Be very wary of where Green Joe is leading you all.................
The great Texas climate catastrophe is heading your way.

Green energy means a less reliable power grid. Why do our leaders deny that?

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Be very wary of where Green Joe is leading you all.................
The great Texas climate catastrophe is heading your way.

Green energy means a less reliable power grid. Why do our leaders deny that?

Some of the energy sources powering the grid were knocked out by the inclement weather, most of which were facilities run by gas, coal or nuclear energy.

From https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/15/rolling-blackouts-texas/

Yes, that is true, it was an extraordinary weather event.
(Unless you believe that this "normally expected weather", as one poster here opined in another thread.)
But the energy sources most affected were solar and wind power, both of which were practically useless.

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Yes, that is true, it was an extraordinary weather event.
(Unless you believe that this "normally expected weather", as one poster here opined in another thread.)
But the energy sources most affected were solar and wind power, both of which were practically useless.

Texas has no income tax. Government just like any other operation has to have cash to operate. When Texas went around with their commercials - come to tax free Texas - and expanded, they did not have and still do not have enough cash to support the infrastructure improvements necessary for the growth. No different than a franchise operation opening too many new stores. Soon enough they go bankrupt. In the case of a government bankruptcy isn't allowed, so government services suffer or stop, private operators that government depends on fail. So when mother nature gives you the expected max normal event there has been no capital spent preparing for it, all of the capital went to expanding too fast. Suffering and haircut time.

Yes, that is true, it was an extraordinary weather event.
(Unless you believe that this "normally expected weather", as one poster here opined in another thread.)

But the energy sources most affected were solar and wind power, both of which were practically useless.

What is "normally expected weather"?
Most of those that study exceptional events normally talk of "once in so many years" events and if similar events occur more than once every century then it is "normal" and should be planned for.
And as low temps have hit Texas in 1933, 1949 and 1989, then it is definitely not unexpected. And to make it worse this was forecasted over a week before it happened.

But the energy sources most affected were solar and wind power, both of which were practically useless.

From https://apnews.com/article/texas-power-outage-winter-energy-pride-c260c340f619688dd511cc6645b40a04

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called for an investigation of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid. His indignation struck a much different tone than just a day earlier, when he told Texans that ERCOT was prioritizing residential customers and that power was getting restored to hundreds of thousands of homes.

But hours after those assurances, the number of outages in Texas only rose, at one point exceeding 4 million customers.

“This is unacceptable,” Abbott said.

By late Tuesday afternoon, ERCOT officials said some power had been restored, but they warned that even those gains were fragile and more outages were possible.

The grid began preparing for the storm a week ahead of time, but it reached a breaking point early Monday as conditions worsened and knocked power plants offline, ERCOT president Bill Magness said. Some wind turbine generators were iced, but nearly twice as much power was wiped out at natural gas and coal plants. Forcing controlled outages was the only way to avert an even more dire blackout in Texas, Magness said.

“What we’re protecting against is worse,” he said.

Still, Magness said ERCOT could not offer a firm timetable for when power might be fully restored. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Texas had requested 60 generators and that hospitals and nursing homes would get priority.

P.S. As this is about a Republican State that has f____ up, why is in in the Joe Biden thread?

edit] Just found this https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-weather-power-prices-explainer/explainer-texass-one-of-a-kind-power-system-raises-questions-during-price-spike-idUSKBN2AG2KD it explains a lot about the Texas Electricity system.

edit] Just found this https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-weather-power-prices-explainer/explainer-texass-one-of-a-kind-power-system-raises-questions-during-price-spike-idUSKBN2AG2KD it explains a lot about the Texas Electricity system.

Next-day power for Tuesday at the ERCOT North hub jumped to a record of $1,489.75 per megawatt hour (MWh), while some 5-minute power prices approached $11,000 per MWh over the past couple of days, ERCOT said. That annual average at the ERCOT North hub was $26 in 2020.

Unlike other U.S. electric grid operators, ERCOT does not have a capacity market - payments made to operators to ensure power needs in coming years - to handle events like the freeze. Instead, regulators use scarcity pricing to ensure reliability, but that can cause real-time prices to soar due to shortages, economists said.

Capacity market auctions determine, three years in advance, what price generators will receive to make their output available to grid operators. Generators get paid whether they produce power or not.

That is exactly the Enron power market that crushed California. Enron was located in Texas. Some lessons are never learned.

<ed>https://apnews.com/article/texas-power-outage-winter-energy-pride-c260c340f619688dd511cc6645b40a04

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said the problem was a lack of weatherized power plants and a statewide energy market that doesn’t incentivize companies to generate electricity when demand is low. In Texas, demand peaks in August, at the height of the state’s sweltering summers.

He rejected that the storm went beyond what ERCOT could have anticipated.

“That’s nonsense. It’s not acceptable,” Hirs said. “Every eight to 10 years we have really bad winters. This is not a surprise.”

Thanks for that. That's a very good explainer.

Next-day power for Tuesday at the ERCOT North hub jumped to a record of $1,489.75 per megawatt hour (MWh), while some 5-minute power prices approached $11,000 per MWh over the past couple of days, ERCOT said. That annual average at the ERCOT North hub was $26 in 2020.

I wonder what the cut-off price is whereby it becomes cheaper to let the lights go out rather than to pay the Market ransom?

Unlike other U.S. electric grid operators, ERCOT does not have a capacity market - payments made to operators to ensure power needs in coming years - to handle events like the freeze. Instead, regulators use scarcity pricing to ensure reliability, but that can cause real-time prices to soar due to shortages, economists said.

Which shows up that the grid business model is wrong/deficient.

Which also follows my support experience. Under a UK contract, I had the budget to hold unused spares and excess capacity "on-hand" so that we had an immediate response to urgent new requirements or to fix any equipment failures on-the-day. That gave us very good flexibility and resilience. A USA team swept in and screamed horror that we had spent money on items that they considered were not being used. So the spare parts and spare capacity were run down to zero. All too soon and completely as predicted and cautioned, any hoped for savings were wiped out by our very first systems outage.

All very silly for the short term myopia...

There is no 'free lunch'. What you pay for has to be carefully considered and costed. That gets too often unmanageable when integrated systems are broken down by spreadsheet blind Bean Counters into separated parts for a simple race down to the bottom for whatever is cheapest in the short term.


Stay warm folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

spreadsheet blind Bean Counters

Who know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
There have been times when I've heard it suggested that the bean counters should be compelled to do a few weeks honest hard work on the tools preferably, on a nice cool, damp November morning.....

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

How Much the Oil and Gas Industry Paid Texas Republicans Who Are Lying About Wind Energy.

'I got no defense': Ted Cruz responds after viral tweet mocking California energy policies resurfaces amid Texas storm.

Texans without heat warned they might not see power for days.

Indeed, desperate in Texas:


‘We Are Nearing A Failed State In Texas’...
wrote:

“We are nearing a failed state in Texas. And it has nothing to do with God, or natural disasters. It has everything to do with the leadership and those in the positions of public trust who have failed us,”...

Such is the self-destructive politics within!

Here's hoping something positive and good comes from such desperate myopic failure.


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Indeed, desperate in Texas: ...

This adds a significant world impact alongside the Human misery:

Samsung's Chip Fabs in Texas Ordered to Shut Down Due to Power Shortage
wrote:

In a development that certainly isn't going to help the ongoing global chip shortage, according to a report from the Austin-American Statesman, Samsung has been ordered to completely shut down its fabs in Austin, Texas, due to power shortages in the state. The unprecedented move also impacts NXP Semiconductors and Infineon Semiconductors, and all of the impacted companies have complied with the order and ceased chip production operations.

Unplanned fab shutdowns can have long-lasting impacts...

... The Statesman notes that some products could have been ruined due to today's shutdown, possibly costing the impacted companies millions of dollars. Some types of chips can take a month or more to move through the various fabrication steps, and unplanned power outages can cause entire production lines of products to be discarded, resulting in significant losses...

... Notably, Samsung is in the midst of planning for a new $17 billion fab in the US this year, with Texas, Arizona, and New York in the running for the new plant. Naturally, access to reliable public infrastructure, such as power and water services, is high on the list of criteria...

Ouch #2!

That all has very serious and very costly repercussions... For a long time to come.

I'm also reminded that the Flint water scandal is still long too long ongoing...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Be very wary of where Green Joe is leading you all.................
The great Texas climate catastrophe is heading your way.

Green energy means a less reliable power grid. Why do our leaders deny that?

In summary:

Going green is fine and good for our planet and for the health of all of us.

It is the greedy practices of the old GOP politics that poisons the wells!


Here's wishing for the people of Texas the best and the best recovery possible under the circumstances.

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Be very wary of where Green Joe is leading you all.................
The great Texas climate catastrophe is heading your way.

Green energy means a less reliable power grid. Why do our leaders deny that?

In summary:

Going green is fine and good for our planet and for the health of all of us.

It is the greedy practices of the old GOP politics that poisons the wells!


Here's wishing for the people of Texas the best and the best recovery possible under the circumstances.

Stay safe folks!
Martin

The question Texans and the Republican party need to ask is "Why do wind farms work, during the winter, in Canada and the Northern States and not in Texas?"

Be very wary of where Green Joe is leading you all.................
The great Texas climate catastrophe is heading your way.

Green energy means a less reliable power grid. Why do our leaders deny that?

In summary:

Going green is fine and good for our planet and for the health of all of us.

It is the greedy practices of the old GOP politics that poisons the wells!


Here's wishing for the people of Texas the best and the best recovery possible under the circumstances.

Stay safe folks!
Martin

The question Texans and the Republican party need to ask is "Why do wind farms work, during the winter, in Canada and the Northern States and not in Texas?"

Because they don't drill for oil? Oh they do in Canada! Must be because they want green to fail.

The question Texans and the Republican party need to ask is "Why do wind farms work, during the winter, in Canada and the Northern States and not in Texas?"

Because they don't drill for oil? Oh they do in Canada! Must be because they want green to fail.

Some of the misinformation ('Trump Fake News') suggests there is an opportunistic damnable game at play:


Texas weather: Are frozen wind turbines to blame for power cuts?
wrote:

... Republican representatives and media commentators have blamed green energy policies, in particular the increased use of wind turbines.

"So it was all working great until the day it got cold outside," Fox News's Tucker Carlson said. "The windmills failed like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died."...

... The bitingly cold temperatures have caused major problems across the energy sector in Texas.

Wind turbines froze, as well as vital equipment at gas wells and in the nuclear industry. But because gas and other non-renewable energies contribute far more to the grid than wind power, particularly in winter, these shortages had a far greater impact on the system.

So when critics pointed to a loss of nearly half of Texas's wind-energy capacity as a result of frozen turbines, they failed to point out double that amount was being lost from gas and other non-renewable supplies such as coal and nuclear...

... on average, renewable energy sources - mostly wind - account for about 20% of its electricity supply. But the largest proportion comes from fossil fuels, as well as 10% from nuclear ... "It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been primarily due to issues on the natural gas system." The cold weather also affected a water system needed to run the South Texas Nuclear Power Station, causing one reactor to shut down...

... Texas is the only state in the US with an independent power grid, meaning it is largely dependent on its own resources...

... The debate about renewable energy and the blackouts in Texas has also prompted the sharing of misleading claims online. One image widely circulating on Twitter and Facebook shows a helicopter de-icing a wind turbine, with some comments suggesting it is in Texas... But the picture actually shows ice being removed from a wind turbine in Sweden, using hot water...

Hopefully there will be good positivity from all this to properly fix the power and the politics.

Stay warm folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

https://news.yahoo.com/parts-texas-not-ercot-power-080159059.html

The parts of Texas not on its ERCOT power grid appear to have weathered the freeze with few outages
After the 2011 winter freeze, El Paso Electric, on the Western Interconnect grid, spent heavily to "winterize our equipment and facilities so they could stand minus-10 degree weather for a sustained period of time," Eddie Gutierrez, an El Paso Electric spokesman
Entergy, which powers Beaumont on the Eastern Interconnect grid, told KHOU it also winterized its infrastructure after the 2011 storm.

Texas got the Enron treatment!

... Texas got the Enron treatment!

Note the totally matter-of-fact tone from this interview:


Texas Ignored Report Predicting Power Grid Emergency For 10 Years
wrote:

Houston Chronicle reporter Zach Despart and University of Houston Energy Fellow Ed Hirs join Chuck Todd to discuss the power grid emergency...

Note the heavy-duty clothing! Note also the comments about the business model and how that rewards the operators to operate...

So... All completely predictable. What next?...


Stay warm folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Curiously, Ted Cruz goes on vacation!...


Texas Senator Ted Cruz flew to Mexico amid state energy crisis
wrote:

Texas Senator Ted Cruz flew to Mexico with his family amid a winter weather crisis that has left millions in his state without power...

... Mr Cruz did not apologise for making the trip amid the state of emergency in Texas...

... The senator's travel plans amid the crisis in Texas drew immediate criticism. "People in Texas are literally freezing to death and yet Ted Cruz went on vacation to Cancun,"...

... But some conservatives came to Mr Cruz's defence - author and activist Brigitte Gabriel wrote: "Senator Ted Cruz is one of the hardest working men in the country, he deserves a vacation."

All a question of priorities?

And what of traveling for the sake of a sunny vacation whilst in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic and of COVID?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

And what of traveling for the sake of a sunny vacation whilst in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic and of COVID?...

Mr. Cruz thinks that is fake.

And what of traveling for the sake of a sunny vacation whilst in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic and of COVID?...

Mr. Cruz thinks that is fake.

In the same way fake as the Texas freeze?...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)