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

My power is still out from last night. Luckily I have family with electricity that lives nearby. This is bullshit.

 

My in-laws' power went out for a few hours this morning in Santa Fe (TX). They're old and my FIL likes it hot so it wasn't a bother to them.

Dude, **** that.

 

Power went out last night, then came back in the middle of the night, then went out again around 7:30 as I was getting ready to leave the house.

Hopefully it'll be back soon. Otherwise I have to run back home at lunch time to plug in my little generator to keep the fridge cold.

 

There was a crazy fast moving intense storm (IAH unofficially clocked a gust of 97mph) last evening that started at Dallas and moved basically south along I45 through Houston. Knocked out electricity to ~300k homes. Maybe that's what y'all are experiencing.

 

I've never seen a storm moving that fast. It made it from Dallas to Houston in four hours

 

How backlogged have plumbing companies in the Hill Country been since the freeze (plus all the new damn subdivisions being built)?

I just got my barndominium fixed yesterday. They took out all the PVC above ground indoors and out and redid the whole thing in PEX.

 

Yep, crazy fast and abnormally powerful (but quite localized). If 97mph @ IAH is confirmed accurate, it's a new record. I think the previous record was 84mph due to a named hurricane from a few years ago.

 

It was nice for those who didn't lose power. Was in the 70s when I woke up today, I felt like a newborn lamb frolicking in the pasture.

 

and the rain!

 

Yeah, 300k homes went dark in the centerpoint area from distribution problems. Belatedly I'd say, @B-Bob, they have an outage tracker website that shows you roughly where in real time.

I've commented on the policy and economics of it in several threads, including page 1 of this thread. I don't want to belabor it further.

 

Wind is literally keeping Texas on

 

I don't want to belabor either, but sometimes I have to be

 

BREAKING: "The Grid is f***ed.” ERCOT warns of rolling blackouts.

 

So does this mean lawsuits can be filed against the government, or not at all? If it's the latter, that seems very wrong.

ERCOT can’t be sued over 2021 winter storm, Texas Supreme Court rules | The Texas Tribune

The all-Republican court narrowly found that the nonprofit corporation operating the state’s electrical grid qualifies for sovereign immunity, which protects government entities from lawsuits.

The Supreme Court of Texas narrowly decided 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 the nonprofit corporation from lawsuits filed by thousands 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 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.

Justices Jeff Boyd and John Devine, along with two others, disagreed that ERCOT has sovereign immunity. Purely private entities are clearly not sovereign, and making them so undermines the public trust, they wrote. The justices argued that “no statute designates ERCOT as a part of the government” and that courts should not be barred from hearing claims against it.

The ruling sprang from two cases filed against ERCOT. San Antonio’s municipally owned utility, CPS Energy, alleged that ERCOT mishandled the soaring price of power during the 2021 winter storm. And private equity investors at Panda Power Funds alleged that 10 years earlier ERCOT issued reports that misled them about how much power the grid needed.

ERCOT spokespersons issued a statement saying that the organization was pleased with the decision. CPS Energy said in a statement that it was disappointed but thankful that four justices agreed with the utility as it sought relief for customers. The utility said the litigation still led to “critical discussions at the highest levels that are necessary to improve our power grid and energy market.”
​

 

I agree..

“Making a million-dollar political donation to reward the government for its light touch and encourage the government to continue turning a blind eye to price gouging and windfall profits while hundreds of people die seems like a good return on investment.”

— Michael Webber, professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Energy industry showers Gov. Greg Abbott, other Texas politicians with campaign cash after they passed power grid bills
For some energy experts, the increase in donations for the officials at the close of the session looks like a reward for not passing more stringent regulations and raises questions about whether lawmakers let the oil, gas and the broader energy industry off easy for its massive failures.


From 2021 article.

 

Free market in action!

 

Demand record set today

 

This is not in ERCOT, but the onetime Speaker of the House in Ohio was sentenced today for taking bribes from FirstEnergy. FE owns a bunch of regulated utilities and a fleet of power plants. He got 20 years for taking $60 million to pass subsidies for nuclear power plants. Dirty dirty dirty.