How is Ercot to blame?

[Burnadell]

I'm all for incompetence being exposed and addressed but this was also a brutal weather anomaly across a large region and population neither developed nor conditioned for weather conditions like these. I would personally rather let all the facts come out from standpoint of what would/should be done different next time. Then and to the extent there was gross negligence and/or incompetence - address on the basis of facts and reality, not politics.

Yep.

[RR 314]

I still blame Ted Cruz. If he hadn't gone to Mexico this never would have happened.








:-)

[BrianL]

$883,000
Publicly available 2018 tax filings for ERCOT show multiple board members received five-figure and six-figure compensation despite dedicating between five and 15 hours a week to the agency. Magness was given total compensation of over $883,000 that year, the filings show

Isn't Magness the CEO? I would guess his pay was for being the CEO not being a board member.

[tdwinklr]

To appease the greenies and to get government money we converted to much over to green energy. See the ramp up in Natural Gas usage to meet the demand?

At the same time, they have not kept up with the needed upgrades and maintenance on the power grid needed to withstand a natural disaster like this.

That being said, windmills will work in extreme temperatures, just not the ones installed in Texas.

This whole ordeal could have been handled better simply by ensuring that the rolling blackouts covered everyone. Cutting grids off and leaving them off for days in freezing temperatures is not a solution.

We have yet to hear what the loss of life is due to the storm. On top of people dying from fire and CO poisoning, we are likely to hear stories soon about people freezing to death.

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A very interesting chart, I bet it matches the chart from severe summers here, which we have not had recently.

What ticks me off is that we aren't more nuclear. The technology is much more advanced than it used to be and its basically unlimited.
And with our current electrical supply the way it is, and like someone else said earlier, with the huge influx of people to this state, many of them will NOT or DON'T follow any type of moderation on their electric usage. I know several people personally that, in the summer, they run their A/C down in the 60s and leave every light ON in their house, then at night they have 3 flood lights on each corner of their house, ON all night. Then when the snow hits, they crank up their electric heat to 80 or 85 and run floor heaters too. It just blows me away.
And it all adds up very quickly.

[batmaninja]

ERCOT does not make INVESTMENTS in energy. They own NO energy assets. They manage the flow.

Isn’t the flow of energy the problem here? Maybe the reliability of that energy flow?

Texas produces plenty of energy seems like we should have keep more reserves than we did? Or paid the going rate when we needed it?


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[Playa]

For reference (check date of publication): https://www.chron.com/opinion/outloo...ty-4301693.php

ERCOT controls the pricing mechanisms investors use to determine investment in the power sector. That mechanism is a mathematical equation that incorporates supply and demand. The published future prices are also dependent on the function. Markets need prices not solely for allocation but for future investment decisions. If this price is controlled by a central authority that is not a market. That is central planning.

You can ask, "Why have private entrepreneurs not winterized their equipment?" But then you'd also need to ask, "Why have they not also expanded capacity?"

Price controls have never worked and they never will. The result is always a shortage. Its fairly simple.

Listen to this man.

Also read this article from may 2017, https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nrg...-model/442530/

[BrianL]

That may work for you but not for everyone. The elderly, single moms living at poverty level......I could make a list a mile long.

When the haves prepare the have nots have more access to those critical services. 4-10000 sq ft homes running heat strips to heat them take a huge amount of electricity. There are whole cities full of them like Southlake. I'm not saying is is wrong, but maybe the regs should come on the construction side.

[Russ81]

I don't understand what it matters if the board members don't live in Texas, i have been seeing that comment a lot, not only here but a lot of places. It is not uncommon for members of a board to not live in a state where the headquarters are. I know people want someone to blame when something goes wrong, but what does where they live really have to do w the issues at hand?

How would you feel if someone from out of state was making choices on TP&WD’s board for your wildlife?


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[Burnadell]

How would you feel if someone from out of state was making choices on TP&WD’s board for your wildlife?


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I am almost certain that people from out of state are making decisions on your electricity utility provider.

[Burnadell]

How would you feel if someone from out of state was making choices on TP&WD’s board for your wildlife?


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Isn’t the flow of energy the problem here? Maybe the reliability of that energy flow?

Texas produces plenty of energy seems like we should have keep more reserves than we did? Or paid the going rate when we needed it?


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How do we "keep" electricty reserves?


That is my whole point. I am not versed on the problem, but it seems that SUPPLY of energy was the problem, and ERCOT had to disperse a limited supply with PEAK demand. If they had not shot off parts of the grid, the whole grid could have collapsed (based on what I read)

Here are two posts from Jerp's thread that is informative:

Long story short if the grid collapses, bringing it back up is more than just closing things in. Generation ties have to be matched voltage and frequency wise. Stations are ran off of battery stacks so that in case of a station going dark you can still operate equipment and go in. The longer the outage the higher chance you lose your dc system and then you can’t close anything. The dc system is required so that you can protect the equipment and lines via relays. Lots of the smaller stations would take a while to get up and running with the batteries shelled. A lot more to it but yes it would take a while to get the grid going again if collapsed system wide. There would be loading issues just like we all experienced where you can’t just bring everything online at once. You have to do it slowly so load stabilizes. Bring too much on too fast it will collapse again.

Yes the only way is load shedding. The relays offer load protection but you are still cutting load off. The issue is as cold as it got. There was way more load demand than normal. They did not have generation to meet the load. Also the equipment (xfmrs, lines, etc..) are built to handle a set amount of load continuously. Over loading a xfmr can mean catastrophic failure. And cause cascading problems. Only way to fix a system that has too much demand is find more generation or cut load or move load around if possible.

[Slicefixer]

Somebody please correct me if I'm in error...

20-25,000 MW, approx. 25% of the potential energy of the entire grid, is dependent upon wind/solar. Neither are considered "baseload" energy sources....reliable energy sources.

It's my understanding that "baseload" IS your TRUE potential energy within the grid.....ie. reliable.

It's my understanding that wind/solar, for whatever reason, crashed to 2% of its potential. So effectively that means the grid was reduced to barely 75% effectiveness BEFORE idiotic lack of prep. etc created multitudes of other issues.

Not to mention the multiple closings of baseload energy sources, coal/NG plants, over the past decade.

There are several in this thread who are obviously knowledgeable in regards to this mess, PLEASE feel free to correct anything I've gotten wrong. I've done quite a bit of due diligence on this mess, but, it's SO politicized that it's hard to tell truth from fiction.

[TxBowHntr]

Rick, as unpopular as our opinion is, I have to agree. I have researched Peter Crampton, who now lives in San Diego, CA. He is an expert in electricty markets and is Vice Chairman. Other board members also have some degree of expertise in the industry. People only need to check the Board members of the power generation utility companies in Texas to see that many, if not most, do not live in Texas.



ERCOT does not make INVESTMENTS in energy. They own NO energy assets. They manage the flow.

I am not trying to argue with anyone, but I try to be objective in my reasoning. I think most of the blame should be on the power generation utilities who caved to the renewable energy folks and the politians who caved; thus coal powered plants being closed and torn down.

It has been reported that we (Texas) was close to our grid completely failing several times. Fortunately, they were able to keep that from happening by shutting down parts of the grid to save the integrity of the whole system. Not a popular decision with those who have been out of power for an extended time. There is no EASY solution, except we need more reliable power GENERATION . The next question begs...how much are we willing to see our electric bills increase for a backup sytem that may only be needed every 40-100 years? I don't have the answer.

This is how I see it. Being privatized, and a commodity, power prices have basically been a race to the bottom. The power generation utilities were the ones who made the decisions to not winterize their generators. I am guessing it was simply because of cost with only a small % of being needed to recoup. Until winterizing becomes a regulation (I am usually against regs, but some are necessary and good), this could happen again. I hope people realize that the GOVT. will not always be able to help you when you need it most, and that relying on the GOVT. is a bad idea. I for one will be taking even extra precautions as a result of this experience (though I made it through much better than most with the preparations I had already made). Hopefully others realize that when it hits the fan, self reliance and forethought planning for contingencies is the only way through.

For those asking how we got here, I refer to the below quote:

"Hard times build hard men. Hard men make easy times. Easy times make soft men. Soft men make hard times."

We have had it pretty easy the last 50-75 years and we all know the type of men/women we have as leaders (broadly speaking)...

[Burnadell]

For reference (check date of publication): https://www.chron.com/opinion/outloo...ty-4301693.php

ERCOT controls the pricing mechanisms investors use to determine investment in the power sector. That mechanism is a mathematical equation that incorporates supply and demand. The published future prices are also dependent on the function. Markets need prices not solely for allocation but for future investment decisions. If this price is controlled by a central authority that is not a market. That is central planning.

You can ask, "Why have private entrepreneurs not winterized their equipment?" But then you'd also need to ask, "Why have they not also expanded capacity?"

Price controls have never worked and they never will. The result is always a shortage. Its fairly simple.

Good points for sure. Our electricty provider (SWEPCO) has to apply for approval to raise their prices and must show good cause.

[jerp]

Burnadell said "The next question begs...how much are we willing to see our electric bills increase for a backup system that may only be needed every 40-100 years? I don't have the answer."

Good question. The cost of winterizing will be passed on to all of us and the squawking about higher bills will be deafening

[Maddox]

This is how I see it. Being privatized, and a commodity, power prices have basically been a race to the bottom. The power generation utilities were the ones who made the decisions to not winterize their generators. I am guessing it was simply because of cost with only a small % of being needed to recoup. Until winterizing becomes a regulation (I am usually against regs, but some are necessary and good), this could happen again. I hope people realize that the GOVT. will not always be able to help you when you need it most, and that relying on the GOVT. is a bad idea. I for one will be taking even extra precautions as a result of this experience (though I made it through much better than most with the preparations I had already made). Hopefully others realize that when it hits the fan, self reliance and forethought planning for contingencies is the only way through.

For those asking how we got here, I refer to the below quote:

"Hard times build hard men. Hard men make easy times. Easy times make soft men. Soft men make hard times."

We have had it pretty easy the last 50-75 years and we all know the type of men/women we have as leaders (broadly speaking)...

This. I’ve chewed a few family members out because of their complaints about how hard things have been lately. They need to look back at history and our grandparents generation. Great Depression, WWII rationing, dust bowl, etc.

Government can be blamed for creating a nation looking for a easy hand out, but at the end of the day your safety and your families safety is in your hands, not the governments. Those that care for their families AND THEIR NEIGHBORS will do just fine.