How is Ercot to blame?

[Casey]

I will admit that I didn't read the entire thread, but doing a form of planning for a living, I've come to realize you cannot build the church for Easter Sunday, meaning, you just can't plan for worst case scenario.

It is like the deductible on your insurance (or your premium). You have to accept a certain level of risk and this is no different. It was a once-in-a-lifetime storm.

It's the **** weather's fault.

Many people that want less government in their lives are now screaming for more help from the government. Just be prepared to take care of yourself, or pay the extra taxes for the government to do it.

[Randell]

I get it... someone needs to held accountable that’s just the way things seem to go but...people also need to understand things happen and you have to adjust. Looking at stores and the stuff that was purchased is dumb. Hot pockets and cereal doesn’t constitute emergency food. The public in general are sheep and look to government for leadership. Thankful like most of you, we know how to prepare and take care of ourselves. Food, water and shelter, the rest is gravy. Just my 2cents.

[wellingtontx]

Burandell, see Playa's response. The problem is years and years of poor decisions by ERCOT that put our grid into a position where we were "seconds from catastrophic failure and months of blackouts", using ERCOT's own words.

This !!

We allowed the Feds and ERCOT to lead us to renewable and apparently neither the State of Texas nor ERCOT managed or try to facilitate or provide a means for the Coal Plants to make the switch to either NG or Clean.




Research Shows The Following Power Plants Closed in 2018 alone:

Big Brown in Freestone County
JT Deely in Bexar County
Monticello in Titus County
OklaUnion - Wilbarger County (2020)
Sandow - Milam County
Gibbons Creek - Grimes Counnty

Also Scheduled to Close Over Next Few Years: Coleto Creek, Pirkey, Tolk.

Defunct Because Not Renovated: Eagle Mountain, Paint Creek, and PH Robinson

=============

NOT ONE OF THE 121 COAL PLANTS CONVERTED IN US REFERENCED BELOW WERE IN TEXAS !

ERCOT AND THE STATE OF TEXAS SHOULD HAVE FACILITATED THE CHANGE RATHER THAN ALLOWING THEM TO SHUT DOWN.
================

"According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 121 U.S. coal-fired power plants were repurposed to burn other types of fuels between 2011 and 2019, 103 of which were converted to or replaced by natural gas-fired plants. At the end of 2010, 316.8 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired capacity existed in the United States, but by the end of 2019, 49.2 GW of that amount was retired, 14.3 GW had the boiler converted to burn natural gas, and 15.3 GW was replaced with natural gas combined cycle. The decision for plants to switch from coal to natural gas was driven by stricter emission standards, low natural gas prices, and more efficient new natural gas turbine technology.

Two different methods are used to switch coal-fired plants to natural gas. The first method is to retire the coal-fired plant and replace it with a new natural gas-fired combined-cycle (NGCC) plant. The second method is to convert the boiler of a coal-fired steam plant to burn other types of fuel, such as natural gas.

Between 2011 and 2019, owners of 17 coal-fired plants adopted the first method, replacing old coal-fired power plants with new NGCC plants. The new NGCC plants have a total generating capacity of 15.3 GW, 94% more than the 7.9 GW capacity of the coal-fired power plants they replaced. The increase in capacity is largely a result of the advanced turbine technology installed in NGCC plants."

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If my research is incorrect, please update as I was relying on Government Documentation and Gov. Web Information - which we all know can be misleading or incorrect.

[Rush2Judge]

I keep reading where utilities failed to invest in more gas or coal power plants. But it's not that simple. That investment money is financed. Banks are getting pressured to quit financing anything except "green" energy. Heck, even Vanguard and Fidelity have funds that won't invest in any companies that don't meet their environmental standards. When it is all said and done, it always comes back to money. And politicians react to the mood of their constituents. And the people are influenced by the media and those backing them. There are a lot of people to point fingers at but, at the end of the day, we are the suckers that allowed politicians to perpetuate the green energy myth. And China is laughing their ***** off because they have been buying all the rare earth mines around the world. If you want to see an ecological and human rights disaster, go look at one of those mines.

[175gr7.62]

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.

Good post. How much are you willing to spend on something that may never happen? Who wants to pay for California home and building construction standards here when the likelihood of an earthquake is so small. Does everyone pay for flood insurance when you don’t live in a flood zone?

Too many folks screaming for people’s heads without stepping back and objectively looking at ALL the facts.


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[SabineHunter]

The way I see it, it is not my job to figure out who to blame, who to believe, who to trust. I just ain't an expert in this field. I do support Abbott but he is the one to get answers about this issue. If he doesn't, he will not be reelected. There is no way Texas was, for a few days, like a third world country while the rest of the US had no major problems. We were mocked by many outside of Texas.

[EastTexasMan]

All I know is power is $1.46 a MW right now when it was $9K a MW yesterday. Wild isn't it.

[Bayouboy]

Politics and money. Pretty much what it boils down to.

Also, this goes to show you why so many people vote democrat. It proves without the govt holding their hands and spoon feeding them they cannot survive.

Even on TBH I had to shake my head and bite my tongue on some of the ignorant assss questions asked during this cold snap.

[woodsman]

ERCOT did not call up their spinning reserves until it was too late. This was a big part of the problem. Flow Management. Tried shutting the gate after the cows were already out, then found out the gate was frozen.

They knew very well the additional demand that prolonged 0* temps across the entire state would bring; else they are incompetent.

Several other factors to blame as already mentioned, but this big one was avoidable. I wouldn’t have minded ACTUAL rolling blackouts. What millions of us experienced was forced regional collapses to prevent total system collapse.

[GarGuy]

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

I openly confess to being really ignorant here. That said I have a friend that claims to know a lot about the situation . I'm not going to quote him too much as I have been been out of power and couldn't vett what he told me. However his opinion was that in large the ercot board members actually make huge salaries. They also have many employees/project managers (many of which are family members) making 6 figures yet its unclear what they actutally do. My friend also claims the surcharge that showed up on coop bills goes directly there.

Now for his main claim... most of those folks also have full time gigs in management of energy providers thus a direct conflict of interest.

Once again... I don't know how accurate this may be but the fellow seemed to know what he was talking about.

[SabineHunter]

I openly confess to being really ignorant here. That said I have a friend that claims to know a lot about the situation . I'm not going to quote him too much as I have been been out of power and couldn't vett what he told me. However his opinion was that in large the ercot board members actually make huge salaries. They also have many employees/project managers (many of which are family members) making 6 figures yet its unclear what they actutally do. My friend also claims the surcharge that showed up on coop bills goes directly there.

Now for his main claim... most of those folks also have full time gigs in management of energy providers thus a direct conflict of interest.

Once again... I don't know how accurate this may be but the fellow seemed to know what he was talking about.

Heads need to roll, people need to see the inside of a prison cell.

[ATI]

Heads need to roll, people need to see the inside of a prison cell.

I couldn't agree more.
For such a large and important state we have a very crappy Grid infrastructure and it has not had a significant improvement the last 20 years.

[SabineHunter]

Rolling black outs, what a joke. I was without power for 60 hrs and when we got it, we lost it for 5 hours at a time. My SIL in Friendswood never lost power, a friend in Lake Jackson never lost power, my son in Richardson never lost power. If there truly was a rolling blackout, then they would have lost power as well. It was political, as the places I just mentioned are where the rich live. Mine is a small sample but I'm sure there is a lot more out there.

[Rick]

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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What does one have to do with the other?

[DEADEYE1]

Read this!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ercot.com/content/wcm/lists/225167/ERCOT_202_c__DOE_2021-2-14a.pdf