Dorm 15 said:

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This may sound like a strange question at this time but what happens on the Texas grid when supply exceeds demand?

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Happens all the time at night in the mild months. ERCOT prices go negative (pay people to take your power). Practically, it means that plants reduce load and shutdown. Coal and gas first since they can save fuel costs. Windmills don't mind it too much since they still get a production tax credit (unless that expired?)

There is almost always more reserve supply available than demand. There are entire power plants -peaking units - that only go online during high demand.

gonemaroon said:

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Going to post this again - today in the middle of the day - ERCOT had the ability to turn on the power to millions of Texans and didn't.

This will all come out - if you are in the media contact me and let's get it on

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Why didn't they?

Sorry. Misread. Been a long ass week

Wtf?

So, if Texas was connected to one of the other grids could they sell excess supply?

It's past the point of people needing to be fired at ERCOT but they need to be shot if that's true

Dorm 15 said:

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So, if Texas was connected to one of the other grids could they sell excess supply?

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Sure and vice-versa. Designed to be independent for a reason. I think there are some cross-connects but very limited.

gonemaroon said:

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Going to post this again - today in the middle of the day - ERCOT had the ability to turn on the power to millions of Texans and didn't.

This will all come out - if you are in the media contact me and let's get it on

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Same mentality of folks that stood by for the past year and watched small businesses go under.

People crave power, control and importance.

Watch the governors press conference. Its all BS. It just random stuff outlined by a PR pro to sound good on TV. None of it is based in fact.

Kinda wierd

All of a sudden ........... no warning. No working crews. No trucks. Nada

Basically ALL of Spi gets power all at once. 16:00 today. Like sh*t thru a goose

Bam

Up and running.

Wham Bam. Thank you ma'am

Looks like ERCOT has brought on ~5k MW since 4PM.

Not sure who asked about the water situation a few pages back but watching the local news they said it was two fold:

1. Frozen pumps to facilities and lines out are decreasing supply, there are additional pumps that can be brought online but are needing thawing as well.

2. Increased demand draining towers faster than can be filled. They didn't specify a specific culprit but my assumption is busted pipes in homes and buildings that are no longer occupied. School in our neighborhood flooded from a busted pipe and our former church had they same thing happen. Heck, our HOA pool equipment busted this morning and covered the pool house in ice.

Robert C. Christian said:

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Not sure who asked about the water situation a few pages back but watching the local news they said it was two fold:

1. Frozen pumps to facilities and lines out are decreasing supply, there are additional pumps that can be brought online but are needing thawing as well.

2. Increased demand draining towers faster than can be filled. They didn't specify a specific culprit but my assumption is busted pipes in homes and buildings that are no longer occupied. School in our neighborhood flooded from a busted pipe and our former church had they same thing happen. Heck, our HOA pool equipment busted this morning and covered the pool house in ice.

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Everyone streaming water to prevent pipe breaks must have also put a large extra load on the water companies. With growing population and greater use of electronic devices demand for power has increased. I recall articles from a decade ago warning of insufficient growth in electrical generation capacity.

BINGO

mazag08 said:

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Zobel, I thought you were an infectious disease expert. When did you pivot to electricity and power generation?

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I have spent my entire career in turbomachinery. When I said that last time, people laughed and said it was in farm equipment, remember?

I never claimed to be an infectious disease expert.

I will absolutely claim to have above average understanding of turbomachinery, particularly power generation gas turbines and mechanical drive steam turbines.

gonemaroon said:

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It's starting to look super shady, I'm unsure why they didn't rotate people onto the grid today all day.

Even right now they have the ability to bring on 750MW of additional customers and aren't.

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"We will only know how much power we can give to people in.....TWO WEEKS"

These mfers want us to sign over the next 100 yrs but can't accurately predict day after tomorrow

Sorry. Not sorry. Ima pass

Zobel said:

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mazag08 said:

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Zobel, I thought you were an infectious disease expert. When did you pivot to electricity and power generation?

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I have spent my entire career in turbomachinery. When I said that last time, people laughed and said it was in farm equipment, remember?

I never claimed to be an infectious disease expert.

I will absolutely claim to have above average understanding of turbomachinery, particularly power generation gas turbines and mechanical drive steam turbines.

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I never doubted you were smart as hell. Was mostly joking after some of our back and forth on Corona threads. You've posted a lot of good info lately. Thanks for that.

No worries man, I took it as good natured ribbing. After this I will go back to mostly lurking on politics board like always.

gonemaroon said:

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It's starting to look super shady, I'm unsure why they didn't rotate people onto the grid today all day.

Even right now they have the ability to bring on 750MW of additional customers and aren't.

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Austin Electric has put about a third of the people that were blacked out on line. Will see if it holds. Of course now they don't want us to drip faucets as they can't supply the water. South Austin Hospital has no water. Dr and nurses are crapping in plastic bags. No water to scrub up. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/local/st-davids-south-austin-no-water-winter-storm-texas/269-d4c86ccc-39a0-45b6-b6b2-09c0b3dcc160

gonemaroon said:

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It's starting to look super shady, I'm unsure why they didn't rotate people onto the grid today all day.

Even right now they have the ability to bring on 750MW of additional customers and aren't.

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At what point do these bureaucrats become criminally responsible for the deaths caused by their negligence (if not corruption)?

Not going to lie, some of the stuff i read here is way beyond my ability to comprehend and while it does make me appreciate how difficult of a job it is to provide electricity to a massive state.............I'm still pissed the hell off I'm going on 72 hrs without power.

FWIW

After 65 hrs, we finally have power and water on spi

No internet and no cell

Utilities should be considered vital to nation security. The phony deregulation in Texas was just a way for someone to take a cut of the electricity market. Utilities have been regulated monopolies for a reason. They still are regulated monopolies, but now we get to pay a middleman for mailing/emailing a bill and cashing a check/accepting a bank transfer. These middlemen add no value but add an unnecessary expense. Of course, they do give the illusion that consumers have some sort of choice. We are reminded of this every 6-18 months when we get to muddle through conflicting intentionally confusing power plans to avoid paying an outrageous amount for electricity (thereby subsidizing those which cheap introductory plans).

A decade ago I read an article about Texas not keeping up with increasing demand from population growth and increasing use of electronics. The article suggested that keeping prices low because of the phony free market was partly to blame.

It seems like the possibility of running short of power has been known for a while but little was done to increase capacity as much as what has been needed. Didn't ERCOT threaten rolling blackouts during a heatwave last summer?

Perhaps Texas citizens, influenced by a slick marketing campaign, chose to have a fake free market rather than reliable power.

Just got the citywide boil water notice from Austin.

BuddysBud said:

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gonemaroon said:

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It's starting to look super shady, I'm unsure why they didn't rotate people onto the grid today all day.

Even right now they have the ability to bring on 750MW of additional customers and aren't.

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At what point do these bureaucrats become criminally responsible for the deaths caused by their negligence (if not corruption)?

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They won't. As a poster on another thread stated we are well past the tipping point in our society that holds leaders of industry and bureaucracy responsible for their actions. It is so true, how many times have we witnessed actual punishment for unconstitutional, illegal or out right malfeasance, incompetence or disregard actions? The only 'punishment' I usually see is some job termination (usually with some sort of paid exit) and ultimately a replacement at some other entity.

This country is falling apart decade by decade. Alas, perhaps we are witness to 4-5th century western Roman Empire.