This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
If only the power companies had been repeatedly warned that this would happen, and given millions of dollars of taxpayer money to increase power generation potential.
Oh wait… They were warned of this? And they were given taxpayer money? And they illegally used it for stock buybacks instead? And nothing was ever done to prosecute the illegal spending? Yeah, that sounds about on par for Texas.
Texas: The One Star State
Whaat? But THAT would mean Republican lawmakers are pushing a dangerous and dishonest anti-government agenda that is, in fact, just a cover for greedy anti-consumerism! That can't be true!!
I mean, even if everyone did everything right, the demand would still be record high, right? It's not like heeding the warnings would lower demand.
Yes, but if they had invested it like they were supposed to, the grid capacity would be higher, so there would be less chance of failures...
Well, they did invest in it. After the mass failure in February 2021, they passed a bunch of new regulations, and within one year, the entire grid was pretty much up to the new regulations. IIRC, like 98% of the grid was up to the new regulations within a year after that freeze. There hasn't been mass failure since then. There was a local failure this past winter in Austin due to the trees not being trimmed properly, then freezing rain caused branches to break and fall on power lines (called Arborgeddon by the locals). But there have been no state-wide failures since the new regulations have been put in place.
Interesting.... 🤔 So regulations and not the free market fixed the problem.
I came to Texas this week for a vacation. Power has already been out here for 6 hours so far and was blinking on and off last night. Getting strong 3rd world vibes down here...
Lucky you, you get the true Texas experience.
Here we go with the Texas grid again. No matter what they get hit with they insist on remaining independent. Well actually it's the cold that gets them, but they have a problem they're not dealing with none the less.
Can the grid handle it?
It seems fine as of this moment. Check back in a couple of hours. It's currently 105°F where I am.
The question of "can the grid handle it" is a complex question. ERCOT has some fun gauges on a dashboard view. I think those gauges only answer some things but not other important ones. E.g., there could be transmission bottlenecks within the grid that aren't represented on those charts. And such bottlenecks might only become a problem if generation were to fail in the right place(s). If we were to rely on importing from outside the grid, what are the limits of the DC ties--bot just their current flows, but their remaining capacity? There are also factors that aren't "the grid" but which will get lumped in with the same concept, too, like each independent plant supplying energy to the grid. (Those were the precipitating problem during Icepocalypse.)
If only they lived in a place where their was trees and water :/
We've invented a machine that removes heat by producing more heat! Yay technology!
If we get enough air conditioners and put them outside it'll fix everything.
