Texas LARPING Frozen.

There's a lot of talk about how the USA's national infrastructure is barely limping along (which is somewhat true), but Texas' grid was technically not part of the national infrastructure. The state politicians intentionally kept the grid separate (no transmitting electricity over state lines) so that the Texas grid would not be under federal regulations.

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If you want to hear in more detail about all of the things that lead up to this and what went wrong, then listen to this interview with Dr. Joshua D. Rhodes (from University of Texas at Austin) starting at the 15:10 mark.
Radio Interview
 
Texas' grid failing was its own thing, but it's not like the rest of the country is in much better shape. Just less noticable usually because the grid's larger.
Texas' grid might not be federally regulated, but they have to adhere to federal emission regulations, I think. Saw something about how the texan governor asked for federal emission regulations being lifted due to the incoming emergency one week before the big ice bucket challenge, allowing more power plants to go online, but that obviously didn't work out.
 
Texas' grid failing was its own thing, but it's not like the rest of the country is in much better shape. Just less noticable usually because the grid's larger.
Texas' grid might not be federally regulated, but they have to adhere to federal emission regulations, I think. Saw something about how the texan governor asked for federal emission regulations being lifted due to the incoming emergency one week before the big ice bucket challenge, allowing more power plants to go online, but that obviously didn't work out.
I guess you've been closer with your assessment than I thought ...

4 minutes and 37 seconds was apparently how close Texas' power grid came to totally collapsing, according to an emergency meeting of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) board members on February 24.

ERCOT said that if controlled blackouts had not been initiated in order to stabilize Texas' power grid, the state's system could have collapsed, leaving people in the dark for weeks or more. As of February 25, six ERCOT board members have resigned.

Texas' unprecedented week of winter weather saw subzero temperatures and left 4M+ people without power. While much of the state has had power restored, thousands are still without it, and thousands more don't have clean running water.
 
Much of the power grid was not winterized apparently and now there are rising costs due to various reasons. And all this in 2021 from a bit of snow. :eyebrow:
 
Much of the power grid was not winterized apparently and now there are rising costs due to various reasons. And all this in 2021 from a bit of snow. :eyebrow:
Not from a bit of snow. This was the worst winter storm (in this region) in over a decade. Plumbing supplies are gone in this state. People are laser focusing in on Texas like this storm was not a big deal but it was. I am at over a week and a half with no water now because the plumbers are too backed up to get to my house to fix it.
 
Grid blackouts and erratic weather patterns are just coverups for the coming portal storm caused by a resonance cascade failure.
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If I'm lucky tomorrow the plumber will get to us and I will get a nice fat bill and then everything will still not be fixed because I am pretty sure they won't get around to fixing the washer and I will have to do it.
 
Handy man :wiggle:

Don't worry, Elon Musk will save us somehow with batteries and Twitter meme posts.

This was a few days ago, but just found it:
 
On Texas: Guys those low rates you paid for years? You are now paying the difference.
 

It's gotten to the point that paying for a service doesn't even guarantee the service. Reagonomics? NeoLiberalism? Minarchism? Whatever.

I feel for Texas though and Texians. I know a few. They're cool. Maybe this will end with a state-wide revolution of actually getting your bang for buck than getting ripped off.
 
Yeah
Cross every apendage you have for that one. From what I'm reading rejoining the national grid may help.

More nuke (ie steam engines) heh
That is the sophisticated solution that is needed.
 
Texas has always had a hard on for freedom. Its governor? always brings up secession every now and again.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/29/texas-secession/

Too many eggs in one basket, freak power storm, detached grid, no preparation, it is all ingredients for one giant shit sandwich.

AZ has always gone red until recently but never had these issues cause there is something called compromise that Texans do not understand.
 
Yeah
Cross every apendage you have for that one. From what I'm reading rejoining the national grid may help.

More nuke (ie steam engines) heh
That is the sophisticated solution that is needed.
All power plants that are not wind or solar are steam engines. And yes, nuclear power plants are pretty much the best solution. Small modular reactor design in a more distributed power grid would make things a lot more stable.
How is synchronization with centralized/big-ass power plants compared to a more dsitributed grid? Few multi-GW plants vs. many more ~300 MW plants? I'm wondering... Big plants probably take longer to synchronize individually, but smaller plants are more numerous, even if they can follow loads more quickly.
Lots of very interesting SMR designs are in the approval or even licensing process. Lower initial capital cost and lower running cost should make them way cheaper than anything else, but I doubt they'll ever go anywhere for political reasons.
 
You might actually get that at some point, eventually :

The state legislature of Montana, in the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, this week passed Senate Joint Resolution 3 by Sen. Terry Gauthier, R-Helena, that would have a legislative interim committee study the possibility of small nuclear reactors. The study needs to be completed by September 2022. At the core of the proposal is a plan to replace aging coal fired power plants with small modular reactors (SMRs).

Montana Sees an Energy Future in Small Modular Reactors | Energy Central
 
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