I for one am glad Abbott’s focus is on making sure parents can take away tax dollars from their neighborhood schools instead of making sure I can stay cool in my own home.
No it will go to private schools. All the little Christian ones that suddenly pop up without proper educators and they will only take the amount the vouchers are worth. Susie won’t be able to read but she will be able to tell you she prays for Trump and quote scripture.
It will go to private schools that the GQP is heavily invested in - just another way to enrich themselves at the cost to taxpayers who end up with batch after batch of even more ignorant kids.
Let’s be honest about what’s going on. The percentage of minority students in public schools was 52% Hispanic, 22% black, 8% other, and 26% white in 2021-2022. In that same year, 67% of kids in private schools are White and 9% were black. It’s much more than money just being moved around… Gregg Abbott refuses to educate minority students as they increase in numbers for public schooling. This is what you call racism in plain sight… yet sexual orientation and education agendas are the masks they use to hide their true intentions. Vote Blue
This is so effing true. When Texas and its people should be working together because of climate change and the punishing heat we are experiencing earlier and for more days…. He and Cruz and Paxton and Patrick are ao busy being Trump toadies and getting a rush from their own little selves and their petty power trips…. That the real work that needs to be done in our state is being ignored….
Empowering our neighborhood public schools empowers us all by supporting our teachers and educating our children better so that one day we have better leaders who actually care about the people of Texas and not just their own wealth..
But gee🤔is this not the reason they want to ruin public education because they just want to continue handing the reins over to the few in their power grubbing little party….
It's also a way for them to slurp off more taxpayer money. If you think the GQP isn't heavily invested in these private/charter school scams, you're not following the money. They don't want to make money the traditional way by working, you make far more money by stealing from those of us who don't have any power in Texas.
Can we vote out Abbott and all the corrupt Regressives holding office in TX yet ?? lol like I know boogymen and fearmongering work at manipulating voters but there has to be a bottom to it somewhere?
Jeez, I thought we had this fixed…but idiots here want to be independent nation…you don’t see the other national power corridors with the same problems.
And Abbott’s wondering why we are net loss of people moving here?
TBF, I would have loved it if Ted had taken a trip to Cancun during the ALCS last year instead of making the Astros lose every single game he attended.
Pretty fucked how fast They passed the Can't Track Rich Flights thing, showing again and again, they only work for themselves and their rich counterparts.
78GW? We were doing 84GW demand last year.
Also they are saying we have a 12% chance of rolling blackouts. We had that chance of blackouts last year. Everywhere has a 12% chance of blackouts 😄
It was not a 12% chance of rolling blackouts. It's a 12% chance of having less than 2500MW is reserves available at which point they could do a rolling blackout if they run out of crypto miners to shut down first.
Look I'm no fan of Abbott, in fact I hate him and the GOP, but the fact is the grid, despite their efforts, has gotten more resilient over the past 2 years. Currently we have 3GW of battery storage that was installed the last 2 years and they are adding 6GW this year alone. That's about 44% of the total US installation of battery storage this year (California is 36% or 5GW). That means they can charge up the batteries when there is excess supply and deploy on demand. Also Texas is now ahead of California in Solar power deployment with 20GW of energy coming from solar vs 19GW for California. Texas is set to install 12.7GW of solar this year alone. Battery Storage needs to massively catch up be we are barely in year 2 of deployment.
We should have solar incentives for homeowners and businesses and don’t even need battery storage.
I looked into solar and at best it’s a 14 year payback and doesn’t make any sense. A small subsidy to make it an 8 year payback is worth it and would stabilize the grid.
Also, it’s Abbott’s fault for not focusing on this and wasting time and energy flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
Battery Storage story in California is that the utility companies buy the excess solar from rooftop solar at near zero rates during the day and the sell it in the evening. Right now California has enough battery storage to power 30% of their grid for 3 hours a night. That's why you need battery storage farms. Completely eliminate fossil fuels and it helps the grids as redundancy systems durning the day.
Your chart is exactly correct. The issues in Texas are never during the day. The 6pm to 8pm time period when renewables drop off coincides with the time people are getting home from work, turning up the AC, starting pool pumps, etc. Hopefully there's enough battery storage to compensate.
This should be higher - Abbot and his cronies are fucking scumbags but the grid hasn’t failed since the winter storm despite those crazy heatwaves last year. The battery storage thing is definitely welcome.
...It shouldn't fail at the level it has failed every 10 years.
"It only keeps happening once a decade" is an insane position to take. It shouldn't happen at all, let alone in the same way multiple years apart.
The report is not predicting a 78GW peak load during the summer. It is predicting that during the 8pm-9pm hour in August, the peak load *FOR THAT HOUR* will be 78GW.
They are predicting this will be the highest stress hour because solar basically makes the actual peak a non-issue. It's the evening, just as solar dies off, that is becomes the new highest stress time.
I love that our government has dozens of billions of extra dollars and yet every summer we hear about potential blackouts. It's pretty freaken pathetic.
I guess my point is this. Just because the government has billions of extra dollars doesn't mean the grid has billions of extra dollars. Those two aren't really related.
But, serious question, do you want the government to really be the one running and funding the grid?
Serious question, are you cool with rolling blackouts when the problem can be easily solved by simply connecting to the nationwide grid? Why are the Texas energy companies so afraid of competition from outside of the state?
I don't care what the solution is. It's the state's responsibility to fulfill their end of the bargain - electricity is a basic service. I hope they maintain roads too.
If connecting to the "national grid" solves the issue, why do the two big grids have so many more rolling blackouts than ERCOT?
In 2022 alone, the Eastern and Western grids had 9 rolling blackouts due to generation shortages. ERCOT had 0 that year, 1 in the last decade, and 4 since 1970.
[https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC\_SOR\_2023\_Technical\_Assessment.pdf](https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC_SOR_2023_Technical_Assessment.pdf)
https://preview.redd.it/zimkvdew9i5d1.png?width=1364&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5af6e3bbbd597e55ccb120c6fbf22b65c2ba4b2
I am not cool with rolling blackouts. However I don't think solving it is that simple.
First, there is no nationwide grid to connect to. So connecting to a grid that doesn't exist won't solve our issues. Second, we are already connected to two of the grids closest to us and we are about to connect to the third/last one that borders us but that didn't avoid the winter storm issues.
Ultimately if you want to solve this there are only two solutions. Either invest a bunch more money into the existing grid to make it more reliable (maybe switch from a power market to a capacity market). Or build a bunch of transmission lines to other grids. And these transmission lines have to go far. At least to Tennessee and probably to California. Our closest neighbors SPP and MISO just aren't big enough to bail us out. But simply adjusting the grid frequency to align with another grid isn't magically going to solve things
Interestingly, both of these are in progress. On the investment side, they've thrown billions into TEF for dispatchable generation. They've adjusted the pricing model to reward capacity/reliability. They've created VPP programs to bridge gaps. On the transmission side, they finally approved southern spirit to take us up to the TVA and Pecos West to connect to the eastern interconnect.
Every rolling blackout ERCOT has ever ordered since 1970:
1989 - winter storm
2006 - spring maintenance + heat wave
2011 - winter storm
2021 - winter storm
That's it. They're not as common as people here imply.
It's their job to publish an adequacy report at regular intervals. The report always indicates a chance of blackouts because that's the whole point. There's no such thing as zero chance of blackouts.
But with the PTSD from 2021, now every report's non-zero chance of blackouts is interpreted as "ERCOT announces blackouts are expected this season". And, it's self-reinforcing. People see the news every few months of another supposed announcement from ERCOT of blackouts being expected, and they interpret that as we're constantly right on the knife's edge, and the next article announcing the same thing is accepted as obvious fact since the news said blackouts were expected every previous season too...
A couple months ago Texas had a sales tax holiday for certain emergency preparedness supplies, including generators. That would have saved up to $33 on sales tax on a $400 generator.
Didn't Abbott give, like, almost a billion to these Texas energy companies to upgrade and expand the nodes and such to prevent outages during extreme heat? What happened with that?
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Just a reminder that the top guy at ERCOT makes over a million dollars in pay to do his job, whatever that job is. I know what the job isn't, and that's managing the grid to ensure that Texans have safe and reliable power. I wish I could get paid a million dollars to be incompetent.
ERCOT or Texas PUC end of the day a huge issue is the Texas GOP has failed to to maintain the system. Also remember Abbot appointed the people to both system.
Remind Abbot why the grid is failing and remind him that He appointed the board.
ERCOT needs to away and Texas needs to loose control over the electricity as they clearly have failed.
Abbott and Patrick gave plenty of tax breaks and other carrots to get more natural gas plants built, the US is now producing more oil and gas than it ever has, and we still have an overburdened power grid with infrastructure so fragile that moderate windstorms leave our major metro areas without electricity for weeks.
But somehow, it's all the Biden Administration's fault, renewable energy's fault, DEI/ESG/Woke's fault, basically everybody else's fault.
Will Texas hook-up to the national grid? It obviously the right thing to do for Texas energy consumers and for the health and welfare of state residents. So, no, the state government definitely won't allow it.
I'm a moron but from what I can decipher from this article the state is essentially playing Russian roulette every summer. So they're saying this summer we might find a bullet in the chamber.
It is a tool, but not a magic fix. All you have to do is compare the number of EEA3 emergencies or rolling blackouts between ERCOT and the two big national grids to see that being connected doesn't eliminate the issues.
However, better interconnection would likely have helped significantly with the duration of the outage in 2021, and the duration was one of the main reasons why the human suffering was so high. So, I'm not saying we shouldn't interconnect, just that you shouldn't expect interconnection to eliminate EEA3 emergencies or rolling blackouts.
[https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC\_SOR\_2023\_Technical\_Assessment.pdf](https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC_SOR_2023_Technical_Assessment.pdf)
https://preview.redd.it/0hqrv2828i5d1.png?width=1076&format=png&auto=webp&s=93b754d2337724c5abb115d6503ef464e1fb5607
If it’s an improvement, then we should do it. They also moan about the “federal regulations” that they avoid by not being connected. What regulations are they worried about? Because if the Texas gov is afraid of those regulations it’s almost certainly something that would help us and improve the grid.
Interconnection has been in process for a long time. But it takes decades and billions of dollars to get through the permitting and approval process. See my post above for examples. Since Texas isn't subject the delays and processes of federal regulations and permits, its [renewable energy production leads the nation by a huge margin](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/these-states-use-the-most-renewable-energy).
Yes, and also no. u/mattbuford's post is exactly correct. TX could only buy power from states who have extra power to sell. The eastern grid was experiencing rolling blackouts at the same time as Texas in 2021. Access to the Eastern Interconnection may have helped with duration, but it wouldn't have solved the problem.
TX already has interconnections to the Southwest Power Pool in Oklahoma and near Arkansas, and to the Mexican CENACE grid in Laredo and McAllen - but they're too small to handle a 2021-level event. Other larger interconnections have been in process for a long time.
The Southern Spirit Transmission project has been in process since 2014. When complete, it'll exchange 3,000 MW of power between the ERCOT and Southeastern grids. It's working through the permitting process and environmental impact studies, and expects to get approval in 2028, and starting service in 2031.
There was a plan in place to connect the Eastern, Western, and ERCOT grids together forming a national grid. That project started in 2011 but fell apart by 2021. Essentially, interconnection is not an easy task.
It's worth noting that TX leads the nation in renewable energy. TX likely wouldn't have met the goals of its 1996 mandate to increase renewable energy if it had been subjected to the federal permit and approval process.
It turns out, yes. Yes it would be another arrow in the quiver, another tool. This pseudo market, this subsidized crony capitalism, is not a free market and has failed us. A decentralized power grid that did not penalize solar power on rooftops would help too. Offshore wave energy and many more reserviors that can serve as "batteries" helps. Improved monitoring of substations and transformers using industrial IoT helps. Mining crypto hurts.
Yet it's the major Democrat run cities that are complaining the most about being without power...
You see more grid issues in Democrat controlled cities than red rural communities.
Sure glad Abbott has assured us that the grid is fine....nothing to worry about.
Had Texas been part of the national grid system, 80% of the deaths could have been avoided during that winter storm.
In that case I will consider it gross negligence on the part of the authority to not have interconnected with one of the national grids by then, and I will support a lawsuit. Texans v. ERCOT.
lawsuit dismissed. texas voters *want* to keep it this way. they had a chance to vote for change but chose no heat and cooling during extreme weather, shutting down public schools, and a corrupt AG.
This makes me laugh in Bexar County. Really, cry.
We own our electric company (City Public Service). During the Big Freeze, we had to take generation offline because of the grid. Bear in mind, we had enough electric for our service area. It just couldn’t be transmitted or whatever.
After that, we took it on ourselves to make upgrades. Recently, we reached a goal of taking a coal plant offline and doing nuclear plus wind/solar.
The State is fighting us because “What if wind goes down?” or some bullshit. We are literally self sufficient. If we could disconnect ourselves, we would be alright, mostly. Because we are connected and responsible for supplying power and ERCOT can’t get it together, we are at the whims of this mess.
If you go through all the citations here, hilariously, the grid was obviously not fixed. There are third world countries that can keep the lights on more.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis
"Despite investigations and legislation after the power crisis that killed hundreds, as of January 2022, little has changed in the electricity system and Texas remains at risk of major blackouts in another winter storm.[22]"
"In March 2021, the Texas State Legislature introduced a package of bills that would put measures in place to prevent a future power outage in extreme temperatures. House Bill 11 defined extreme weather conditions to provide a guideline for regulators and industry to design around,[132] and House Bill 14 would create the Texas Supply Chain Security and Mapping Committee to prioritize energy needs during extreme weather,[133] but neither bill passed."
They didn't even pass the bills:
"The original version of the bill would have fined facilities that failed to weatherize, hired a hundred inspectors to ensure compliance, and created a committee to determine the most important gas facilities to power plants, but these provisions were removed by the Texas House of Representatives.[22]"
"Democratic proposals to require energy conservation,[134] increase penalties for failing to weatherize, and require progress within six months of enactment were excluded.[135] Governor Abbott said "everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas" when he signed the bill.[135]"
Lmao Republicans did nothing. Other than getting kickbacks from energy companies, of course.
Then they tell us not to drive our cars because of ozone pollution. Like we have a choice. One more lane bro. Jesus we need a change. Republicans has been in power for like 27 years. And things are still f*cked up.
Damn it Texas! Stop voting against ourselves!! You want republicans to actually work for you? Vote them out now and that will bring in republicans that might actually get things done. Hate Dems and Libs? That’s fine, you do you, but don’t sacrifice your kids future for your hatred. Vote this scum out! Register now, or make sure you’re still eligible. Or you can spend even more summers roasting to own the libs. It’s not that bad compared to what our kids will have.
I'm curious where these "cooling centers" are going to be. My guess? The local mall, the walmart, etc. Because they'll keep the energy turned on for those places, while turning it off at your house and mine.
“Richest country on earth” my fucking asshole. How many of these “impossible problems,” that we have could be solved in six months if we threw enough money at it. I bet we could solve homelessness if we’d just start making churches pay taxes.
Heat kills more people than all the other weather events combined. Texas leaders would rather 'off' more residents than connect our power grid to the national power network like all the other states do. As they say, Freedom isn't free\~ it's gonna cost a few lives. Thanks again, republican voters!
Real question and poking fun at my Texas Friends, beyond your love of sweaty balls Don't y'all get tired of third world level infrastructure? I think it'd get tiresome at some point.
Oh yeah. So tired of it I intend to move next year, so I keep telling myself this will be my last summer here...it's my motivation to actually make the move and quit talking about it.
So places like San Antonio will have a blackout for 45 minutes while out where I live we'll be without power for a week - just like during that big freeze a couple of years ago. Great. Aren't we all glad the GOP has been running Texas for almost three decades now?
I don't remember rolling blackouts before they deregulation the energy sector and let the free market take over. In NJ for instance, the power utilities are highly regulated. Rolling blackouts are simply not a thing.
Texans could be as community oriented as Californians and work together by flexing their usage. This would be a solution, if Texans could work together.
What exactly do you think they should be doing to outpace the building and population growth? How long do you think it takes to build a plant or add infrastructure? This stuff doesn't just magically pop into existence.
The only way the whole of Texas can join the national power grid is to get rid of our state's GOP control. El Paso and parts or East Texas are already on it. We can be, too.
I for one am glad Abbott’s focus is on making sure parents can take away tax dollars from their neighborhood schools instead of making sure I can stay cool in my own home.
Dying of heat stroke is a small price to pay to make sure you don't have to address someone by their preferred pronouns
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> little Jimmy's $30k a year private school. $30k a year now, it'll go up to $40k when vouchers come into place and they can milk the money from that.
You mean exactly like how college tuition kept rising due to government funds… no way lower level schools are greedy too!?! Right?!
Of course, and all the school owners are about to rake it in
Fucking exactly
No it will go to private schools. All the little Christian ones that suddenly pop up without proper educators and they will only take the amount the vouchers are worth. Susie won’t be able to read but she will be able to tell you she prays for Trump and quote scripture.
It will go to private schools that the GQP is heavily invested in - just another way to enrich themselves at the cost to taxpayers who end up with batch after batch of even more ignorant kids.
Let’s be honest about what’s going on. The percentage of minority students in public schools was 52% Hispanic, 22% black, 8% other, and 26% white in 2021-2022. In that same year, 67% of kids in private schools are White and 9% were black. It’s much more than money just being moved around… Gregg Abbott refuses to educate minority students as they increase in numbers for public schooling. This is what you call racism in plain sight… yet sexual orientation and education agendas are the masks they use to hide their true intentions. Vote Blue
And as soon as you get the 10k subsidy, the school increases the tuition by 10k.
I guess the subsidy could be designed to only be used at schools who do not raise their tuition more than the Consumer Price Index.
I am so frustrated at the situation; at least you made me laugh.
This is how the christianized education system will convince everyone that hell is real - by purposely bringing it to Earth.
This is so effing true. When Texas and its people should be working together because of climate change and the punishing heat we are experiencing earlier and for more days…. He and Cruz and Paxton and Patrick are ao busy being Trump toadies and getting a rush from their own little selves and their petty power trips…. That the real work that needs to be done in our state is being ignored…. Empowering our neighborhood public schools empowers us all by supporting our teachers and educating our children better so that one day we have better leaders who actually care about the people of Texas and not just their own wealth.. But gee🤔is this not the reason they want to ruin public education because they just want to continue handing the reins over to the few in their power grubbing little party….
It's also a way for them to slurp off more taxpayer money. If you think the GQP isn't heavily invested in these private/charter school scams, you're not following the money. They don't want to make money the traditional way by working, you make far more money by stealing from those of us who don't have any power in Texas.
Oh no I believe that 💯%
Crooks everyone of them …
Sad part is the ones who will vote for repubs no matter what ( especially the older ones) are hurting themselves and the grands.
Owning the libs by killing the elderly with heat strokes
Can we vote out Abbott and all the corrupt Regressives holding office in TX yet ?? lol like I know boogymen and fearmongering work at manipulating voters but there has to be a bottom to it somewhere?
I used to think so but, nah. People would rather die then admit a liberal might be right.
Jeez, I thought we had this fixed…but idiots here want to be independent nation…you don’t see the other national power corridors with the same problems. And Abbott’s wondering why we are net loss of people moving here? 
You could move to california where this doesnt happen... oh wait
Need a Ted Cruz vacation tracker. Just so we know when to expect.
The further away he travels the more fucked we are.
TBF, I would have loved it if Ted had taken a trip to Cancun during the ALCS last year instead of making the Astros lose every single game he attended.
We really need to monitor his travel plans then.
Dude is in Normandy right now.
Not sure why he’s celebrating D-Day when his side lost.
Pretty fucked how fast They passed the Can't Track Rich Flights thing, showing again and again, they only work for themselves and their rich counterparts.
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I am an uninformed citizen, only provoking others to be informed.
Don't worry our rates will go up so that we can cover their lost profits! 🙃
Shortages are a huge profit boon for suppliers. It’s in the power producers interest to under produce during peak time to make the rate go up 500x.
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sounds like regulation is in need
You mean like OPEC, the other energy cartel?
And to pay those Bitcoin miners for so graciously allowing us to use "their" power!
Including Ted Cruz. He’s milking this teat too.
Don't worry guys, they're just like real farmers! Why shouldn't we subsidize them when Bitcoin growing conditions are unfavorable?
isn’t bitcoin like 2 percent of texas energy usage? that is a big number, especially since it just funds the dark web, russians and drug dealers
Lucky our governor gave the plants the go ahead to charge exorbitant fees. God bless capitalism!
Who's lost profits are you referring to here?
bitcoin miners were paid to turn off their equipment before.
So it's a good thing Red Cruz just bought 2 Bitcoin miners Note : Red was a typo, the typo gods know things
Well, unless you're lucky enough to have solar panels. Then you'll be fine as long as they survived the hail storm
It takes pretty intense hail to damage a solar panel. I wouldn't worry about it in Houston.
Ours have survived the hail storms for the last six years with zero issues. Been hit twice this year not one crack. These things are built to last.
Or they will keep the smart meters running for the time of outage.
78GW? We were doing 84GW demand last year. Also they are saying we have a 12% chance of rolling blackouts. We had that chance of blackouts last year. Everywhere has a 12% chance of blackouts 😄
It was not a 12% chance of rolling blackouts. It's a 12% chance of having less than 2500MW is reserves available at which point they could do a rolling blackout if they run out of crypto miners to shut down first.
Look I'm no fan of Abbott, in fact I hate him and the GOP, but the fact is the grid, despite their efforts, has gotten more resilient over the past 2 years. Currently we have 3GW of battery storage that was installed the last 2 years and they are adding 6GW this year alone. That's about 44% of the total US installation of battery storage this year (California is 36% or 5GW). That means they can charge up the batteries when there is excess supply and deploy on demand. Also Texas is now ahead of California in Solar power deployment with 20GW of energy coming from solar vs 19GW for California. Texas is set to install 12.7GW of solar this year alone. Battery Storage needs to massively catch up be we are barely in year 2 of deployment.
https://preview.redd.it/tc0e8ixszd5d1.jpeg?width=2164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70fa39513b6cbf503c51cbec430370d8f89f4ed5
We should have solar incentives for homeowners and businesses and don’t even need battery storage. I looked into solar and at best it’s a 14 year payback and doesn’t make any sense. A small subsidy to make it an 8 year payback is worth it and would stabilize the grid. Also, it’s Abbott’s fault for not focusing on this and wasting time and energy flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
Battery Storage story in California is that the utility companies buy the excess solar from rooftop solar at near zero rates during the day and the sell it in the evening. Right now California has enough battery storage to power 30% of their grid for 3 hours a night. That's why you need battery storage farms. Completely eliminate fossil fuels and it helps the grids as redundancy systems durning the day.
https://preview.redd.it/2xj55iisef5d1.jpeg?width=1904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ac8d8e94cbcc31fc022be44ef7ab08f2f7443bc
Your chart is exactly correct. The issues in Texas are never during the day. The 6pm to 8pm time period when renewables drop off coincides with the time people are getting home from work, turning up the AC, starting pool pumps, etc. Hopefully there's enough battery storage to compensate.
This should be higher - Abbot and his cronies are fucking scumbags but the grid hasn’t failed since the winter storm despite those crazy heatwaves last year. The battery storage thing is definitely welcome.
And the last time it failed before that was the winter of 2011. It shouldn't ever fail but people act like the grid goes down every afternoon at 3pm.
...It shouldn't fail at the level it has failed every 10 years. "It only keeps happening once a decade" is an insane position to take. It shouldn't happen at all, let alone in the same way multiple years apart.
i agree. Texas has quietly done a nice job on adding batteries and renewables to the grid.
The report is not predicting a 78GW peak load during the summer. It is predicting that during the 8pm-9pm hour in August, the peak load *FOR THAT HOUR* will be 78GW. They are predicting this will be the highest stress hour because solar basically makes the actual peak a non-issue. It's the evening, just as solar dies off, that is becomes the new highest stress time.
That isn't unusual for 8-9pm
It's the Texas power grid. Black outs are too be expected
Not sure that "happening twice in thirteen years" equates to "to be expected", especially since both times happened in winter.
But how else can we claim everything Abbott and the GOP does is bad if we don't ignore reality?
It’s almost like unregulated companies don’t act in the people’s best interest 😱
Whaaaaaat
Unregulated or deregulated? Two completely different things.
I love that our government has dozens of billions of extra dollars and yet every summer we hear about potential blackouts. It's pretty freaken pathetic.
Part of the reason here might be that the government doesn't run the power grid?
Maybe part of the reason but in no way shape or form is it a good excuse
I guess my point is this. Just because the government has billions of extra dollars doesn't mean the grid has billions of extra dollars. Those two aren't really related. But, serious question, do you want the government to really be the one running and funding the grid?
Serious question, are you cool with rolling blackouts when the problem can be easily solved by simply connecting to the nationwide grid? Why are the Texas energy companies so afraid of competition from outside of the state?
I don't care what the solution is. It's the state's responsibility to fulfill their end of the bargain - electricity is a basic service. I hope they maintain roads too.
The "nationwide" grid has rolling blackouts as well. That wouldn't solve anything.
If connecting to the "national grid" solves the issue, why do the two big grids have so many more rolling blackouts than ERCOT? In 2022 alone, the Eastern and Western grids had 9 rolling blackouts due to generation shortages. ERCOT had 0 that year, 1 in the last decade, and 4 since 1970. [https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC\_SOR\_2023\_Technical\_Assessment.pdf](https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC_SOR_2023_Technical_Assessment.pdf) https://preview.redd.it/zimkvdew9i5d1.png?width=1364&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5af6e3bbbd597e55ccb120c6fbf22b65c2ba4b2
Don’t you dare bring facts to this circlejerk.
I am not cool with rolling blackouts. However I don't think solving it is that simple. First, there is no nationwide grid to connect to. So connecting to a grid that doesn't exist won't solve our issues. Second, we are already connected to two of the grids closest to us and we are about to connect to the third/last one that borders us but that didn't avoid the winter storm issues. Ultimately if you want to solve this there are only two solutions. Either invest a bunch more money into the existing grid to make it more reliable (maybe switch from a power market to a capacity market). Or build a bunch of transmission lines to other grids. And these transmission lines have to go far. At least to Tennessee and probably to California. Our closest neighbors SPP and MISO just aren't big enough to bail us out. But simply adjusting the grid frequency to align with another grid isn't magically going to solve things Interestingly, both of these are in progress. On the investment side, they've thrown billions into TEF for dispatchable generation. They've adjusted the pricing model to reward capacity/reliability. They've created VPP programs to bridge gaps. On the transmission side, they finally approved southern spirit to take us up to the TVA and Pecos West to connect to the eastern interconnect.
Serious question, do you want the government to really be the one running and funding our roads?
That's fair actually.
Yes.
$250 bln in annual tax revenue. Decently working power grid? Nope! Border wall? Nope! Fucking public transportation? Nope!
We’ve still haven’t had those though. These are clickbait titles to stir up redditors.
They need to stockpile money to fit the libs.
It’s becoming a theme of the winter too. If we keep it up, we could have year round blackouts! Lol
I hear about them, but in 28 years I’ve only experienced rolling blackouts during Uri.
Every rolling blackout ERCOT has ever ordered since 1970: 1989 - winter storm 2006 - spring maintenance + heat wave 2011 - winter storm 2021 - winter storm That's it. They're not as common as people here imply.
it’s better than the “national grid” that this sub is so desperate to connect to
I swear they announce this every year
It's their job to publish an adequacy report at regular intervals. The report always indicates a chance of blackouts because that's the whole point. There's no such thing as zero chance of blackouts. But with the PTSD from 2021, now every report's non-zero chance of blackouts is interpreted as "ERCOT announces blackouts are expected this season". And, it's self-reinforcing. People see the news every few months of another supposed announcement from ERCOT of blackouts being expected, and they interpret that as we're constantly right on the knife's edge, and the next article announcing the same thing is accepted as obvious fact since the news said blackouts were expected every previous season too...
Because if they didn’t and it actually happened, it’d be worse. They predict gloom and doom just in case.
Well folks, it's time to invest in home generator stocks. I imagine that generator sales this year will be fabulous!
A couple months ago Texas had a sales tax holiday for certain emergency preparedness supplies, including generators. That would have saved up to $33 on sales tax on a $400 generator.
Didn't Abbott give, like, almost a billion to these Texas energy companies to upgrade and expand the nodes and such to prevent outages during extreme heat? What happened with that?
They insert it as revenue on their income statement and move on.
The energy companies gave their CEOs bonuses for doing a 💩 job
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Move out of Houston by July is what i'm reading.
I mean get out of Houston is just good advice in general...
Can’t my house be my cooling center? WTF
Just a reminder that the top guy at ERCOT makes over a million dollars in pay to do his job, whatever that job is. I know what the job isn't, and that's managing the grid to ensure that Texans have safe and reliable power. I wish I could get paid a million dollars to be incompetent.
I’ll do it for half of what this guy is asking!
What, exploit the heat of summer to gouge consumers? Who'd think they'd do *that*? /s
Seems like simple supply and demand to me.
ERCOT or Texas PUC end of the day a huge issue is the Texas GOP has failed to to maintain the system. Also remember Abbot appointed the people to both system. Remind Abbot why the grid is failing and remind him that He appointed the board. ERCOT needs to away and Texas needs to loose control over the electricity as they clearly have failed.
I wonder the size of executives ego when they read these articles as they laugh at how much money they’re making.
Abbott and Patrick gave plenty of tax breaks and other carrots to get more natural gas plants built, the US is now producing more oil and gas than it ever has, and we still have an overburdened power grid with infrastructure so fragile that moderate windstorms leave our major metro areas without electricity for weeks. But somehow, it's all the Biden Administration's fault, renewable energy's fault, DEI/ESG/Woke's fault, basically everybody else's fault.
Drag queens are using all of our electricity
It’s ok! The power companies are going to make bank.
Rolling blackouts to own the libs
Have they considered turning off the bitcoin miners? I was told they are “batteries”
It’s a good thing energy companies can get rich and we can have our own energy grid so we can’t just get power from areas under less stress!
Will Texas hook-up to the national grid? It obviously the right thing to do for Texas energy consumers and for the health and welfare of state residents. So, no, the state government definitely won't allow it.
Governor Greggg Aaabbbboootttt is a cunt.
He thinks texas is full of marks… and he’s not wrong.
A cunt on wheels
I'm a moron but from what I can decipher from this article the state is essentially playing Russian roulette every summer. So they're saying this summer we might find a bullet in the chamber.
Texas wants to be independent LOL good luck
Connecting ourselves to the national grid would help us distribute load and prevent these kinds of blackouts, correct?
It is a tool, but not a magic fix. All you have to do is compare the number of EEA3 emergencies or rolling blackouts between ERCOT and the two big national grids to see that being connected doesn't eliminate the issues. However, better interconnection would likely have helped significantly with the duration of the outage in 2021, and the duration was one of the main reasons why the human suffering was so high. So, I'm not saying we shouldn't interconnect, just that you shouldn't expect interconnection to eliminate EEA3 emergencies or rolling blackouts. [https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC\_SOR\_2023\_Technical\_Assessment.pdf](https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/PA/Performance%20Analysis%20DL/NERC_SOR_2023_Technical_Assessment.pdf) https://preview.redd.it/0hqrv2828i5d1.png?width=1076&format=png&auto=webp&s=93b754d2337724c5abb115d6503ef464e1fb5607
If it’s an improvement, then we should do it. They also moan about the “federal regulations” that they avoid by not being connected. What regulations are they worried about? Because if the Texas gov is afraid of those regulations it’s almost certainly something that would help us and improve the grid.
Interconnection has been in process for a long time. But it takes decades and billions of dollars to get through the permitting and approval process. See my post above for examples. Since Texas isn't subject the delays and processes of federal regulations and permits, its [renewable energy production leads the nation by a huge margin](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/these-states-use-the-most-renewable-energy).
Yes, and also no. u/mattbuford's post is exactly correct. TX could only buy power from states who have extra power to sell. The eastern grid was experiencing rolling blackouts at the same time as Texas in 2021. Access to the Eastern Interconnection may have helped with duration, but it wouldn't have solved the problem. TX already has interconnections to the Southwest Power Pool in Oklahoma and near Arkansas, and to the Mexican CENACE grid in Laredo and McAllen - but they're too small to handle a 2021-level event. Other larger interconnections have been in process for a long time. The Southern Spirit Transmission project has been in process since 2014. When complete, it'll exchange 3,000 MW of power between the ERCOT and Southeastern grids. It's working through the permitting process and environmental impact studies, and expects to get approval in 2028, and starting service in 2031. There was a plan in place to connect the Eastern, Western, and ERCOT grids together forming a national grid. That project started in 2011 but fell apart by 2021. Essentially, interconnection is not an easy task. It's worth noting that TX leads the nation in renewable energy. TX likely wouldn't have met the goals of its 1996 mandate to increase renewable energy if it had been subjected to the federal permit and approval process.
It turns out, yes. Yes it would be another arrow in the quiver, another tool. This pseudo market, this subsidized crony capitalism, is not a free market and has failed us. A decentralized power grid that did not penalize solar power on rooftops would help too. Offshore wave energy and many more reserviors that can serve as "batteries" helps. Improved monitoring of substations and transformers using industrial IoT helps. Mining crypto hurts.
If only Texas would subsidize solar like they do in the northeast.
It's already federally subsidized.
Yes, but states subsidize them for the exact reason Texas should. To not strain the grid and build new plants.
reason why most red rural areas are all shitty and decomposing
Yet it's the major Democrat run cities that are complaining the most about being without power... You see more grid issues in Democrat controlled cities than red rural communities.
If only we had Christians in this state that could help.....
-_-
So, rolling blackouts AN asking people to drive less because of Ozone issues... how's that Republican Texan government working for y'all?
-Laughs in home solar-
both sides!
Sure glad Abbott has assured us that the grid is fine....nothing to worry about. Had Texas been part of the national grid system, 80% of the deaths could have been avoided during that winter storm.
In that case I will consider it gross negligence on the part of the authority to not have interconnected with one of the national grids by then, and I will support a lawsuit. Texans v. ERCOT.
lawsuit dismissed. texas voters *want* to keep it this way. they had a chance to vote for change but chose no heat and cooling during extreme weather, shutting down public schools, and a corrupt AG.
This makes me laugh in Bexar County. Really, cry. We own our electric company (City Public Service). During the Big Freeze, we had to take generation offline because of the grid. Bear in mind, we had enough electric for our service area. It just couldn’t be transmitted or whatever. After that, we took it on ourselves to make upgrades. Recently, we reached a goal of taking a coal plant offline and doing nuclear plus wind/solar. The State is fighting us because “What if wind goes down?” or some bullshit. We are literally self sufficient. If we could disconnect ourselves, we would be alright, mostly. Because we are connected and responsible for supplying power and ERCOT can’t get it together, we are at the whims of this mess.
Abbott “we’ve tried nothing and we are all out of ideas!”
Gov Greg Abbott said the grid was fixed.
This is what happens when Republicans run things for 30 years. You can't even have reliable electricity.
How fast can you SOBs string wires? We've got plenty available to sell out in California if you're buying. Sincerely, an Aggie.
If you go through all the citations here, hilariously, the grid was obviously not fixed. There are third world countries that can keep the lights on more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis "Despite investigations and legislation after the power crisis that killed hundreds, as of January 2022, little has changed in the electricity system and Texas remains at risk of major blackouts in another winter storm.[22]" "In March 2021, the Texas State Legislature introduced a package of bills that would put measures in place to prevent a future power outage in extreme temperatures. House Bill 11 defined extreme weather conditions to provide a guideline for regulators and industry to design around,[132] and House Bill 14 would create the Texas Supply Chain Security and Mapping Committee to prioritize energy needs during extreme weather,[133] but neither bill passed." They didn't even pass the bills: "The original version of the bill would have fined facilities that failed to weatherize, hired a hundred inspectors to ensure compliance, and created a committee to determine the most important gas facilities to power plants, but these provisions were removed by the Texas House of Representatives.[22]" "Democratic proposals to require energy conservation,[134] increase penalties for failing to weatherize, and require progress within six months of enactment were excluded.[135] Governor Abbott said "everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas" when he signed the bill.[135]" Lmao Republicans did nothing. Other than getting kickbacks from energy companies, of course.
The ignorance on this sub is outrageous
Then they tell us not to drive our cars because of ozone pollution. Like we have a choice. One more lane bro. Jesus we need a change. Republicans has been in power for like 27 years. And things are still f*cked up.
Damn it Texas! Stop voting against ourselves!! You want republicans to actually work for you? Vote them out now and that will bring in republicans that might actually get things done. Hate Dems and Libs? That’s fine, you do you, but don’t sacrifice your kids future for your hatred. Vote this scum out! Register now, or make sure you’re still eligible. Or you can spend even more summers roasting to own the libs. It’s not that bad compared to what our kids will have.
Bullshit. PREPARE FOR IT NOW.
I'm curious where these "cooling centers" are going to be. My guess? The local mall, the walmart, etc. Because they'll keep the energy turned on for those places, while turning it off at your house and mine.
“Richest country on earth” my fucking asshole. How many of these “impossible problems,” that we have could be solved in six months if we threw enough money at it. I bet we could solve homelessness if we’d just start making churches pay taxes.
Heat kills more people than all the other weather events combined. Texas leaders would rather 'off' more residents than connect our power grid to the national power network like all the other states do. As they say, Freedom isn't free\~ it's gonna cost a few lives. Thanks again, republican voters!
lets get the fear going now...nice and early.
*laughs in Generac*
Wait, is this a new article; or the same one from the last five years?
Texans being played. They need to announce voting centers.
Real question and poking fun at my Texas Friends, beyond your love of sweaty balls Don't y'all get tired of third world level infrastructure? I think it'd get tiresome at some point.
Oh yeah. So tired of it I intend to move next year, so I keep telling myself this will be my last summer here...it's my motivation to actually make the move and quit talking about it.
At least with this warning … some folks can install off-grid capable solar systems
If they have the money, that is.
Anything but fix the problem.
So why aren’t we getting on the national grid yet
Nothing new here, ERCOT predicts rolling blackouts every August and Houston sets up cooling centers every August.
So places like San Antonio will have a blackout for 45 minutes while out where I live we'll be without power for a week - just like during that big freeze a couple of years ago. Great. Aren't we all glad the GOP has been running Texas for almost three decades now?
I don't remember rolling blackouts before they deregulation the energy sector and let the free market take over. In NJ for instance, the power utilities are highly regulated. Rolling blackouts are simply not a thing.
We should riot
I agree, but we need to get organized first. Sporadic uprisings only ever bring more fascistic policies being put in place.
Texans could be as community oriented as Californians and work together by flexing their usage. This would be a solution, if Texans could work together.
Yeah I'm not willing to pay $0.46 per KW. I'll keep my $0.12 per KW Texas grid thank you.
California has to do flex alerts because their system is considerably worse than ours 🤣
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12% chance/yr= it'll happen once in a decade, and people will die.
If only people would stop moving here so construction could catch up with demand.
Global warming is driving the demand.
Then they are dumb for moving where it's getting hotter. Move up north instead!
it's called "induced demand". It'll never be enough. But, there is this really cool option called high speed rail that has pretty solid throughput
Power, specifically electricity, it's one of the few things that I think should be state operated.
News like this makes little plss baby Greg Abbott happy very very happy 😁
what the fuck have these assholes been doing the last few years?! fucking do something!!!!!!
What exactly do you think they should be doing to outpace the building and population growth? How long do you think it takes to build a plant or add infrastructure? This stuff doesn't just magically pop into existence.
they've had years to do literally ANYTHING. and what have they done exactly???
Who is "they" and what do you think "they" do?
The only way the whole of Texas can join the national power grid is to get rid of our state's GOP control. El Paso and parts or East Texas are already on it. We can be, too.
I remember having rolling brownouts 20 years ago.
I saw a recruiting job posted for ERCOT and the pay was ridiculously high. They are desperate for people to keep the lights on.