reliability in the ERCOT market.”https://ftp.puc.texas.gov/public/puct-info/agency/resources/pubs/news/2023/PUCT_Virtual_Power_Plants_to_Provide_Power_to_ERCO T_Grid_for_the_First_Time.pdf

[baseline bum]

Looks like 8PM is going to be another close call today

[Winehole23]

Grid still not fixed


To give you an example, the largest power plant in this call was the Deely Plant that CPS Energy in San Antonio retired in 2018. So it has been offline for five years, and they want them to bring it back in two months, which CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza said is just not possible.

So it’s really frustrating that here in October, with two months to go, state leaders are scrambling to try to get zombie power plants online when for the last two years they’ve been neglecting energy efficiency, which could lower demand – because when you’re in these winter situations, there’s two sides of the coin: Do you have enough supply to meet demand? So you can add supply, or you can reduce demand, or you could do both.

And of course, we still have not adequately addressed the weatherization and winterization of natural gas supply, which is outside ERCOT’s control, but certainly not outside of state leaders’ control.https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-power-grid-winter-outages-ercot-forecast/

[Winehole23]

Free market didn't come to the rescue, and we're all out of ideas (https://x.com/douglewinenergy/status/1725662388471443738?s=20) for the coming winter which, if the El Niño pattern holds, will be colder than usual.

1725662388471443738

[Winehole23]

The surcharge for Houston residential customers is 11.225 cents per 100 cubic feet of gas, which adds $3.48 to the average monthly bill, Hundley wrote. In total, CenterPoint’s customers will be paying off almost $1.1 billion of costs incurred by the company due to Winter Storm Uri, she said.

Only one other utility has greater costs than CenterPoint: Atmos Energy, whose customers will be paying down more than $2 billion in debt.

The costs showing up in monthly utility bills are expected to be passed along for at least the next 16 years, according to statements from the Railroad Commission of Texas (https://www.rrc.texas.gov/news/02822-securitization-financing-order/#:~:text=The%20financing%20order%20is%20authorized ,relief%20bonds%20within%20six%20months.), the state’s oil and gas regulator.

The payments are structured under a legislature-approved process known as securitization, which allows bonds to be issued so utilities can raise the more than $3.5 billion (https://tngsfc.com/bonddocs/TNGSFC%20CRR%20Bonds,%20Taxable%20Series%202023.pd f) they need to pay back natural gas suppliers for gas purchased during Uri and for legal and consulting costs related to the gas procurement and the securitization process. Utilities then collect from their customers the new surcharge, dubbed the customer rate relief charge, to pay for the cost of the bonds, which carry an interest rate of 5.1%.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/centerpoint-gas-bill-rate-increase-winter-storm-18489067.php

[Winehole23]

Great article in Bloomberg about the pipeline biz and intrastrate pipelines in particular.

tl;dr

The Texas pipeline monopoly screws energy companies and the public, Texas allows it to do so, and as a result, the Texas grid is less reliable. Texas also allows pipeline operators to participate in trading, without any firewall between trading and operations.


“It’s authorized monopoly abuse. There’s no other way to get around it,” said Beth Garza, who served for five years as a watchdog for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or Ercot, as the state’s grid operator is known. “If there’s only one provider of a key service and there’s no limit on what that provider can charge for their product, that provider is going to profit-maximize by as much as they can get away with,” said Garza, now a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank in Washington.

The more expensive it is to move gas on a pipeline, the more it costs power plants and local utilities to generate electricity or send that fuel directly to homes and businesses. Eventually, consumers feel that. But because Texas intrastate pipeline contracts aren’t publicly available, it’s impossible to know how their rates and penalties affect what Texans ultimately pay.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231205135606/https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-texas-pipelines/

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Looks like that trough is going East of us.

[Winehole23]

see the bolded, the quoted costs are wholesale market costs and haven't yet been passed on to customers. but energy retailers want to.


“I know that on our end we’re very much concerned about costs to the market, whatever they may be,” she said. “We have petitions sitting at the PUC right now where independent retailers … want to pass those costs … to consumers outside of the fixed-rate contract.”

Grid experts and ERCOT’s independent monitor have been warning about the possibility of some of the program’s costs trickling down to customers’ bills if ERCOT doesn’t change how it buys and uses power for the reserve program it launched in August to shore up grid reliability. It came in response to the near collapse of the power grid during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

The problem, according to Potomac Economics (https://www.potomaceconomics.com/), the company currently contracted as the independent market monitor, is that when ERCOT moves power into the new reserve program for use in case of emergency, it’s removed from the regular market. Such “quarantining” of available power creates the appearance of shortages though there’s actually plenty available. That, in turn, drives up the cost of power on the market.

As demand soared to records through this summer’s record heat, that meant utilities across the state paid from $8 billion to as much as $12.5 billion more than they would have without the program in place, according to Potomac’s analysis.

https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/texas-utility-regulator-wants-reevaluation-ercot-18563589.php

[Winehole23]

reportedly ERCOT declined to make any representative present to the public. seems like they missed a chance to say, "situation normal, we're prepared, everything is gonna be cool."

and, be aware of grid conditions @ERCOT_ISO



1745137870606630941

[benefactor]

They know how it will play out

[Thread]

They know how it will play out

Shame on you, bene.

[Ef-man]

They know how it will play out

Rafael will be in Cancun so does it matter?

[Winehole23]

They know how it will play outit's probably nbd, but ERCOT notably isn't projecting confidence, which it is surely is free to do.

[baseline bum]

reportedly ERCOT declined to make any representative present to the public. seems like they missed a chance to say, "situation normal, we're prepared, everything is gonna be cool."

and, be aware of grid conditions @ERCOT_ISO



1745137870606630941

LOL only ~500 MW reserve being normal

https://i.ibb.co/N3Wh4WR/dicey.png

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Looks like the grid is holding. Of course this trough is later in the year. We get another trough closer to the solstice and it would be a disaster. This is the new seasonal reality.

[Thread]

Looks like the grid is holding. Of course this trough is later in the year. We get another trough closer to the solstice and it would be a disaster. This is the new seasonal reality.

Bend over, I'll give ya a fuckin' trough, Lumps. What'd you do on our sojourn? I reloaded my poison pen & ate like a gov't mule.

[Ef-man]

https://x.com/HalfwayPost/status/1747013293527495039

[Ef-man]

https://x.com/texan_steve/status/1746881265909833861

[Thread]

They know how it will play out

...you bent over a yard arm when it breaks off. & you should've never posted that information on here, ya damn shit, you.

[Ef-man]

https://x.com/MonitriceMalone/status/1747067485243781611

[Winehole23]

Bitcoin is an energy hog.


One independent estimate made by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (https://ccaf.io/cbnsi/cbeci) had the US as the home of just over 3 percent of the global bitcoin mining at the start of 2020. By the start of 2022, that figure was nearly 38 percent.

The Cambridge Center also estimates the global electricity use of all bitcoin mining, so it's possible to multiply that by the US's percentage and come up with an estimate for the amount of electricity that boom has consumed. Because of the uncertainties in these estimates, the number could be anywhere from 25 to 91 Terawatt-hours. Even the low end of that range would mean bitcoin mining is now using the equivalent of Utah's electricity consumption (the high end is roughly Washington's), which has significant implications for the electric grid as a whole.

So, the EIA decided it needed a better grip on what was going on. To get that, it went through trade publications, financial reports, news articles, and congressional investigation reports to identify as many bitcoin mining operations as it could. With 137 facilities identified, it then inquired about the power supply needed to operate them at full capacity, receiving answers for 101 of those facilities.


If running all-out, those 101 facilities would consume 2.3 percent of the US's average power demand. That places them on the high side of the Cambridge Center estimates.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/

[Winehole23]

it's forecast to reach 88 in Austin on Tuesday and Wednesday.

1779257356661997571

[Thread]

it's forecast to reach 88 in Austin on Tuesday and Wednesday.

1779257356661997571

Still tryin' to turn Texas.

Nope.

[Ef-man]

it's forecast to reach 88 in Austin on Tuesday and Wednesday.

1779257356661997571

Oh look, you got a maga response

https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExdW1jdTZqdmwybHloZHh6OHBoNWI1bTY 3c3Rrc2I5Nml0d2dvZTE5aSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfY nlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3oEduMhCeHdwx8wow0/giphy.gif

[Thread]

Oh look, you got a maga response

https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExdW1jdTZqdmwybHloZHh6OHBoNWI1bTY 3c3Rrc2I5Nml0d2dvZTE5aSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfY nlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3oEduMhCeHdwx8wow0/giphy.gif
:lmao:lmao:lmao

[Winehole23]

GOP maladministration and failure at basic governing sure does stand out -- Dems haven't been in charge in Texas since the mid 1990s.

[Thread]

GOP maladministration and failure at basic governing sure does stand out -- Dems haven't been in charge in Texas since the mid 1990s.

But, daddy, you still ain't turnin' it.

[pgardn]

Gregorian Abbott will now deflect by propsing the State of Texas get its own Airforce for border protection for the imminent rapist overflow to come.

[Thread]

Gregorian Abbott will now deflect by propsing the State of Texas get its own Airforce for border protection for the imminent rapist overflow to come.

...whilst in his wheel chair. muhahahahahahahahahaha!!!

[pgardn]

^ picture of Greggy Abbott walking on water?

[Thread]

^ picture of Greggy Abbott walking on water?

Yeah, for once we got somebody in a fuckin' wheelchair to help the cause. And it works too!

[Winehole23]

ERCOT alert levels likely averted by batteries, a few conscientious power plants and a slightly cooler day than expected -- in April.

State high was 94 in Junction, Texas.

1780700594417856527

[Thread]

ERCOT alert levels likely averted by batteries, a few conscientious power plants and a slightly cooler day than expected -- in April.

State high was 94 in Junction, Texas.

1780700594417856527

You ain't turnin' Texas, Homer,,,,,,I mean Winester. No.

[Winehole23]

Windfall profits socialized to save power companies from going bust, is that capitalism, or is it a public subsidy for a market that failed?

Other states were hit by the same storm noncatastrophically, winter storm Uri wasn't a local event.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuX0owEXcAk7r3N?format=jpg&name=mediumNo board conservatives ever ventured an explanation for this.

What can't be blamed on the Dems is passed over in silence, I guess.

[Winehole23]

.

[Winehole23]

The power stations aren't the problem, natural gas production is the weak link.

Abbott and ERCOT are lying to us about energy reliability in Texas.


Gas providers couldn't afford disaster pricing, so the Texas lege is letting them take the shortfall from the Texans left short of power during winter storm Uri.

By all rights, windfall profits should be clawed back from the producers who let us down.

Texas gas bills may increase, companies allowed to make up $3.4B winter storm losses (https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-gas-bills-may-increase-companies-allowed-to-make-up-3-4b-winter-storm-losses/)

[Winehole23]

They clawed back windfall profits in Spain, Texas would never do that to their precious oil and gas companies, even though the whole state will be paying billions for obscene disaster pricing -- for 20-30 years.

[Winehole23]

But maybe that's the whole deal. It isn't our government. It does the bidding of others under color of public service.

[Winehole23]

Total aside:

Say what you want about Henry B. Gonzalez (http://https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_B._Gonz%C3%A1lez), he never let anyone buy him lunch. To him, that seemed improper.

If I remember the magazine article right, he made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a bachelor apartment in Washington DC for like, all thirty-eight years.

Or that time he duked a guy out at Earl Abel's for calling him a commie...

[Thread]

No board conservatives ever ventured an explanation for this.

What can't be blamed on the Dems is passed over in silence, I guess.

...sometimes you eat the bear {chasing after Trump for making President} & sometimes that old bear just gets up all over ya {you ain't turnin' Texas}

[Thread]

But maybe that's the whole deal. It isn't our government. It does the bidding of others under color of public service.

...ya fuckin' right it ain't, and hasn't been since II. ended.

[Thread]

They clawed back windfall profits in Spain, Texas would never do that to their precious oil and gas companies, even though the whole state will be paying billions for obscene disaster pricing -- for 20-30 years.

I'll boil this down for ya, fart-face...

Trump: $2 a gallon gas.
Biden: $5 a gallon gas. AGAIN.

[Winehole23]

IN SPURSTALK NOBODY CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM

[Thread]

IN SPURSTALK NOBODY CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM

Ya's quit & told on me.

It happens.

[Winehole23]

Renewables keep the lights on and lower the energy bill.

The bad news is Texas isn't keeping up with growing demand.

1781067903896330353

[Thread]

Renewables keep the lights on and lower the energy bill.

The bad news is Texas isn't keeping up with growing demand.

1781067903896330353

...The bottom line news? You ain't turnin' Texas, buckaroo.

[Winehole23]

Solar, wind and batteries to the rescue

1786555601541062984

[Thread]

Solar, wind and batteries to the rescue

1786555601541062984

You ain't turnin' Texas, you damn weasel, you.

[Winehole23]

Texas unprepared for extreme heat and public demand

1800198102995120194

[Thread]

Texas unprepared for extreme heat and public demand

1800198102995120194


You ain't turnin' Texas, you damn weasel, you.

[Ef-man]

Texas unprepared for extreme heat and public demand

1800198102995120194

Mild summer so far in VA and August is not much hotter than 80s.

66 degrees right now so we have energy to spare. My condolences to Texans.

[Winehole23]

Hard to see this getting off the ground. Doing so might impair the ability of energy producers and pipeline companies to screw public utilities.


Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, discovered that connecting the Texas power grid to the rest of the country would have prevented up to 80% of the blackouts that occurred during the devastating Winter Storm Uri in 2021.


After studying Congressman Casar’s legislation, MIT released a research brief that focused on four key areas: transmission requirements, how the grid would handle extreme weather events, cost savings and climate benefits.

In addition to fewer blackouts and increased grid reliability during extreme weather events, MIT researchers say the Connect the Grid Act would also save between $901 Million and $1.24 Billion annually.https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/study-says-connecting-texas-power-grid-to-us-would-increase-reliability-save-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars/287-21846e94-ae10-4937-8e76-6cee34dd95c7

[RandomGuy]

Hard to see this getting off the ground. Doing so might impair the ability of energy producers and pipeline companies to screw public utilities.



https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/study-says-connecting-texas-power-grid-to-us-would-increase-reliability-save-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars/287-21846e94-ae10-4937-8e76-6cee34dd95c7

The GOP favors any policy that lets them grift.

[Thread]

The GOP favors any policy that lets them grift.

In fact you taught us that tact, RG.

[Winehole23]

not planning for events like this is itself a sort of planning -- living in the sacrifice zone is a political choice


The move to build more natural gas plants came in the wake of another massive power outage: the deadly deep freeze (https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/21/weather/texas-winter-storm-timeline/index.html) in February 2021 killed more than 200 people and left millions of customers without power and heat for days. Despite Texas Republicans’ anti-wind energy rhetoric, natural gas plants going offline (https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/20/weather/texas-electricity-crisis/index.html) accounted for the bulk of the outages.


More recently, mass outages have come from downed power lines.


“The weak point is the wires and poles, and basically always has been,” Michael Webber, an energy expert and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told CNN. “But it’s not a priority for the state. The state prioritizes natural gas power plants or backup natural gas generator systems. It is not focused on hardening the grid.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/12/climate/texas-power-outages-grid-storms/index.html

[Thread]

not planning for events like this is itself a sort of planning -- living in the sacrifice zone is a political choice

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/12/climate/texas-power-outages-grid-storms/index.html

You ain't turnin' Texas.

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSTHcSRXQAAeQt_?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Thread]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSTHcSRXQAAeQt_?format=jpg&name=900x900


You ain't turnin' Texas.

[CosmicCowboy]

And yet, no new power plants are being built because of Bidens EPA threatening onerous and unrealistic CO2 capture regulations.

[Winehole23]

And yet, no new power plants are being built because of Bidens EPA threatening onerous and unrealistic CO2 capture regulations.seems you're wrong about that

https://www.fox7austin.com/news/gov-abbott-pushes-new-power-generation-ideas-projects

https://www.powermag.com/new-gas-fired-power-plants-proposed-in-southeast-texas/

[Winehole23]

CC just pulls shit out of his ass, based on nothing

https://www.powermag.com/new-1-2-gw-natural-gas-fired-plant-announced-for-texas/

[Winehole23]

not surprising that the guy who blamed the 2021 outage on wind and solar continues to make shit up

https://www.power-eng.com/gas/calpine-affirms-plan-to-build-more-natural-gas-plants-in-texas/#gref

[CosmicCowboy]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npr.org/2024/04/25/1236609039/epa-power-plant-climate&ved=2ahUKEwierr3T56aHAxWvEjQIHc0RBRkQFno
ECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Ef6xYctxrlHFURzg3CGW2

The 40% rule whinehole. Those are surge plants. Why make the discussion personal?

[Winehole23]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npr.org/2024/04/25/1236609039/epa-power-plant-climate&ved=2ahUKEwierr3T56aHAxWvEjQIHc0RBRkQFno
ECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Ef6xYctxrlHFURzg3CGW2 (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npr.org/2024/04/25/1236609039/epa-power-plant-climate&ved=2ahUKEwierr3T56aHAxWvEjQIHc0RBRkQFno<br />ECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Ef6xYctxrlHFURzg3CGW2)

The 40% rule whinehole. Those are suege plants.You said "no new power plants." That was incorrect.

[CosmicCowboy]

You said "no new power plants." That was incorrect.

OK, to be technical, no new primary load power plants.

[Thread]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npr.org/2024/04/25/1236609039/epa-power-plant-climate&ved=2ahUKEwierr3T56aHAxWvEjQIHc0RBRkQFno
ECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Ef6xYctxrlHFURzg3CGW2 (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.npr.org/2024/04/25/1236609039/epa-power-plant-climate&ved=2ahUKEwierr3T56aHAxWvEjQIHc0RBRkQFno<br />
ECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Ef6xYctxrlHFURzg3CGW2)

The 40% rule whinehole. Those are surge plants. Why make the discussion personal?

...he has nary other choice.

And he ain't turnin' Texas.

[ChumpDumper]

And yet, no new power plants are being built because of Bidens EPA threatening onerous and unrealistic CO2 capture regulations.

Wow! Even more reasons to connect to the bigger, more reliable grids outside Texas!

[Thread]

Wow! Even more reasons to connect to the bigger, more reliable grids outside Texas!


You ain't turnin' Texas.

[ChumpDumper]

Why is a dude safely on the better grid trying to comment on the Texas grid?

Only an idiot would be trying that.