It's cold in Texas.... but that shouldn't mean we have to give up electricity or running water

Pete

Pete

Member
Location
Texas
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...OK so here I sit typing this article for my blog thinking I was one of the lucky people living in North Texas during one of the coldest days in Texas history because my electricity came back on after only 40 minutes but little did I know that because the building codes never considered any long cold spells I now have no running water.

Still I have to consider myself one of the fortunate few because those without electricity are now dealing with frozen water lines and dead batteries for their phones and computers. Plus you should remember that I lived for 14 years without full time electricity or running water so having not lost that ethic of keeping a well stocked home I have enough bottled water to last for days. Of course going back to taking a sponge bath in a large plastic 'totes' container will never come close to a shower in running hot water!



Now as the last flakes of snow are falling and the forecast is for temperatures in the 60's within four days, the Governor of Texas held a news conference and appeared to be one mad politician looking for someone to put in the unemployment line. Apparently after all is said and done our current situation was caused not by one person or even the snow storm and freeze but a domino type effect that started long ago with the shut down of the coal fired power plants here in Texas and that the power they generated was never replaced.



You add to that the lack of weatherization for the current generating stations and those taken off line to do that maintenance plus the illogical reliance on wind and solar power to replace gas fired generating stations and then throw in a severe and extended cold snap and you have what we see here today. No quick fix will right the problems but if those in power would open their eyes to the fact that no amount of wind turbines or solar panels will ever replace the need for a reliable petroleum fired power station then maybe we are headed in the right direction, and away from being called a 'third world' state!


I don't like to beat a dead horse but​

if the Governor of Texas​

would look to how​

Alaska​

maintains it electrical system​

at -30 or -40​

with snow measured in feet​

maybe this will never happen​

in Texas again. ​
 

CarolfromTX said:
Let’s get real. This is a once in a lifetime event. it would be unrealistically expensive to prepare for all possible contingencies. Texas is not Alaska.
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Wait, what if (oh, I don't know) there has been a slight shift of the earth and it's poles or something else, and this becomes the new norm? My opinion is there is no such thing as a once in a lifetime event.
JMHO
 
CarolfromTX said:
Let’s get real. This is a once in a lifetime event. it would be unrealistically expensive to prepare for all possible contingencies. Texas is not Alaska.
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True it 'may' not ever happen again but if Texas replaced the shut down power stations with new ones we would be OK. I mean it is almost every month our city and state leaders are touting how fast the states population is growing... and to not increase our power production equally is stupid.
 
Irwin said:
25% of our power here in Colorado comes from wind and solar generation, while it's only 10% in Texas. And we haven't had any problems.

Just sayin'. :)
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Congratulations.... but I would have to look at how much additional power production your state has versis the power draw and don't forget you are part of the US power grid and when needed can draw on the East coast production, wheras Texas is an independednt power grid.... (its true I didn't know until I read the news this morning)
 
Pete said:
Congratulations.... but I would have to look at how much additional power production your state has versis the power draw and don't forget you are part of the US power grid and when needed can draw on the East coast production, wheras Texas is an independednt power grid.... (its true I didn't know until I read the news this morning)
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I agree. I've learned more this week about Texas' power supply than I ever knew before! .... The governor is taking a lot of heat ...
ERCOT is in hiding apparently .. it's getting interesting.

I'm in Harris County ... had some outage issues here, but nothing like the city of Houston is going thru. Galveston is out counting the dead this morning. Bizarre stuff.
 
Lots of finger pointing, no real answers. It's going to take a thorough investigation to find out what went wrong in this energy-rich state.
 
Pete said:
Congratulations.... but I would have to look at how much additional power production your state has versis the power draw and don't forget you are part of the US power grid and when needed can draw on the East coast production, wheras Texas is an independednt power grid.... (its true I didn't know until I read the news this morning)
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Colorado is on the Western Interconnection power grid -- not the eastern, but yeah, if one state doesn't produce enough, it can fall back on other states.
 
Sad situation for many. No easy fix as this type of weather is not normal; or at least has not been normal in the past. Infrastructure was built many years ago for the normal weather patterns based on historical reports. As others have said, it would be cost prohibitive to correct the situation I expect and why would they just on the off chance there will be more of these deep freeze situations in years ahead. No question about it though. There's been more and more "unusual" weather situations happening around the glob in recent years. Whether they're because of nature or man-made or a combination of both (which is what I believe), it's a bit frightening all the same. The current generation and the next will have great challenges ahead in this area.
 
I find it interesting that Texas has decided to be "independent" from the rest of the nation, in it's management of power resources. I've read several articles on this subject in recent days, and the primary reasoning behind this decision seems to be for Texas to keep its utility costs low for its residents. However, when I looked up the cost of electricity in Texas, it varies anywhere from 6 cents/kwh to as high as 28 cents/kwh....with the state wide average being about 12cents/kwh. That really isn't much different that any other state in the nation.

I suspect there will some really serious questions raised about how Texas handles its utilities, and when all the dust settles, I expect "profits" to be the driving force behind the Texas rules. It has taken this severe weather to show just how many "shortcuts" the Texas authorities have been taking.
 
Don M. said:
I find it interesting that Texas has decided to be "independent" from the rest of the nation, in it's management of power resources. I've read several articles on this subject in recent days, and the primary reasoning behind this decision seems to be for Texas to keep its utility costs low for its residents. However, when I looked up the cost of electricity in Texas, it varies anywhere from 6 cents/kwh to as high as 28 cents/kwh....with the state wide average being about 12cents/kwh. That really isn't much different that any other state in the nation.

I suspect there will some really serious questions raised about how Texas handles its utilities, and when all the dust settles, I expect "profits" to be the driving force behind the Texas rules. It has taken this severe weather to show just how many "shortcuts" the Texas authorities have been taking.
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Thanks for this reply; I was wondering why in the brown-eyed world Texas would want to have an independent power grid.
 
Don M. said:
If this report is true, the residents of Texas are in for some serious financial problems in coming days/weeks.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-152-power-bill-texas-192316981.html

In addition, we can all expect a substantial "spike" in gasoline prices in the near future, due to the disruption of the supply chain.
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I have never heard of that "power company," but it sounds like people need to pay attention to what they are signing up for. Our rates haven't changed at all. And yes, the refineries around Houston are lighting up the sky with flares because they don't have sufficient power to operate and they have to keep the plants from exploding. I'm sure this will cause fuel prices to increase, but I'm wondering where all the electric cars are getting charged up during the "rolling blackout." :rolleyes:
 
Pete said:
...OK so here I sit typing this article for my blog thinking I was one of the lucky people living in North Texas during one of the coldest days in Texas history because my electricity came back on after only 40 minutes but little did I know that because the building codes never considered any long cold spells I now have no running water.

Still I have to consider myself one of the fortunate few because those without electricity are now dealing with frozen water lines and dead batteries for their phones and computers. Plus you should remember that I lived for 14 years without full time electricity or running water so having not lost that ethic of keeping a well stocked home I have enough bottled water to last for days. Of course going back to taking a sponge bath in a large plastic 'totes' container will never come close to a shower in running hot water!
Click to expand...

Pete, yer giving me a flash back to living in the mountains in our off grid cabin.

You and I both know cold, and how to deal with it.

A goodly part of Texans has never experienced that.
And weren't prepared

But, consider a sudden heat wave of 110°F at 80% humidity in our neck-o-the woods
And no relief at night
We'd keel over
 
Oh dear! We were finally affected by the winter storm; our electrical power went out around 11 p.m. last night. By 3:30 a.m. it was back on. I woke up and was suffocating because the central heat was on. We also woke up to a bright lit room. Hubby had left the light switch up. But, we were so happy to get out from under those 8 blankets. lol We never did get cold though. Thank God.
 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-state-has-its-own-operated-ercot/6782380002/

A good article that gives an idea why Texas is without power. There are three power grids in the U.S. Eastern, Western, and Texas. The Eastern and Western power grids are interconnected with synchronization stations. Power produced in Kentucky could be consumed in Arizona. (Not that literal since once the power enters the grid, it is unidentifiable as where it is actually consumed. Texas is not interconnected. As the article points out, Texas is a "power island". Once their grid goes down, they cannot "open a switch" and receive power from the other two grids. That was the choice of Texas many years ago.
The Texas grid covers most of Texas, but not all. El Paso is on the Western gird, not the Texas grid. El Paso has not lost power during this event.
The issues in Texas were not confined to the electric utility. Natural gas lines and transmission stations froze. The event saw temperatures that were substantially below normal for the State. A few years ago, Texas had a similar cold snap which caused some power outages... just nothing like the current one. A committee recommended addition of winterizing equipment to the gas transmission system and to the wind turbines. That would have equipped them with accessories common in more northern states. Due to the cost, the accessory equipment was not installed and, now, residents will be paying more than the elevated cost to have provided winterizing equipment.
The hurricanes, Katrina, etc., caused localized destruction. The event transpiring now, has a much wider impact. There will be lots of finger pointing....
 
Don M. said:
If this report is true, the residents of Texas are in for some serious financial problems in coming days/weeks.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-152-power-bill-texas-192316981.html

In addition, we can all expect a substantial "spike" in gasoline prices in the near future, due to the disruption of the supply chain.
Click to expand...

If you are locked into a contract for electric service here in Texas, which I am for the next 3 years, prices won't change.
I would think most people do this.
 
Bonnie said:
If you are locked into a contract for electric service here in Texas, which I am for the next 3 years, prices won't change.
I would think most people do this.
Click to expand...
When all this bad weather is over, and the millions of outraged people affected by these outages begin to return to normal, there will likely be some serious "rethinking" of the utility conditions in Texas. Ultimately, there will probably be a need to spend hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, to bring that State up to the standards employed by the rest of the nation. Those costs Will be passed along to the consumers, and any existing contracts will likely be "modified".
Texas Residents would probably be well advised to save any future government "stimulus" money they receive to offset the future "sticker shock" they will be seeing on their utility bills.

A good idea of things to come for Texas residents might be to stay informed about what California is doing in the aftermath of massive forest fires which left millions of those people without power for extended periods of time.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/10/02/g...mitigation-preparedness-and-response-efforts/

This article says it best.............

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-knew-years-power-grid-203412261.html
 
Gary O' said:
Pete, yer giving me a flash back to living in the mountains in our off grid cabin.

You and I both know cold, and how to deal with it.

A goodly part of Texans has never experienced that.
And weren't prepared

But, consider a sudden heat wave of 110°F at 80% humidity in our neck-o-the woods
And no relief at night
We'd keel over
Click to expand...
Your so right 'Gary O'
kinda felt like the days back in my cabin, headlamp and sponge baths.

But then again when shoveling snow again for both snow falls,
(I refuse to call them snow storms),
my broken heart reminded me why I now live in Texas.

...and yes back in Alaska I melted when it hit 70
but now 70 actually feels good!

Stay warm and safe my friend
 

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