“The Grid is fixed.” ERCOT warns of rolling blackouts.

They love to talk about population and business growth….

…. less about the infrastructure needed to support it. The free market fairy forgot to wave her magic wand.

 

I heard we lost some nuclear power capacity (1gW?) and that’s why it’s so tight …

 

They literally had the same lack of generation blackout problem in North Carolina and Tennessee earlier this year. Not as long or as deadly. TN even managed to make their rolling blackouts roll. But our problems aren't unique.

 

Two other high growth, “business friendly states”. They are hooked up to the socialist national grid, unlike Texas.

 

Fix the Goddamned grid.

DD

 

TVA especially is a poster child for socialist provision of electricity. But to the credit of the Texas critics, the Eastern Interconnection is very big, something like 6 times the size or ERCOT, and while it still isn't necessarily easy the wheel electricity around the entire thing, that scale does have resiliency benefits. What frustrates me is that the grid faces a significant climate change problem but the public would prefer to blame capitalism. The Biden Bucks will help, but infrastructure takes years.

 

Pretty sure the governors and state legislators of Texas, TN, and NC aren’t too big on that climate change thing.

These were high growth states before Biden so I’m not sure why they waited for the Biden bucks. I’m just bringing up “capitalism” because that’s Abbots rhetoric.

 

We have 100 degree heat frequently in Texas. It happens every year. I can understand the grid not being able to handle a freak storm that happens every 10 or 20 years. We shouldn’t have these issues every single summer.

 

What problem? The grid didn't go down.

 

I imagine the voluntary cuts helped a little bit.

It’s been no secret that Texas has been booming for awhile. Growth requires investment. Changing weather/climate requires investment.

 

The problem is that we are being asked to turn the thermostat up to prevent the grid from failing when we get 100 degree temps. 100 degrees is the norm in Texas. This isn’t a rare event. Build a grid that can handle normal temperatures in Texas. It’s not that complicated.

 

I have to agree with JuanValdez. The Valentines Day disaster was bad but the complaining here is over the top. They didn't ask people to stop running their air conditioners

Yes Texas is booming and it needs more infrastructure but their is nothing wrong with politicians bragging about the booming. .

The grid had one disaster. Abbott handled the PR like an idiot but it was one disaster in a very unique situation. Asking people to be mindful of consumption is preparation

I'm not conservative but they aren't investing infrastructure. It ultimately makes money for businesses

Edit; consevatives aren't against investing in infrastructure

 

The Texas winter freeze’s economic toll climbs to $130 billion
The weeklong freeze, power outages and insurance claims for burst water pipes is expected to easily go down as the costliest weather event in the state’s history.

How about they brag and deliver instead of brag and go cheap? Are we prepared if there is another hard freeze across the entire state this coming winter?

Low taxes and a disregard for the notion of climate change makes it really hard not to bash Abbott and other conservative state governments for their ideological and practical frugality.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd the power went out.

 

Where? (trying to track some elderly relatives)

 

Nasty thunderstorm moving through Houston right now, may be localized.

 

Bad storm moved down from Dallas through Houston through Galveston. Not a lot of power outages but apparently a few

 

A lot of that cost is due burst pipes, a different issue, just pointing that out.

Let's back up. Texas is a deregulated state so it's easy to say ERCOT, a public entity should increase capacity but the producers are private entities. So maybe @JuanValdez can give some information on how exactly increasing capacity can be driven by public policy.

The fact is Texas is the fastest growing state. Regardless of the bragging there are going to be natural growing pains and a once in a lifetime disaster in the fastest growing state has to be viewed with all factors in perspective.

It's been a year and a half since the Valentines Day freez and Texas actually has had tremendous growth in solar and addressing capacity and the environment but it's gonna take more time

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/18/tex...-new-renewable-energy-projects-last-year.html

I forgot about dumassott, I mean Abbott, blaming the freeze power outages on renewable power failure, but it wasn't capacity either I forgot. It was natural gas fueled power plants not being prepared for freezing temperatures

 

Conservatives love to talk about infrastructure, they also love to talk about cutting government spending and less regulation. Building infrastructure takes spending and takes a significant government involvement. For profit private businesses following a quarterly profit model don’t have the wherewithal or motivation to build public infrastructure.