Rolling blackouts in Texas

173,727 Views | 1588 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Whitetail
W
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AG
honestly...Lina is quickly closing the gap on ERCOT...and may pass them in the trust department by the time all of this is over
javajaws
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Rapier108 said:

45-70Ag said:




If this goofy idiot knows something, just speak up. If not, go the hell away
I'd trust ERCOT over Dora any day of the week.


41 hours of no electricity and counting I think I've earned the right not to trust ERCOT and every other entity involved in this clusterf*** thank you very much.
BurnetAggie99
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AEP should tell Ercot to go pound sand asking them to shed additional load on top of what they have already shed in the 1st order. I know our GM at Austin Energy told them to go pound sand as they asked AE to shed additional load outside the 1st order
The Collective
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Tell them to pund sand & what? Let someone else make it up?
BurnetAggie99
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The utilities don't have to shed additional load cause ercot is asking them too after they already shed load from the 1st emergency order. You start putting your customers at risk and there's more snow/ice coming tonight and tomorrow on top of your system outages already.
The Collective
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I get that, but there is not enough power generation. The utilities are really fooked if a blackout happens. Right?
Charpie
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AE did tell them to pound sand earlier today. The when AEP and Oncor said they would do it, they changed their minds.
BurnetAggie99
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BurnetAggie99
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Yea I just saw my work email from our Engineering Manager. Internet is spotty here in the Hill Country
flyingaggie12
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Why haven't they activated the Emergency Alert System and instruct even the people that have power to conserve by all means necessary? Skylines are unnecessarily lit up.

This is the biggest widespread emergency we have dealt with in the State and yet very minimal communication has been done. People are freezing in their homes and grid is still extremely vulnerable.

What is the point of the system? To tell us if NK launched a nuclear missile and to prepare for our impending doom?
45-70Ag
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https://www.kwtx.com/app/2021/02/17/city-of-waco-dispels-rumors-reassures-residents-it-is-not-shutting-off-water-service/


Great
eric76
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missyaggie said:

We just moved our parents into assisted living and were staying at their house cleaning and organizing. We headed back to Tennessee Saturday afternoon to beat the weather. We left heat on, cabinets with pipes open, and outside spigots wrapped.

If we had known that blackouts were planned, we would have shut off water completely and turned off water heater. No telling what damage might occur now, and we're too far away to do anything about it.


You might want to call the water department and have them shut the water off going to the house to limit damage when the pipes thaw out.
45-70Ag
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At a friends house for the night. We don't have any pipes in the attic and i left every faucet dripping including bath tubs.

We left because of no power for 36 hours but I'm about worried sick over something happening. I'll go back once the roads are somewhat decent tomorrow.
eric76
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Ozzy Osbourne said:

How does one prepare for this? A basic generator may run a space heater for a while, but it's not going to keep the pipes unfrozen. Not to mention, you'd need diesel fuel with a special additive to keep it from freezing.

My house doesn't have a wood burning stove as an alternate heat source. I have a gas fireplace, but I could foresee gas outages as a possible failure mode as well.

I'm having a hard time knowing what could be done to prepare for a similar scenario.
You could wrap the pipes in heat tape and use the generator to power the heat tape.

Several years ago, a friend of mine bought a fairly nice wood stove for his living room. He hired someone from a neighboring town with experience in the area to run the ducts outside of the house. The wood stove is out in the open in his living room. Since then, he has used the wood stove for nearly all of his home heating. He runs over to New Mexico each fall to buy a couple cords of wood for the stove.
eric76
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Shanked Punt said:

Zobel said:

Plants aren't normally down for maintenance in winter. Outages are in spring and fall.

The market is doing want people want / demand - cheap power, as cheap as possible on average. Side effect is infrequent events like this.
And this is very much a failure of the free market.
Nope.

Failure of regulations, maybe.
eric76
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Kenneth_2003 said:

mosdefn14 said:

schmellba99 said:




I'd go diesel over LP on a genset if you don't have a NG line to feed. May be a bit louder and more of a pain to fill, but you can at least go get diesel in a pinch, even if you have to drive some. Not so with LP.
Except right now, when diesel in the tanks has gelled, and the filling stations are out of it, and no 9-1-1 to be found.

Atleast LP you can keep 3 20 pounders in your garage practically forever.

Maybe dual-fuel is the answer.
Diesel also doesn't store well for extended periods of time. It stores better than gasoline, but not indefinitely.
How much difference is there between diesel and heating oil? I've read that heating oil can generally remain good for up to about eight years.
eric76
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lukesturr said:

I agree. Nuclear fission plants should be embraced. With nuclear fusion looming in the horizon we could potentially replace all fossil fuels, but for now current nuclear technology and natural gas are excellent sources of energy with the least possible environmental impact currently available. I just wish we could break the stigma nuclear has and approach the future of energy logically and with respect to geography.
Nuclear fusion seems to be about 30 years out since the early 70s or before.
eric76
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WestAustinAg said:

Earl_Rudder said:

TravelAg2004 said:

Something is going on...just watching the price map and it's dropping quite a bit state-wide in the last 15 minutes or so.

Not sure if other sources are coming back online or demand is dropping, but prices are dropping.
Try the outage map instead: https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas

All day yesterday until ~9AM this morning the entire panhandle was blue, (0% outage.)
Why is the panhandle is normal shape? It is a statewide issue, I thought.
We aren't on ERCOT.
outofstateaggie
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45-70Ag said:




Oncor is full of it. We've been down since Sunday and have people all around us getting power back that have been out much less time than we have. ALL I WANT IS AN HOUR OR TWO!!! *****!!!
BenFiasco14
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2021 has been off to an awful start
CNN is an enemy of the state and should be treated as such.
eric76
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outofstateaggie said:

45-70Ag said:




Oncor is full of it. We've been down since Sunday and have people all around us getting power back that have been out much less time than we have. ALL I WANT IS AN HOUR OR TWO!!! *****!!!
A niece of mine in central Texas had no electricity for a day and a half.

According to my sister, early on their freezer defrosted and leaked water on the floor. And then as it got colder inside, the water on the floor froze into ice.

They must not have much in the way of insulation.

Their power came back on this afternoon and my sister said that they have finally warmed up again.
eric76
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BenFiasco14 said:

2021 has been off to an awful start
But a good start to a Stephen King novel, don't you think?
BurnetAggie99
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At this point I just got off call with Austin Energy as Engineer since being on call since Thursday night, got all the family together playing some 42, drinking few beers and got some good tunes on. Have a whole house generator if sh@t goes south again here. I need little break and then I'm sure be called back in and on call.
sanangelo
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Count your blessings you don't live in Coleman.

Quote:

COLEMAN, TX -- Power outages have affected all of West Texas and one Texas city is saying enough. In a late-night press release, the City of Coleman condemned the decisions made by ERCOT. The City of Coleman said it has been completely without electricity for nearly two days.

According to officials, city crews spent all afternoon working with AEP repairing the substation and as the power company prepared to "flip the switch" to restore the power. Then, just as relief was to come to the city of 4,400 residents, ERCOT said no.

ERCOT, or the Electric Reliability Commission of Texas, governs what parts of the electrical grid can retrieve electricity.

When the blackouts first began, the city was told they would be placed on rolling blackouts and instead what ERCOT defines as a controlled blackout was put in place with no plan to restore power. A controlled blackout means there's no immediate hope electricity will be restored soon, not even temporarily.

Source: Coleman Says ERCOT Wants the Whole City to Freeze
San Angelo LIVE!
https://sanangelolive.com/
sanangelo
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fatherof4 said:

I live in Sherman. A problem we are having, havent seen it reported in other areas, is that the blackouts have knocked out our municipal water supply. Pump houses went down causing supply pipes to freeze. So no power and no water. Anyone have this happening?
In Abilene, similar thing with water supply happened. Details.
.

In San Angelo, the problem was busted water mains as the temps approached 32 degrees outside,
San Angelo LIVE!
https://sanangelolive.com/
eric76
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sanangelo said:

fatherof4 said:

I live in Sherman. A problem we are having, havent seen it reported in other areas, is that the blackouts have knocked out our municipal water supply. Pump houses went down causing supply pipes to freeze. So no power and no water. Anyone have this happening?
In Abilene, similar thing with water supply happened. Details.
.

In San Angelo, the problem was busted water mains as the temps approached 32 degrees outside,
Why did the water mains bust?
aginlakeway
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Power on now after 49 hours.
"I'm sure that won't make a bit of difference for those of you who enjoy a baseless rage over the decisions of a few teenagers."
XXXVII
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Looks like wind is doing jack sheet right now. ERCOT serving about 3000 MW less that it has typically been serving the since we've been in this mess.



Wind doing just under 3000 MW and only going to go lower during the day. Any reslibs still think our whole grid should run on this? Not only does it freeze, but the stuff that survives the cold can't be used when needed! Coal and nuclear would have plenty of fuel ready to be used right now.

gonemaroon
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I'm actually not happy posting this update, we're no better off then we were two days ago. There's no way they get anyone's power restored today, the weather is too messy outside and I assume that these plants are all frozen up. Combine that with the inability to purchase gas, I wish I had a better update. I don't even like posting this right now. This is ****ing terrible
eric76
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I used to think that the Panhandle should be in ERCOT.

Not any more.
45-70Ag
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ERCOT is responsible for death and destruction. The ceo of ERCOT should be dismissed today, it won't bring electricity back on for millions but Having him around isn't doing that either.



Ted Cruz and John cornyn should have their worthless selves down here using the weight of their office to ensure that those responsible should be held accountable in some capacity. Again, it won't turn the power pin bu them being 1,400 miles away in dc shows it's time for them to both go as well.

gonemaroon
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The entire thing is ****ed - it looks like Vistra brought back a coal plant and maybe lost one and that NRG maybe lost one. This is the worst looking grid I've ever seen.

I know physical gas guys that ran out of gas yesterday and they are wondering when the gas side of things get better? I don't have much insight into that other than our natural gas production model was 93 before this event and it's a 61 today with Texas gas production hurting so bad right now. I'm afraid we lose more gas before it warms up this weekend.
45-70Ag
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Instead we get a tweet from Cruz. Thanks *****.


jrrhouston98
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Lost power at 7:55 Monday morning. Got it back at 3:40 this morning. Just now getting to read all of this. Have had no access to the outside world as we couldn't see the news or weather on phones once power went out. I am appalled by what I've read here.
 
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