Texas "Great Power Outage of 2021"

[birdgrandma]

Texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state’s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies — many of which opted against the costly upgrades. That, plus a deregulated energy market largely isolated from the rest of the country’s power grid, left the state alone to deal with the crisis, experts said.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...grid-failures/

[tomkatb]

Our 2018 Cedar Creek Hathaway was adequate!

I filled the water tank before the storm.

Turned on the tank heaters.

Thermostat to 60 to conserve propane. Used about #20 a day.

Sub 20 degree temps were fine. We had 4 gc2 batteries that got us thru 24 hours of no power. I was about to start the Honda 2200 to top up the batteries when the power came back on.

About to head north on Sunday.

[Bob2019]

Let me add that wind and solar is being more used and added in MN. It works and we don't have problems.

We are told we just have to adapt to climate change. Well, Texas will have to adapt too for BIG bucks to avoid what they just experienced. Side note: If you think we can continue to pour more carbon into the air, think what this will mean to you, spouse, kids and grandchildren's health. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. If you think states can't afford to winterize their gas supplies and windmills because it will raise electric prices, just what will it cost to fix all the broken and flooded homes? Electric rate increases are nothing compared to fixing all that froze up due to poor planing with "it doesn't happen here". News noted last night that repairs may be the largest cost yet for a disaster. Lets not forget also the people that suffered, needed medical equipment on electricity and died. It is truly selfish to ignore the costs of climate change just because "I've got money - hell with you" attitude. States affected better be prepared to pay me now or pay me more later.

[awellis3]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

Equipment in Texas isn't much different than equipment installed in areas that see arctic like temps every year yet there the equipment didn't fail.

Insulation and proper lubricant in machinery makes a big difference. Natural Gas flows in Canada and Northern States in winter yet in Texas proper precautions and preparation was a victim of "We've never had that problem before" thinking.

And there it is. OK, I'm off to the next topic.

[RobbieH]

The grid did not fail. Never. Not at all. Did not happen.
The rolling blackouts were to prevent a failure of the grid.
Green power took a 4% loss over all green power.
Conventional took a 25% loss over all conventional.
Green power is a much lower contributor than conventional.

DON'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

Especially don't believe the image of a helicopter de-icing windmills in Texas. That picture was taken in 2015 in Sweden. SOCIAL MEDIA is what drives this false garbage.

Funny thing is, I live on a no-load-shed feeder, why? Because I'm on a feeder for a solar farm. I never lost power.

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by SailorSam20500

Seems like perfect storm has a lot to do with it. I saw some video where they were using a drone like system to spray deicing agents on the windmill blades. So, part of the problem could be that as noted by Moose074, with the light winds, the blades weren't turning and were more susceptible to getting iced up as the temps fell. If the wind had been up earlier, the flexing caused during rotation may have reduced the icing.
Also saw an interview with one of the house representatives from Texas who mentioned that the nat gas pumping stations that froze up may have been required to be heated by renewable energy or electricity rather than just burning some of the gas they were pumping. So when the turbines went down, the gas had to follow. There was a move several years ago after the last cold snap down there, to "harden" all of the grid infrastructure or build a couple of coal based power stations, but he was hearing that the work wasn't done.
Like California, it is looking obvious that there needs to be enough fossil fuel generating capacity to support the base electric load requirements. Federal government incentives appear to have very negatively impacted how investment in the power grid has been spent leading to these issues.

Lot of stuff to look into.

He's just another politician trying to find a way to place the blame on renewable energy. The power produced by renewables is not kept separate from that produced by fossil fuels, it's all distributed by the same grid.

Now, if someone put in a private source of renewable power then it needs to have a way to disconnect from the public grid so repair crews don't get injured if they need to fix the public grid.

The last two times we lost power I had to call it in for our neighborhood. Alliant Energy asked if I had a generator and I told them yes, then explained I was using a 3500 watt generator as a backup and it was not connected to the service panel in any way.

For some reason I'm not sure of but I suspect there is a small spring under or near the foundation and my 3' x 4' basement pit fills up within 30 minutes in the spring to 1.5 hours during dry spells so I need to run my sump pump 24/7 using extension cords when I lose grid power.

[PopUpPop]

Originally Posted by BobinIrving

I live in Dallas, TX and we experienced something rare for us. Several days of little to no electrical power as the power grid failed. This brought to my mine how catastrophic it would be to lose the entire power gird nationally. I hope we will move cautiously on doing away with fossil fuels and not be to dependent on Wind and Solar. I know the RV parks in Texas must have suffered and I hope everyone remained safe.

This had nothing to do with wind or solar energy. Texas assumed the risks of not enabling their production equipment to work in cold temperatures. This has happened before in Texas and will likely continue to happen in the future if changes are not made.

[RobbieH]

Scrapper is right, it's tied right in.
https://goo.gl/maps/tnJeEwdipVbSncsX7
That's the solar farm that serves my feeder that my home is on.

https://goo.gl/maps/kjBM52m2bzK21QTN6
There's the distribution center for ALL power coming to my area.

You can follow the line quite easily from the solar farm, through housing, past the high school, and to the distribution center. Solar power is going > the grid, the grid is going back toward the solar farm. It's all the same line.

And no, this is not information I'm making up. We are a small town on a small electric co-op, so I know employees there who gave me this information.

[ervinglobal]

Originally Posted by jrk341

Fox News propaganda!! Now that's funny.

Yes it is very funny! Only CNN and MSNBC tells you the truth about anything!

[RobbieH]

Originally Posted by ervinglobal

Yes it is very funny! Only CNN and MSNBC tells you the truth about anything!

Best sarcasm I've seen yet today.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by salwolfe

Those events were not even close to what went on the last week. Just a FYI.

I do understand since we live near Houston and have lost both electricity and water during the storm.
My point was that this isn't the first time we've learned that the the electrical system wasn't 'hardened' to withstand cold weather.

And it's not going to be pleasant when our electricity and bills come. The price of nat gas has gone through the roof and guess who's going to have to pay that bill.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Ole Buzzard

All I know...15 outside 34 inside no power for 3 days.

Start getting ready to drain the plumbing and water heater...

In 2003 we had a 36-hour outage due to an ice storm. The house got down to 35 degrees and I was just getting ready to drain the plumbing when the power came back on. It was off for over 2 weeks in Durham, only 22 miles from here.

[PopUpPop]

And it's not going to be pleasant when our electricity and bills come. The price of nat gas has gone through the roof and guess who's going to have to pay that bill.[/QUOTE]


Roland Burns, CFO at Comstock Resources Inc., reportedly bragged that the week has been "like hitting the jackpot," according to the Dallas Morning News.

“This week is like hitting the jackpot with some of these incredible prices,” Burns said. “Frankly, we were able to sell at super premium prices for a material amount of production.”

[BMullins46]

What most people do not realize is that ERCOT is a wholly within Texas power grid and has been that way since it's creation. The Texas panhandle is served by Xcel Energy and is tied to the Southwest Power Pool. We have been under the energy alerts just like the rest of the midwest. All available conventional fueled power plants are up and running trying to meet the load requirements.
What you may not know is the the natural gas companies have to give priority to their residential customers and under weather conditions as we've had for the past week have to reduce the gas provided to the electric companies for generation. Add too it that the gas wells do not flow as much gas when it's cold like we've had and you get a bad situation made worse.
If you are the type of person who has to blame somebody for everything that happens take a look at the person those remaining 3 fingers are pointing at when you point a finger.
Yes it does require an investment to "harden" the utility system, and remember that the utility system id regulated at both the local, state and federal level. I really don't believe that the regulators would allow the companies to spend the kind of money that would be required to do what some of these posters have advocated and then recoup that expendature from their customers. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!

[Pred]

Originally Posted by Bob2019

Let me add that wind and solar is being more used and added in MN. It works and we don't have problems.

We are told we just have to adapt to climate change. Well, Texas will have to adapt too for BIG bucks to avoid what they just experienced. Side note: If you think we can continue to pour more carbon into the air, think what this will mean to you, spouse, kids and grandchildren's health. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. If you think states can't afford to winterize their gas supplies and windmills because it will raise electric prices, just what will it cost to fix all the broken and flooded homes? Electric rate increases are nothing compared to fixing all that froze up due to poor planing with "it doesn't happen here". News noted last night that repairs may be the largest cost yet for a disaster. Lets not forget also the people that suffered, needed medical equipment on electricity and died. It is truly selfish to ignore the costs of climate change just because "I've got money - hell with you" attitude. States affected better be prepared to pay me now or pay me more later.

Let's fix the problems and cut the global cooling, global warming, or climate change stuff. I'm definitely not moving to Minnesota. We still welcome Minnesotans (of which there are a lot of) to South Texas.

[BMullins46]

are you sure we can? the earths climate has been changing since creation.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by BMullins46

If you are the type of person who has to blame somebody for everything that happens take a look at the person those remaining 3 fingers are pointing at when you point a finger.

That's not exactly fair. Blame is not the issue.
It is what it is and you can't fix something if you don't know about it. The average person doesn't have a voice as to the price of electric or how we get it.

The 'powers that be' wanted to keep the price of electricity and nat gas low to attract business to the state.

I'm not sure how people who live in rvs full time are weathering this, but it can't be pleasant.

[Pred]

Originally Posted by BMullins46

are you sure we can? the earths climate has been changing since creation.

Indeed.

[BigH]

Originally Posted by Bob2019

Let me add that wind and solar is being more used and added in MN. It works and we don't have problems.

We are told we just have to adapt to climate change. Well, Texas will have to adapt too for BIG bucks to avoid what they just experienced. Side note: If you think we can continue to pour more carbon into the air, think what this will mean to you, spouse, kids and grandchildren's health. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. If you think states can't afford to winterize their gas supplies and windmills because it will raise electric prices, just what will it cost to fix all the broken and flooded homes? Electric rate increases are nothing compared to fixing all that froze up due to poor planing with "it doesn't happen here". News noted last night that repairs may be the largest cost yet for a disaster. Lets not forget also the people that suffered, needed medical equipment on electricity and died. It is truly selfish to ignore the costs of climate change just because "I've got money - hell with you" attitude. States affected better be prepared to pay me now or pay me more later.

You do realize that 60,000 years ago the oceans were 400 feet lower than today. That's 50 miles from current shoreline in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Who caused that? The Neandertals? Are we having an effect on our planet? Yes, there is no question but we are on the tail end of an ice age that will change into the next warming cycle and there isn't a damn thing we can do to prevent it.

https://www.thisisalabama.org/underw...d%20in%20place.

[moose074]

I think we give politicians and reporters to much credit and blame. More importantly we value their thoughts to much. How many people writing the article/ video clip. I didn’t vote for a politician based on their knowledge of the electric grid, ability to back a trailer or rebuild an engine. Perhaps they are experts in these and other areas. Instead they get info from business men not those responsible for day to day operations. In my opinion we are more worried about who to blame vs how to correct. I see the 2011 incident mentioned several times. I haven’t seen if or what changes were made. Would we have been able to keep power on if Texas didn’t have 5 million more residents. Which comes with more business houses ( don’t forget our RV community that aren’t residents) Perhaps if the nuclear power plant stays on line we aren’t having this conversation. There is no doubt that changes need to be made. But first we need a real analysis of what happened and why. Then fix based on the analysis.