How is Ercot to blame?

[glen]

They are to blame because in todays society you gotta point fingers. Nobody can take it for what it is. Mother Nature just reach over and gave Southern folks a little taste of Winter. Many years ago folks just survived and learned and made improvements. Today everyone just finds a scapegoat to pile on.

Randy. When the Ice Age hit you guys didnt point fingers- just improved your situation the best you could

[Bumpy]

I retired in 2017 from working about 20 years in an 800 MW combined cycle power plant. Prior to that I spent 24 years in a ChlorAlkali plant with the last 14 years in power generation, electrical distribution. I learned a few things along the way. Regardless of the fuel source, all power plants in Texas battle heat dissipation in the summer in order to achieve maximum generation. So, we build them pretty much wide open to the elements. Ok, when a severe freeze comes along, it is very difficult to ensure that every transmitter, impulse line, level, pressure, or flow indicator stays fully functional in subzero conditions. In colder climates, these same facilities are normally built inside of buildings that help insulate critical instrumentation and equipment against freezing. As far as I know, whether it is coal fired, natural gas fired, wood fired (yes, wood!), trash fired, or nuclear powered, they all require water for either making steam or heat exchange (cooling water). Y'all all know what is going to happen to those cooling towers, water pumps, valves, fans, etc. when it stays below freezing for long periods of time; they begin to fail. Is TOUGH to operate one of these plants reliably in Texas in subzero conditions for extended amounts of time. They just aren't built to do it. Even newer facilities with great heat tracing and insulation just don't get the maintenance required to keep them 100% functional in ALL conditions. Generally it only takes a few critical transmitters to fail and the whole plant comes off line. I have to believe that we have adequate generation capability during normal conditions but when the weather gets like this all bets are off. It will take a PARADIGM SHIFT in the design, implementation, and maintenance of these facilities to make them viable in every weather situation. I would really like to know the percentage of generators across the state failed to start or tripped off line due to being inadequately prepared for the weather conditions. It doesn't matter if ERCOT called on every generator in the state to come on line if only a handful could respond. As a side note, this is what is termed 'outage season' for most generators. They schedule their major outages (for equipment repair/rebuild) to coincide with cool weather because demand is usually lower and the economic impact to them due to lost revenue is less. There might have been a good number of units unavailable because they were scattered across the slab being rebuilt. At the end of the day I personally don't blame ERCOT. But, this is just my opinion.

I've tried to tell people this being in the industry. Facilities in Texas just aren't made for this kind of cold weather. I also put it back on folks. You're mad that companies didn't spend extra funds to insulate and prepare for cold weather yet your homes pipes aren't insulated and you don't own a generator. That ends the conversation quickly.

[cva34]

Guess Trump considers himself lucky..he was out of office Or He would have been Blamed......

[Cajun shooter]

What would you be willing to bet they are all heavily invested in wind and solar generation?

Anyone know how much the board members make? Where does the pay come from? Do they have other jobs? Are there conflicts of interest with being on the board and maybe working for an energy provider? There is a reason the names were pulled down.

I bet Burnadell could dig up some of the answers.

[Tommyh]

“ once in a lifetime storm” sure does get used a lot

[Throwin Darts]

Some people kept power, some had blackouts, and some had absolutely no power and you need help “splaining” how ERCOT screwed up?

[Blane]

Jerp and Burnadell, I have been talking to friends about this as well, regarding all the broken pipes and peoples houses flooding. Do we really want the government making plumbers use 2" walled pipe insulation due to the freeze of 21. The cost will be pushed down to us on the end, as well as the cost of winterizing units. And would we expect their winterization to protect them to single digit numbers? I can see so many griping about the cost of that type of protection, when it rarely even drops below 32.

[tps7742]

I retired in 2017 from working about 20 years in an 800 MW combined cycle power plant. Prior to that I spent 24 years in a ChlorAlkali plant with the last 14 years in power generation, electrical distribution. I learned a few things along the way. Regardless of the fuel source, all power plants in Texas battle heat dissipation in the summer in order to achieve maximum generation. So, we build them pretty much wide open to the elements. Ok, when a severe freeze comes along, it is very difficult to ensure that every transmitter, impulse line, level, pressure, or flow indicator stays fully functional in subzero conditions. In colder climates, these same facilities are normally built inside of buildings that help insulate critical instrumentation and equipment against freezing. As far as I know, whether it is coal fired, natural gas fired, wood fired (yes, wood!), trash fired, or nuclear powered, they all require water for either making steam or heat exchange (cooling water). Y'all all know what is going to happen to those cooling towers, water pumps, valves, fans, etc. when it stays below freezing for long periods of time; they begin to fail. Is TOUGH to operate one of these plants reliably in Texas in subzero conditions for extended amounts of time. They just aren't built to do it. Even newer facilities with great heat tracing and insulation just don't get the maintenance required to keep them 100% functional in ALL conditions. Generally it only takes a few critical transmitters to fail and the whole plant comes off line. I have to believe that we have adequate generation capability during normal conditions but when the weather gets like this all bets are off. It will take a PARADIGM SHIFT in the design, implementation, and maintenance of these facilities to make them viable in every weather situation. I would really like to know the percentage of generators across the state failed to start or tripped off line due to being inadequately prepared for the weather conditions. It doesn't matter if ERCOT called on every generator in the state to come on line if only a handful could respond. As a side note, this is what is termed 'outage season' for most generators. They schedule their major outages (for equipment repair/rebuild) to coincide with cool weather because demand is usually lower and the economic impact to them due to lost revenue is less. There might have been a good number of units unavailable because they were scattered across the slab being rebuilt. At the end of the day I personally don't blame ERCOT. But, this is just my opinion.

This is the reality from someone that has worked “behind the fence” where the work to generate electricity occurs. Oh yes there are politics involved in ERCOT but at the end of the day it could be one key instrument that the freeze protection wasn’t working and took the facility down. Thanks for taking the time to try and explain some of the key points behind the fence line.

[RLB]

Its all Joe Biden’s fault!!!!

Had Trump been in office, it **** sure would have been his!!

[Playa]

Ironically on Tuesday, Lubbock Power and Light announced it was considering leaving the SWPP (a contemporary to ERCOT that serves panhandle and a few other states) to join ERCOT.

It’s no secret LP&L is a tone deaf, shady money grab by the city of lubbock, but if this don’t underscore how ****ty of a company they are I don’t know what will. Literally in the spotlight of ERCOT failure they announce this, and will probably move forward because it’s better for their pocket book and they have no competition

[muzzlebrake]

Believing that the utility boards and politicians care about us is like believing a stripper really likes you. Brace yourselves for huge utility rate increases. They will never let a good crisis go to waste.

[meltingfeather]

I'm not mad at ERCOT and don't think they are to blame.
Politicians leverage these disasters to make names for themselves and fight to be the loudest in the "look at me" shouting match. Unfortunately Joe Public of both stripes buys into a lot of it and starts parroting one-line solutions to "problems" they don't understand. Whether it's more government regulation and care-taking from the left or tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories from the right that claim "they" are evil and need to be decapitated. As different as the extreme ends of the spectrum like to think they are and no matter how much they demonize the "other side" they are more alike than not and playing the same stupid games.
I don't know how many folks I've seen weighing in on the future capacity market question who a week ago knew NOTHING about the energy markets.
Social media distills the most shocking/outrageous soundbites, most of which are intentionally crafted propaganda, and amplifies them in echo chambers across the globe.
This storm was not a design point. If it had been we would all have been paying higher energy prices for the past few decades and been grumbling about it.
Are there lessons to be learned? Sure, but they are complicated questions that need to be carefully considered. There are no silver bullets.

Who's fault was Harvey?

[camoclad]

1. Looks like geothermal resources are being decommissioned

2. Our population and reliance on electricity is increasing

3. Renewables dont appear to be reliable in bad weather

4. We still are no closer to storing energy that we need in a emergency

5. Private/government partnerships are driving public policy. Not the public

Burnadell. This wasnt a once in a lifetime event. It happens every 5 to 15 years.

This one is different because our grid went down, for no good reason. Made it feel like we went back to oldn times.

Same people saying extreme things about this weather say extreme things about hurricanes. "Its getting worse!!!!" "Ahhhhhh!!!!!"

Nope

More people =more needs = more chance for calamity

Hurricanes are worse because they affect more people, not because of ferocity of the storm, because some many friggin people live in traditionally hurricane prone areas. And , they build house by the thousands in coastal wetlands and marshes that traditionally absorbed the impact and water.

This icey hell was brought on by bad policy. Dont know who's but I think it might have been humans, lol

[Killer]

QUOTE=hopedale;15482986]From Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian:
“WINTER STORM:
• This week, our grid failed us when temperatures reached historic lows and people needed electricity and heat the most.
• There were almost 4.5 million customers without power during the peak of the outage on February 16th. As of today, there are still close to 3 million Texans without power.
• The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, manages about 90% of the state's power for 26 million customers.
• ERCOT is overseen by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.
• ERCOT's recently elected chair and vice chair for the board of directors do not live in Texas and live in Michigan and California respectively.
• ERCOT said there were 45,000 megawatts offline. Of that, 15,000 megawatts were wind and 30,000 were gas and coal.
• On the morning of February 14th, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness warned: “We are experiencing record- breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas. At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units.”
• It is important to note that every natural gas plant online at the start of this crisis stayed online.
• While there have been some issues with natural gas production during this storm, much of that has to do with ERCOT cutting off power to well sites in West Texas. ERCOT assumed the state would have 67GW from thermal sources (gas & coal), but ended up only being able to get 43GW online.
• Many, including myself, have warned for years about the dangers of relying too heavily on unreliable, intermittent forms of electric generation like wind and solar to meet the energy needs for thirty-million Texans.
• This couldn’t have happened a decade ago when “coal-fired plants generated nearly 37 percent of the state’s electricity while wind provided about 6 percent. Since then, three Texas coal-fired plants have closed... In the same period, our energy consumption rose by 20 percent.”
• ERCOT was notified over a decade ago that Texas power plants had failed to adequately weatherize facilities to protect against cold weather. A federal report that summer recommended steps including installing heating elements around pipes and increasing the amount of reserve power available before storms.
• Instead of spending our resources making our grid more resilient, policy and spending has focused spending on mandating or subsidizing as much wind and solar as possible.
• The takeaway from this storm should not be the failure of fossil fuels, but the failure of leadership at ERCOT and the dangers of relying on intermittent, unreliable forms of energy like wind for a quarter of our energy needs.
• It shows as clear as day that the goal of 100% renewables by 2035 is a pipe dream that will increase suffering and harm Texas families.
• Had Texas been using 100% renewables, we would have had 100% blackouts.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

Off another thread on here

[KyleW]

Ironically on Tuesday, Lubbock Power and Light announced it was considering leaving the SWPP (a contemporary to ERCOT that serves panhandle and a few other states) to join ERCOT.

It’s no secret LP&L is a tone deaf, shady money grab by the city of lubbock, but if this don’t underscore how ****ty of a company they are I don’t know what will. Literally in the spotlight of ERCOT failure they announce this, and will probably move forward because it’s better for their pocket book and they have no competition

That has been the plan for a while, they just confirmed they were still switching even with the recent events. I assume they got a lot of angry callers about the planned switch. People on Nextdoor have been complaining about it all week