Lol I love it that's your best defense on that. Something you should have been easily banned for because you have the IQ of lint.
Anyway, back to the thread and Bobby goes on ignore. House has finally cooled down. Feels good to have power again. I hope Centerpoint gets nailed to the cross for this.
Power lines being down and poles snapping has nothing to do with Ercot. The grid in Texas was fine...it was a localized issue in regards to being a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, we had to reduce our output and shut down some turbines due to the damage caused around Houston and frequency (and safety) issues. There has been a tremendous investment in Peaker plants to ensure we have power at the moments when we really need it (they only run when called upon and can ramp up to 100% generation in ~5min). All to help with the unreliability of Solar / Wind, and provide power when demand gets close to capacity. But yes. Hopefully all these investments in the grid don't fail us if we go through another Uri. If so, we may see some major pressure on Ercot. After these investments in these new plants going up through out Texas, they really need to go through a reinvestment of replacing leaning poles etc....and most likely not tree trimming enough. At least before a possible hurricane they should have gone through the city and spend weeks cutting back trees. Also, it seems Centerpoint was caught with their pants down in having crews pre-positioned to commence repairs once it was safe to do so. It was a strange storm, with how it kept creeping north.
Just started digging into this as some posters are making interesting points. This article came out after the freeze issue. It looks like Florida flat out has a better infrastructure for hurricanes than us, but it can be cheaper since we're deregulated. But at what cost? How many millions have been affected during this heat, hurricanes or freeze outages (see my earlier article that Houston is the worst in the country for outages per study) or hundreds died due to grid failures? Florida’s electrical grid more resilient than Texas’s deregulated model by Brian Burgess | Feb 24, 2021 Late Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott addressed outrage from Texas residents over the failure of the state’s electric power grid. As temperatures plummeted there last week, causing natural gas lines and wind turbine rotors to freeze solid, millions of Texans found themselves without power in the midst of a winter storm. The predictable political fallout included finger-pointing and a fair share of misleading information about the true cause of the disaster, which experts agree was the Lone Star State’s deregulated and woefully unprepared energy grid. “Many of you are angry. And you have a right to be,” said Abbott as he announced a formal investigation into the failures. “At at time when essential services were needed the most, the system broke.” Abbott pointed out that energy experts and regulators, most of which were proponents of the state’s deregulated energy market model, had previously assured Texans they would be prepared for any eventuality. They clearly were not. Could a similar failure happen in Florida? STRICTER REGULATIONS Unlike Texas, Florida’s energy markets are heavily regulated by the Public Service Commission and by strict federal standards. Those standards require Florida’s utilities and energy suppliers to meet strict safety and weatherization standards to protect the energy supply. By contrast, Texas’s market is one of the few completely deregulated markets in the nation, which allows energy providers to sell power to consumers at often lower market rates, but those savings come at the expense of investment in protecting the grid’s resiliency. When the weather is good and demand is low, power isn’t in demand and can be purchased cheaply, saving consumers money. But in a crisis, like the one that happened last week, the price of energy skyrockets, the grid experiences deeper and wider failures, and customers get stuck with skyrocketing energy bills. NPR reporter Christopher Connelly and Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep summed up the problem perfectly: CONNELLY: “Texas has a deregulated market for electricity. It is designed so that when there’s a shortage of electricity, the price will go up, and power companies will have an incentive to generate more electricity. That deregulated market also allows for the sale of unusual policies like the ones the Marrses have, plans with variable rates for electricity. And those are the customers who are ending up with these sky-high bills… INSKEEP: “Does this suggest that this deregulation doesn’t work?” CONNELLY: “Well, it works great when the weather’s good. But, you know, it appears that there weren’t market incentives in this market system for power providers to make sure that they were prepared to weather a massive winter storm.” In short, Texas’s deregulated energy market failed its consumers when they needed it to work most. Promises made to consumers that deregulating the state’s energy market would make suppliers more responsive to demand proved empty, as it appears the market failed to incentivize suppliers to protect their own infrastructure. Last year, some of the same proponents of deregulation in Texas made a similar push here in Florida, however, those efforts appear to have failed. At least for now. ROBUST INFRASTRUCTURE Because hurricanes are an annual threat to the entire state of Florida, the state’s utilities have invested heavily in fortifying against power outages and optimizing systems to manage peak demand periods. But hurricanes aren’t the only severe weather threat. The so-called Sunshine State occasionally sees the temperatures drop significantly, and processes are in place to mitigate outages caused by cold weather, too. “Just like we prepare during hurricane season when temperatures are going up, we are also following through on our winterization processes as well,” said Florida Power and Light spokesman Bill Orlove. “We do get cold temperatures and we make sure our facilities are able to handle the cold.” A spokeswoman for Tampa Electric Company emphasized the same point. “We work year-round to prepare for extreme weather, including investing in improvements to strengthen our grid, such as the Storm Protection Project,” said Cherie Jacobs, TECO’s media spokesperson. “In addition, we have winter readiness plans for our power plants to ensure we are ready for cold weather.” Another key difference is that unlike the Texas power grid, some 90 percent of which sits completely isolated from the rest of the nation’s interconnected systems, Florida can draw power from outside the state in the event of an emergency. If a severe storm took down power lines that directly connect with a primary power source, homes and businesses could still be supplied with electricity from other locations. Duke Energy, for example, employs a multi-layered system, that the company describes as “backups to our backups,” to ensure power continues flowing to customers. “We have a system of diverse generation, standby generation and demand response,” says Ana Gibbs, a Duke spokeswoman. “We also have interconnections to ensure we can supply our service area,” which she describes as “the ability to purchase power from neighboring utilities.” NO GUARANTEES All of Florida’s major utilities acknowledge there is no magic bullet to prevent widespread power outages in the event of a major storm. The best the state can do is to continue to invest in storm hardening technologies, prepositioning technicians and equipment, and ensuring customers are prepared for the worst. “It is important to recognize we can’t guarantee uninterrupted power,” says Duke’s Gibbs. “It would be difficult to build a system to withstand all possible scenarios and that would be cost effective for our customers.” Balancing energy costs against reliability is a major focus for state regulators. Florida’s energy costs per kilowatt hour are lower than the national average. Despite the unique challenges of hurricane season that few other states face, the state ranks 18th, at 10.44 cents per kilowatt hour. https://thecapitolist.com/floridas-electrical-grid-more-resilient-than-texass-deregulated-model/
my source at centerpoint tells me they waited till saturday to call for the additional 12K team to support ...instead of 5 days like they should have..under the assumption the storm wasn't coming here, instead going to Corpus. now folks are working 16+ hours. also said something about no one wants to cut their trees when it's sunny..
You were looking at the population of Florida wrong. You can't take city limits into account for something like this because in Miami the equivalent of a Westheimer or 1960 would be the border line between several cities. Pretend Houston city limits don't extend outside of 610 but there's still millions of people living in cities between 610 and the Grand parkway. That's Miami. It's okay to admit Texas sucks in this department and needs to do better. Protect the grid
Another point about Floridians and Texans. The yearly dreaded fear for most Floridians is not the hurricane itself, but the potential risk of going without power for a week. We prepare for it. And if we don't prepare for it and we go w/out that power for a week, we don't blame the power companies like lil b's.
Nobody likes you and nobody has single handedly made this board worse IMO, although tinman wants the title lately. GOOD LUCK
You not liking me is just evidence of a character flaw on your part kiddo. You shouldn't assume others have the same deficiencies.
One option to consider is a portable generator to power your entire house (central AC included), using natural gas as you main fuel source so you don't have to seek out a limited supply (gas or propane) during a mass outage. This can be done for as little as $1.5k (though typically costs between $2-4k depending on specifics like access to natural gas and the length of 50A wiring / natural gas line required). This differs significantly from a standby generator (like Generac), which can cost $8-$20k.
Yes, it absolutely should. You’re just too ignorant to understand where you live. TREES EVERYWHERE knocks out power dipshit. People can’t fly from point A to B to get your power back on. I have gone 60+ hours without power and I’m perfectly fine running a generator and A/C and etc. You chose to live here, be prepared like a normal person. Don’t be a snowflake when your power goes out cause you’re too much of a p***y to understand anything outside of your little dream world you try so hard to live in. The cnn isn’t going to tell you what to do. Grow up and prepare like any normal person does. The real world is made for grown ups. If you aren’t one, **** the F up and get out of the way.
When Ike hit Houston and millions of folks lost power, at that time of the year it was mid-late September. Looking at the Houston weather/temperature for September 2008, it was high 70s - mid 80s. That is somewhat tolerable. You can still open your windows at night time and feel the breeze. I vividly remembered I had to do at night that after Ike and my family was without power for 2 weeks. this happening now? UNTOLERABLE HEAT. We talking mid 90s with heat index of being in the 100s. Of course people are going to be angry and they have the right to do so. There are people admitted to the emergency room and hospital due to the heat. Heat index is still in the 90s when it's night time so i can't imagine what it's like inside the house with no AC. There are folks with infants and small children. What are they supposed to do?
I say again it is a complete lie when they make the excuse that they didn't know it would hit Houston until it was too late. Go back and read this thread. From the very beginning the possibility was there to hit Houston. There is no excuse for centerpoint to be caught totally unprepared for what happened.
This thread was bumped because of Beryl on June 29 (Saturday). ********** Since Beryl looks like the Real Deal, I have started looking around the Internet for more info. One person mentioned a model with Corpus Christi as the expected landfall. No link or image was provided, so won't assign too much weight to that forecast at the moment. Still, think about what you need to get done if the models eventually agree that the Texas Coast is the target. ************************************************** In regards to Centerpoint preparing ahead of time, I don't know if the Distribution companies for Corpus Christi Victoria Metro Houston (Centerpoint) Greater Houston (Entegy) And points in between coordinate on assembling additional help from other parts to be on standby or if each Grid Operator works independently. If there is coordination and to allow for some uncertainty on landfall from Corpus Christi to Houston - Galveston, crews from outside the Texas Coast could have assembled in places such as Beaumont - Crews from Louisiana College Station - Crews from North Texas Beeville(?) - Crews from San Antonio Schulenburg - Crews from Austin As Corpus Christi faded as a destination for Beryl, the crews in Beeville(?) could be moved up to at least Goliad or maybe even Victoria if deemed safe. If the reverse had happened with Corpus Christi or Port Lavaca - Victoria being the destination for Beryl, then shift the crews in the staging areas accordingly. Once Beryl passed and it was safe to work, the Crews staged in the outlying areas could be on the scene and ready to work Monday afternoon. If Centerpoint was so tight with their budget, then they wouldn't want to share in any of the costs for staging outside crews that might end up working in Victoria or Corpus Christi. Since Metro Victoria and Metro Corpus Christi are so much smaller than Metro Houston, it might not even have required crews from Louisiana to come in and help. Probably a lesser number of crews from North Texas would have been needed as well.
Hurricane Beryl made some records: Earliest Cat 4 hurricane on record Earliest Cat 5 hurricane on record Fastest intensification on record in the Atlantic (increased 65 mph within 24 hours, and 95 mph in 42 hours) // typical rapid increase is 35 mph in 24 hours or less 113 tornado warnings (last record was 67) // these are warnings, so not necessarily observed on the ground and could be influenced by more sensitive and early detection
I’ll tell you this one time because you are an ignorant f*ck. That storm a few weeks back, the derecho event with the tornado knocked out power to 500,000 people. That wasn’t even a hurricane and folks were without power for SEVEN days. The infrastructure here is absolute ****. So if a pop up storm like that, and a cat 1 hurricane can do those things, a cat 3 hurricane could potentially destroy this infrastructure and have it down for MONTHS. You f*cking elitist moron.
