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Texas power prices soar 20,000% as brutal heat wave sets off emergency
(markets.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
741 points (98.1% liked)
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As a lib, I feel so owned.
I'm glad I live in Washington state with our cheap renewable energy.
You are kind of owned, since these red states fucking up just means that more of your tax money will go to saving these idiots from themselves through federal aid
As another fellow Washingtonian, I'm getting pretty tired of subsidizing willful stupidity.
Red states are a luxury we can't afford anymore. They need to pull themselves up by their freedom bootstraps and start turning a profit, or the spigot turns off.
I can only vote blue so many times. If I didn't laugh, I'd cry.
Man, red states are much different here and there. Here red state means communist state, in US it is exact opposite.
honestly it's not willful for a lot of residents there because of gerrymandering instead of redistricting.
But does it includes government-protected monopolies?
Never should have let the southern states back in like we did.
We should have hanged every last confederate.
It's not too late though.
This is definitely not an unhinged comment. Not at all.
while it's true that the majority of the electricity generated in WA is hydroelectric, we also dont get much in the way of heat. I used my AC for about 4 weeks this year. if we had the same levels of heat as some parts of TX, our electricity would not be as cheap as it is now.
Texas has plenty of power. Their problem is the delivery network. Their prices surge because power can't be delivered to everybody, not because there isn't enough for everybody.
I need you to explain this further? The price goes up because the demand on the grid goes up, and as the price goes up, typically additional generation comes online to take advantage of higher rates. I'm not saying it's a good system by any means, but I don't understand what you mean saying "power can't be delivered to everybody"
Transmission lines have maximums and the Texas power grid is a shambles.
Here's a recent article that explains a little more: https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2023-09-08/ercot-texas-electric-grid-congestion-at-risk-energy-emergency
I'm abreast of this specific grid situation, and there're absolutely improvements that need to be made, and also no, it's not "a shambles." Yes, there was a bottleneck this time, but also everyone's power stayed on just fine
Oh cool, so nobody died this time.
Give it a few months when they start dying of exposure. At least once a year I see stories about Texas' power grid shitting the bed and people dying as a result.
How's all that freedom going?
But Texas also has plenty of space and sunlight for other renewables.
They lead the nation, iirc. Not just in the space for it, but for the actual amount that's been implemented.
apperently not on peoples roofs though.
Especually for ACs having your own solar panels is perfect. The demand and supply are always highest at the same time.
The problem hasn't been during the day. The supply and demand has a lag (sun comes out and its still cool and sun goes down and its still hot). The hottest part of the day has been about 6pm and then solar power starts declining before power use. That's been when the shortages have been.
If you had the same amount of heat, you'd have more sunlight hours and thus better conditions for solar power. If you had more wind, wind power etc.
There's no scenario anywhere in the world where the entire energy consumption and more can't be supplied via renewable sources. All that's missing is the political will to go against the fossil fuel industry.
You ever been east of the mountains? It's going to be over 90 where my parents are today. It was over 100 for quite a bit this summer.
Texas actually does better in the renewable energy front than you may expect.
A quarter of the state's energy is produced through wind and solar. The biggest bottleneck preventing more wind adoption is the capacity of transmission lines up and the lack of energy storage.
The advantage of natural gas is that it can be dry up pretty much anywhere and isn't dependent on weather.
The biggest problem Texas has right now regarding energy (and housing costs, and inflation, and municipal planning, and traffic, etc) is its extremely rapid population growth.
Yes, the heat wave is historic and ERCOT is awful, but even in perfect weather the grid is being stressed from the sheer number of people and businesses moving here
Don’t forget natural gas lines can freeze. Remember Ted Cruz going to Cancun? Pepperidge farm remembers.
While a lot of shitty things happened regarding ERCOT and that freeze (and ESPECIALLY the lack of response to prevent the next 2 freeze emergencies), Snovid was a perfect storm. And again a lot of the issues were from transmission problems when lines iced over and tress took out transmission lines.
We're lucky the 2023 freeze was as short as it was, because it's impact on the grid was almost as severe even though it was shorter and not nearly as cold. It was an ice event instead of snow, and had a much larger impact on trees and therefore transmission lines. Some people were without power for 3-4 times as long as with the 2021 storm despite it being a much milder event.
As an engineer, critical infrastructure should very much be designed with redundancy and failsafes to prevent failure from any reasonable risk. Cold weather impacting natural gas supply is reasonable risk that can have a catastrophic impact on people's ability to heat their homes and it's mind blowing how those failures have happened more than once in recent years. Utilities should be held to much higher standards and immediate action taken after failures to prevent the same from happening again.
Completely agree. But Snovid was a case of multiple system failures. It wasn't just gas lines freezing,. It was increased demand, frozen equipment, inoperable windmills and solar panels, trees on transmission lines, road inaccessibility for repair crews, and informational gaps.
Ummmm they use cardboard for their new construction sheathing, new construction r value code is 30-39 compared to 49-60 for Washington.
How do I upvote you twice?
Welcome to Cascadia, land of trees, salmon, and hydroelectric dams.
and while its not renewable and there's a big question on how effectively its stored, nuclear power is sustainable.
Heard a piece of NPR about how our green grid is actually having a lot of trouble keeping up because climate change is fucking up our rainfall, and hence our hydro electric. Even if you do it right, you end up paying for the greed of everyone else.
Texas has more renewable energy production than you do. In Q1 of 2022 Washington State generated 25 Million Megawatt hours of renewal energy and Texas generated 34.
In fact Texas generates more renewable energy than anyone else. So much more that, excluding Washington, you'd need to combine at least three other states to surpass them.
Texas is also the second biggest state and 3 times larger by land mass than Washington state.