Community Chat

[lovesrecess]

I live in Texas and ERCOT was told to winterize the wind machines and solar plants...they didn’t do it. They need to reevaluate the need to solely depend upon wind and solar for energy...it is not sustainable at this point and millions suffered as a result. Thank goodness, natural gas came to the rescue. Worst freezing weather in decades. It was -3 degrees three days at our house. Hundreds of birds searching for food with the deep snow covering everything. I put out 40 lbs of birdseed in one week and every bit was taken.

We let our shower and faucets drip and didn’t use big appliances for five days to help conserve. Heat down to 65. We wore layers and slept under extra blankets. Never lost our power or water as a result. So thankful we had it easier than so many others. Some in Ft Worth who live in apts are still without water...the landlords are going to jail.

[gardenman]

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@gertrudecloset wrote:

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@gardenman wrote:

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@gertrudecloset wrote:

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@gardenman wrote:

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@agb80 wrote:

Didn't Ercot drop the ball? I'm sure Texas leadership will figure this out take care that it never happens again.  

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From what I understand, part of the problem was federal pollution laws. Texas applied for a waiver to those laws so they could use older generators they had on standby that exceeded the federal pollution regulations. The Feds said okay, but insisted the electricity generated by those plants had to be billed at $1500 per MWh which is something like 4000% more than the normal rate. There were other hurdles also, but Texas and Ercot didn't get caught with their pants down. They saw the cold coming and asked for federal help well in advance, but the federal government put an enormous financial penalty on them if they used the alternate means they had available. 

In my opinion, the feds should have given them the green light to use whatever they needed during the cold snap without a ginormous financial penalty. The feds made it nearly impossible for them to use the means they had available though and that punished the residents of Texas. 

The law required Texas to seek approval before restarting those older plants and the feds opted to impose a very harsh penalty on them if they did so. The feds didn't care about the people of Texas in an emergency. They loved their rules and regulations more than the people. Here's a link to the order from the Department of Energy if anyone doubts what I've written.

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2021/02/f82/DOE%20202%28c%29%20Emergency%20Order%20-%20ERCOT... 

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Which year did this happen in @gardenman ?  I'm asking about when Texas energy suppliers asked the Federal government for help?  I thought they didn't want it!  I'm confused still about this whole thing.

Independence?  Yes or No.  Help?  Yes or No?  I thought the Times Article had cleared it all up for me, but maybe not.

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It's all there in the link. It was this year. Texas saw the problem coming, wanted to restart older power plants they had on standby. Those older plants didn't comply fully with modern environmental laws so they needed permission from the DOE to restart them. They just needed the federal government to get out of the way and let them restart those plants to provide the power needed. Imposing a price 4,000% higher than normal for power from those plants made that impossible. In an emergency where people's lives are at stake, the government needs to set aside rules, regulations, and bureaucratic nonsense to help save people's lives.

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So, they wanted Federal intervention for something they created?  Yet, they don't want the Federal government involved?  OK....makes sense now.

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They didn't want federal intervention but they had to have federal approval to restart the old power plants they had on standby. They had the capability to generate the power they needed, but federal laws required them to seek permission to exceed the pollution standards. It's not really that complicated. Instead of getting out of the way and helping the people of Texas, the federal government made it impossible for them to use the resources they had on hand. 

[ValuSkr]

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@lovesrecess wrote:

I live in Texas and ERCOT was told to winterize the wind machines and solar plants...they didn’t do it. They need to reevaluate the need to solely depend upon wind and solar for energy...it is not sustainable at this point and millions suffered as a result.

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Texas depends solely on wind and solar???  I know renewable sources were blamed but I also read that they account for only 25% of the state's energy sources.  The rest is natural gas 46%, coal 18%, and nuclear 11%.

[KKJ]

@ValuSkr You are right. Don't know where that poster got her info from as I read it's even less than 25%.  

[Cakers3]

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@lovesrecess wrote:

I live in Texas and ERCOT was told to winterize the wind machines and solar plants...they didn’t do it. They need to reevaluate the need to solely depend upon wind and solar for energy...it is not sustainable at this point and millions suffered as a result. Thank goodness, natural gas came to the rescue. Worst freezing weather in decades. It was -3 degrees three days at our house. Hundreds of birds searching for food with the deep snow covering everything. I put out 40 lbs of birdseed in one week and every bit was taken.

We let our shower and faucets drip and didn’t use big appliances for five days to help conserve. Heat down to 65. We wore layers and slept under extra blankets. Never lost our power or water as a result. So thankful we had it easier than so many others. Some in Ft Worth who live in apts are still without water...the landlords are going to jail.

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@lovesrecess   ????  Wind and solar energy does not account for all energy in Texas.  I'm not sure what you mean by this statement.

[Lucky Charm]

Has TX pretty much always been *off the grid* from the rest of the country?

Pretty much since the beginning of the invention of electricity?

Don't know why, but when this recent power failure happened, I was under the impression that it was something that got *switched* within the past 20-25 years.  Seemed like fingers were being pointed in one direction only.  Guess I was way off on that!

[Spurt]

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@chessylady wrote:

Texas chose to go it alone and not be part of the national grid.The only city that stayed on the grid was El Paso which was minimally impacted and could get energy from other Western states. There are worse things than regulations. I wonder if Texas will continue their solo path.

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@chessylady  @chrystaltree 

Texas person here---Being on the national grid has its own set of problems too---according to security reports it's vunerable to hackers and cyber attacks (and no one seems to be giving security a priority either)....and even on the national grid there are areas where each State is still responsible for their own locale......so in reality you still better hope your State has its own WELL THOUGHT OUT plans in place .....(google it).....the variety of threats that could affect a power grid such as conventional weapons, natural disasters, cyber attacks, grid failures which are increasing with demands on capacity, EMP attacks and even solar flares.

[Spurt]

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@SilleeMee wrote:

In 1989 Texas experienced their last cold wave but since then the need to prepare for the next deep freeze was ignored. 

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@SilleeMee 

Yep you are right!!! They didnt want to pay for winterizing all energy sources, then there was poor planning for catastrophic storms by ERCOT, the State, and by local energy officials who ignored the meteorologist warnings .....and locally they didnt want to pay for backup generators to keep the water pumps going either...Meanwhile these incompetent fools, got BIG BONUSES last year and before the storm were scheduled for more (people were mad because electric rates went up too)

.... A lot of details are slowly leaking out....Meanwhile we are waiting anxiously for our February electric bills ..... which is not only based on wattage used but there's something included called a "fuel adjustment" that changes based on the market cost of energy....

Think what would happen if there was no or little planning for hurricanes in States like Florida and Louisiana....basically thats what we had in place.....

[Cakers3]

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@Spurt wrote:

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@SilleeMee wrote:

In 1989 Texas experienced their last cold wave but since then the need to prepare for the next deep freeze was ignored. 

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@SilleeMee 

Yep you are right!!! They didnt want to pay for winterizing all energy sources, then there was poor planning for catastrophic storms by ERCOT, the State, and by local energy officials who ignored the meteorologist warnings .....and locally they didnt want to pay for backup generators to keep the water pumps going either...Meanwhile these incompetent fools, got BIG BONUSES last year and before the storm were scheduled for more (people were mad because electric rates went up too)

.... A lot of details are slowly leaking out....Meanwhile we are waiting anxiously for our February electric bills ..... which is not only based on wattage used but there's something included called a "fuel adjustment" that changes based on the market cost of energy....

Think what would happen if there was no or little planning for hurricanes in States like Florida and Louisiana....basically thats what we had in place.....

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@SpurtCPS last update-they will not be sending out bills until at least March 13.

In the meantime, payment plans will be available but only for the increase in cost during the storm.

Yet your regular bill for March will have to be paid in full.  I believe the remainder of the February costs before the storm will also be due in full.

So it will actually be a double billing -one with a "payment plan" and one due in full.

What a convoluted system that will not do a darn thing to help.

[Spurt]

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@Cakers3 wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

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@SilleeMee wrote:

In 1989 Texas experienced their last cold wave but since then the need to prepare for the next deep freeze was ignored. 

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@SilleeMee 

Yep you are right!!! They didnt want to pay for winterizing all energy sources, then there was poor planning for catastrophic storms by ERCOT, the State, and by local energy officials who ignored the meteorologist warnings .....and locally they didnt want to pay for backup generators to keep the water pumps going either...Meanwhile these incompetent fools, got BIG BONUSES last year and before the storm were scheduled for more (people were mad because electric rates went up too)

.... A lot of details are slowly leaking out....Meanwhile we are waiting anxiously for our February electric bills ..... which is not only based on wattage used but there's something included called a "fuel adjustment" that changes based on the market cost of energy....

Think what would happen if there was no or little planning for hurricanes in States like Florida and Louisiana....basically thats what we had in place.....

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@SpurtCPS last update-they will not be sending out bills until at least March 13.

In the meantime, payment plans will be available but only for the increase in cost during the storm.

Yet your regular bill for March will have to be paid in full.  I believe the remainder of the February costs before the storm will also be due in full.

So it will actually be a double billing -one with a "payment plan" and one due in full.

What a convoluted system that will not do a darn thing to help.

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@Cakers3 

Thanks for the info ....good to know.... I told my sister I guess Ill put aside my tax refund to pay for my electric bill....Here we consumers get the shaft due to the incompentency of others.... 😡🤬