Ercot -- Electrical reliabilty council of Texas

[Knute1]

Last time I saw this kind of thing was some years back when Obama was President. Coal-fired power plants were being shut down and replaced with diesel out east. That year was very cold with -20 degree weather and high winds. Diesel was gelling, which meant some power plants were down. The grid would have gone down with the loss of another power plant. If the government "for the people" can't manage our energy needs they need to start listening to "the people". Making quick decisions and phasing things out while not phasing things in that work. Politics and common sense don't go hand in hand very often. (Can't wait to see more of Biden's common sense gun laws.)

I hope things improve rapidly for you FredC.

You know the best time to buy a generator? Before you need one. I've got a 7500 watt one, but need to wire it in. Gasoline powered, which means I'll have to be near a gas supply. Or have a rubber hose handy to syphon it out of the truck.

[butlersrangers]

Well CNN, MS-NBC, and Beto O'Rourke explained it all on TV, tonight:

The weather and power problems in Texas are because the state is run by Republicans, and the denial of climate change.

(Well, never let an unfortunate situation go to waste .... blame Republicans and Conservatives)!

I have a lot of confidence in most Texans coping with what nature sends their way.

[FredC]

When you work with mechanical things they fail sometimes. What separates men from boys is you investigate why. Very seldom one cause. No one has done the investigation so far. Ercot is scrambling to get resources and may not have time, higher ups in Ercot maybe busy trying to deflect the blame. I know it goes all the way to the consumer and local building codes. I remember the last deep freeze in 83 and buried my water lines to the house 2 feet deep when everyone else here thinks 6 inches to a foot is good enough. Insulated the house to the extreme. We did not even leave the water running in the house or shop to prevent the pipes from freezing. Built a small house to keep down maintenance and reduce heating and cooling.

Power companies did not harden their facilities against extremes, young engineers did not remember 83? Did they believe that global warming would never let it happen again? Some of the merchant natural gas generators ran out of gas, too much being exported and not held in reserve? The state has let oil producers flare off gas way past the 6 months allowed for a new well. Two of the last fires we were called to put out were caused by flares and letting grass grow up around them. Both wells were drilled in the 80s. There is a midstream collection pipeline 1 mile from here and they do not connect to it. So many contributing factors, if they address the big ones they could prevent the next one in 2050 but I would not hold my breath till they do. The screaming and blaming the wrong reasons has already started, just distraction from solving the issue.

In talking to the president of the local water company, he told me they had filled their elevated tanks Monday night, he was very surprised to learn that we lost pressure. Without the booster pumps on because of the electrical outage we should have had some residual pressure. I am guessing some land owner close to Poth let their lines burst and drained the system. We had negative pressure then as the water was running down hill it sucked air into our taps when we opened them. I am going to say that someone down the way did not remember 83 and could not be bothered to bury their pipes deep. A few dummies take the system down. Same could be said for people that do not adequately insulate their houses and build way bigger than they really need.

I went to the grocery store a week ago and am due to go again but the store shelves have been stripped by the panicked ones. We are still in good shape but will need to buy some fruit and vegetables soon if they have any. We have been cut off from the local towns for a week before when the San Antonio river was over all the bridges. Got a couple of cases of reasonably fresh meals ready to eat for that possibility. Just got to learn from history and young engineers need to listen to older ones. Not sure how to get people to build to better standards out in the country where there are no building codes. Sometimes people need to look in the mirror before blaming THEM and THEY.

[butlersrangers]

A lot to be said for learning from the past and experience, being prepared, and redundancy in equipment and power sources.

[King carp]

Sorry to hear about the rough go you are having in Texas. I hope things start improving in the near future. You would think energy planners might have googled "past weather reports " before making foolish choices. We get a lot of snow where I live, but this time around is exceptional. I am running out of places to put this stuff. I better not see that ground hog around here. He might be seeing the shadow of a 200 gr. 30-40 heading his way.

[FredC]

Sorry to hear about the rough go you are having in Texas. I hope things start improving in the near future. You would think energy planners might have googled "past weather reports " before making foolish choices. We get a lot of snow where I live, but this time around is exceptional. I am running out of places to put this stuff. I better not see that ground hog around here. He might be seeing the shadow of a 200 gr. 30-40 heading his way.

Wowsers that is deep, any deeper and the melt will come in your window. The last time we had a freeze this hard was 83 the last time we had a snow was a year later in Jan 85. Global warming should have prevented it from happening again, right? WRONG.

Any of you have the sun shining and snow falling at the same time? I do not know if that is a common or not. Almost all the snow melted here, then it just started again. San Antonio is already covered with snow. I thought we were going to miss out. Oh, Well.

I did kill a possum that got trapped in a feed bag under the security microphone at the shop. No ammo needed just slammed in to the concrete a couple of times. Sorry varmints.

[butlersrangers]

King Carp, you got a lot more snow than we did. It looks like Lake Michigan "gifted" you!

[King carp]

Because of the earlier mild winter we were having there was a lot of open water on Lake Michigan. This supplies the lake effect snow machine with plenty of moisture. This is one "gift" I wish I could return to sender! As bad as it is most everyone around here pitches in and keeps the roads and walkways clear. I am still able to get my daily bike ride in. Just not as long a ride as in the nicer weather.

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[Baltimoreed]

We’ve been dodging the worst of the wintry mess, being east of the freeze line as the storms roll up the coast. Just cold and a whole lot of rain. We had a bad tornado hit north of Myrtle Beach the other day. Lost power last week for a while but have a Generac whole home so we were fine. The best home investment I’ve every made. I firmly believe in having a hurricane mentality, prep for the worst all the time. You guys take care out there, cold is like the water, it don’t play, and can be deadly before you know it. My grandfather died of exposure when the oyster boat he and a mate were on was cut by ice and sunk in the Chesapeake Bay. They got separated in the dark and both made it to shore, the mate saw lights from a farmhouse and found help. By the time they found my grandfather he was gone. My dad was in the 8th grade but quit school to go to work and help feed the family, 2 sisters and 3 other brothers. He eventually wound up in Baltimore.

[FredC]

None of the snow that fell today stuck. Hard to find any here. I like that. Supposed to be 21 in the morning, but according to the news no more ERCoT black outs.
My wife just talked to her sister and they have been without power for a week. They live near Kerrville, Tx. and their power comes from a small town to the north. Lines are down so they still have no power even though Kerrville is back up. So the sister in law has no water either and they have been cooking over a fire out in the yard. The area is covered with snow and has not been above freezing in a week. Now that is bad, we were just inconvenienced down here. At least no one has died like Baltimoreeds's story.