California transplants who moved to Texas no doubt thought they had escaped electric power outages. Think again. Texans this week were told to crank up their thermostats amid a brutal heat wave to avoid rolling blackouts. Some ultimatum: Swelter, or bake without power.

Temperatures in Texas climbed into the triple digits this week but this isn’t unusual. The problem is that wind power faltered, as it often does during hot spells. Wind accounts for about 30% of Texas’s power supply, but unlike fossil-fuel powered generators, wind can’t provide power when it doesn’t blow. Then gas-powered plants have to pick up the slack.

But gas plants alone couldn’t compensate for wind and meet surging demand for power. Texas’s grid operator had to urge residents to conserve electricity. Bitcoin miners were asked to power down to free up 1,000 megawatts of electricity—enough to power about 200,000 homes on a hot day. Soaring power prices gave them an incentive to do so.

Manufacturers also reported curtailing production owing to grid strains and surging prices. Toyota said Thursday it scaled back production at its San Antonio plant. Reuters reported that Toyota is considering stopping production most days before 2 p.m.—when demand for power increases—and shortening night shifts through mid-August.


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One of Texas’s selling points to businesses has been its cheap and reliable energy. Under former Republican Gov. Rick Perry, the state invested heavily in building transmission lines to carry heavily subsidized wind power from West Texas to big cities. For a time, wind pushed down prices in the state’s deregulated power market.

But coal and nuclear plants have struggled to turn a profit running at reduced capacity, causing many to retire. As a result, the grid has become more dependent on gas-fired generators to compensate for unreliable renewables. Meantime, demand for power is increasing as Texas’s population grows. All of this pushed the state’s grid to a near-breaking point.

Gas and power prices are also increasing as regulatory obstacles to building new pipelines constrain supply. Texas’s residential electric rates have surged 70% since last June, costing the typical family $80 more per month.

It’s no surprise that Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke is using this against incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, who isn’t leading in the polls by as much as he probably imagined. Texas needs to fix its emerging power problems lest it become California.
LINK: https://www.wsj.com/articles/c..._opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

quote:

Temperatures in Texas climbed into the triple digits this week but this isn’t unusual.

That's missing context.

We've already had the hottest June in recorded history and we're on track for the hottest July in recorded history. Last week, we were running 8 to 10 degrees hotter than normal and that includes night time temps. In other words, it's bullshit to say "this isn't unusual."

We've got the politicians scared shitless so their text and e-mail warnings are coming at a lowered threshold. If ERCOT dumps the grid like they did during the freeze then there will be a whole lot of politicians that are radioactive (i.e. unelectable).

California power grid reliability issues isn't merely the number of people on the grid and the age of the grid. The dipshit environmentalists stopped the transmission companies from "mowing" the power right-of-way and the unmowed right-of-way was causing both reliability issues and fires. The envirotards have zero chance of implementing that bullshit anytime in the near future.

We're about 5 degrees above average and 5 degrees below record setting levels here in the greater Phoenix area.

quote:

California Power Problems Hit Texas

CA's electricity problems are not Texas' problems, not even close .

CA's issues include ancient infrastructure, overgrowth of trees impeding the function of infrastructure, and power companies intentionally shutting off power to hundreds of thousands of homes at a time during windy days due to govt holding electric utilities responsible for wild fires.

What does this have to do with California other than energy executives in other regions not making good decisions?

Texas if I recall invested heavily into renewables, which makes sense given the amount of wind coming-off the plains however, the big brains thought it was a good idea to NOT winterize those windmill turbines and other infrastructure resulting in the winter power outages in 2021.

California has its own issues related to power all due to the after-effects of a over-swing of environmental policies: reliable nuclear power plants being shuttered, gas plants being heavily regulated by the state and an over-reliance on renewables. Meanwhile, existing infrastructure was not improved upon because power companies were incentivized to invest and grow heavily into renewables, rather than put some support into its back-end such as clearing the forest from high-capacity power lines, burying lines where possible and modernizing transfer stations. Calaveras county was out of power in the middle of the 4th of July weekend....because some idiot with PG&E couldn't figure out how and when to switch transformers to manage the load build up.

What's the saying - The road to hell is paved with good intentions?

Let's throw in some idiocy for good measure. And maybe a pinch of lack of common sense.

The irony of the powers that be striving for utopia but leading us to 3rd world status.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
What does this have to do with California other than energy executives in other regions not making good decisions?

Millions of Californians have moved here, that’s what. They brought traffic out the ass, insane property prices with them, so major property tax increases for natives. Oh and there self entitlement attitudes. They have migrated here in droves and it’s been described as a population explosion. Well they need water, kwh, food, name it. It’s just too many people and the state is being ruined. Power is just one thing. I wish they’d get the fuck out and go back to California. I will be leaving my native TX unwillingly but necessarily in short order, for good, because of this.

Sorry, no returns. We’re already full up on crazy here

CA is the ocean of crazy; you just getting some drops here and there. Give it another 2 years and it’ll be raining crazy there.

There should be an IQ test to move out of California.

Hell, there should be an IQ test, a morality test, a common sense test, a manners test, a discipline test and a critical thinking test, just to name a few, to just live in CA. Even if the bar is set low, it would probably weed out 70% of the population.

Everyday is a new shock and awe on how bad people really are here. You have no idea.

I guess it’s easy to bash California here, but Texas’ problems are of their own making. Texas moved to a 40% renewable grid. Renewables, by their nature, provide no inertia to the grid. It was Texas who chose to build their grid without robust cold weather resistance. And it was Texas that choose to have a mostly independent grid with very little interconnects to outside grids.

Certainly California’s grid is a mess. Their leftist policies aren’t helping, and is often the cause, of their problems. But that by no means excuses Texas for creating their own issues with supply and reliability.

How hard would it be for TX to connect itself with the rest of the country's power grid?

Will keep them in my prayers
As should we all.

The last thing Iowa needs is 90,000 immigrants from CA relocating here to find water an power.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
How hard would it be for TX to connect itself with the rest of the country's power grid?

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
How hard would it be for TX to connect itself with the rest of the country's power grid?

You'd need a long extension chord.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
What does this have to do with California other than energy executives in other regions not making good decisions?

Millions of Californians have moved here, that’s what. They brought traffic out the ass, insane property prices with them, so major property tax increases for natives. Oh and there self entitlement attitudes. They have migrated here in droves and it’s been described as a population explosion. Well they need water, kwh, food, name it. It’s just too many people and the state is being ruined. Power is just one thing. I wish they’d get the fuck out and go back to California. I will be leaving my native TX unwillingly but necessarily in short order, for good, because of this.

Does the name "Locust" come to mind?

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
How hard would it be for TX to connect itself with the rest of the country's power grid?

Texas doesn't want to be connected to the national grid. We don't want .gov telling us what to do. Last years big freeze was a wake up call. But it is hard to plan for worst possible scenarios.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Millions of Californians have moved here, that’s what. They brought traffic out the ass, insane property prices with them, so major property tax increases for natives. Oh and there self entitlement attitudes. They have migrated here in droves and it’s been described as a population explosion. Well they need water, kwh, food, name it. It’s just too many people and the state is being ruined. Power is just one thing. I wish they’d get the fuck out and go back to California. I will be leaving my native TX unwillingly but necessarily in short order, for good, because of this.

Just an FYI- about 80,000 CA residents have moved to TX per year for the last 10 years. Not "millions". Texas population is almost 30 million.

And not every CA moving to TX is a goddamn fucking commie.

But yet You have a fucking drama queen attitude about the situation. Well, tough shit dude, buck up and deal with it. I'm one those CA guys who's making life shitty for you, eh?

It appears from the outside looking in that Texas power issues are of their own making. Last year’s winter debacle exposed it. What is the old saying about poor planning….

I am sorry for the affect on the general population. Big business and politics don’t care about the impact on John Q Public.

First off I keep my thermostat set to 80 degrees, because being acclimatized to warmer temps makes it much less stressful to engage in outdoor activities. In addition I can also save some serious money by only running the air conditioning when it's really needed.

Second, just wait another 5 years when we have a lot more idiots driving electric vehicles. I fully expect within 8 years we will see the grid completely collapse for all of North America. I further expect that collapse will last for months.

Third, I have yet to see one single article on any nationwide news source about a need to expand the grid in this country and how to pay for that cost. Note, I suggest that the electric vehicle manufacturers get the bill for this needed expansion. Yeah the cost for each vehicle will rise by perhaps 100K per vehicle but if that is what it costs to provide an infrastructure to support this technology I am all for it. The simple truth is that going electric for the US motor fleet is something that should take 20 or 30 years to accomplish. Because rushing into it without an future planning is going to lead to a total disaster.