Rolling Blackouts

#151
Next hit ,power bills for the sub-par service.

Texans who were on a variable or indexed plans with power companies are only now reporting their bills have jumped hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars for the month.

Royce Pierce told Newsweek he owes electric company, Griddy, $8,162.73 for his electricity usage this month. He said that's a massive increase from his usual $387 bill.
www.newsweek.com

One Texas Resident Still Has Power, but His Bill Is Now Over $8,000

"It's mind-blowing. I honestly didn't believe the price at first," Royce Pierce, a 38-year-old contractor and Texas resident, said. "It's not a great feeling knowing that there is a looming bill that we just can't afford."
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com

WFAA Dallas spoke with one person who said:

"Mine is over $1,000…not sure how…700 square foot apt I have been keeping at 60 degrees."
Click to expand...

"When your electric company tells you to switch but there has been a hold on switching for over a week now. Using as little as possible 1300 sq ft house and this is my bill. . How is this fair. I only paid $1200 for the whole 2020 year. "
Click to expand...
A tweet was accompanied by a screenshot of their bill that now stands at $3,800 for the month.
EuhuMiqWQAgHQwZ


Ty Williams told WFAA that his average electric bill is around $660 per month. He said it now stands at $17,000.

Williams wondered: "How in the world can anyone pay that? I mean you go from a couple of hundred dollars a month... there's absolutely no way...it makes no sense."
 
#153
rady said:
As I said, the utilities hate to have to resort to this. Lots of heart ache for all involved, except the stinkin' lawyers.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it is set up to be difficult and used only as the last resort, as it should be.
The Midwest is also where I obtain most of my work. Try condemning across a railroad sometime. Those discussions are fun to sit in on.
 
#154
Here is how the nerc standards work. Once a standard is in place it basically says you need a plan and documentation that says you follow your plan and we will come and audit you and determine if you met the standards requirements. Nerc or nobody else tells you what the plan should be, just develop one and after the fact we will grade you on it. They don’t really determine if your plan would actually work. The vast majority of the violations are from lack of documentation or failure to follow your plan, not if it worked or not. Here is a standard so you can see for yourself.

C74CCEAA-1A23-4B58-A01B-0A1503C41BF6.jpeg
 
#155
There’s two main reasons why regulations and laws are always vague in nature. 1 if I specifically tell you to do A and you do A and it doesn’t work or something goes wrong then I’ve assumed the responsibility because I told you to do A, and 2 even if they define exactly what you are supposed to do you will find a way around it example pistol braces and binary triggers.
 
#157
I will be the first to admit that I know very little about the solar panel thing, but I do know that it is not perfect and a lot of the components are from commie crap land. Where I see a huge flaw, is in the electronics, for instance the inverters and the battery systems. Out of pocket cost has to be huge for an average home not to mention maintenance.
Great as long as everything is working, but I don't see them as making you energy independent. You are dependent on the control systems and those that make and supply them. Just a thought or two and feel free to correct me.
Where I do see more potential is the passive water heating systems, but they won't supply the electricity of course.
I see a lot of people hopping on this bandwagon and I wonder if it will be like the electric vehicles in Texas. Remember that the revenue monster is never satisfied so if these things ever do get perfected or become efficient, count on a stage coach robbery or two.
 
#158
I have enough solar to net out my entire home. I got them when Obama had the 80% tax credit going. They have paid for themselves many times over, my monthly bill is $6. With that said they are useless during an outage, unless you have batteries (I don’t ) they stay off and even if they didn’t your out during bad weather and I’ve never had bad weather when the sun was shining.
 
#159
Not to mention solar is making a tiny amount of electricity in the winter, so you are still down to a petrol generator in case of a power outage.

Built sister's house with the water to water heat exchanger and a 300ft deep well for the groundwater pickup , although the costs of heating and cooling are minimal the system is far from carefree and in case of power outage its dead. Its also huge investment to make and practicality depends on geological conditions.

Would always go for LPG you can have a tank( if you don't have residential LNG pipes) for a whole heating season and you can run a generator of it as well , without the gasoline issues you get in generators when you have gasoline stored for longer periods of time.

That generator built into the truck seems a great option as unlike the stand alone generator you never use its way more likely to be ready to go without any prep.
 
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#160
I've been snowed in in this cabin for days, no water due to frozen pipes, no internet connection because the towers got ice on them, no electricity off and on, my four wheel drive for some reason won't go into four wheel so my f-350 is stuck in my driveway. I melted snow to flush the toilet and went and got buckets of water from my neighbors swimming pool.

It's above freezing for the first time in days, setting a record for the longest period of time in Texas 144 hours, to be below freezing.

Fuck snow and freezing temps, I don't want to be Jerimiah Johnson anymore.

This ain't happening again. I'm getting a propane generator and getting off the grid.
 
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#163
#164
Getting off the grid is easier said than done. First the expense then maintenance then the fuel cost will eat you alive. Just stay connected but be prepared for outages. I have 4 generators. A big 12kw gen / welder that will run the entire house, a 7kw Honda inverter type that can run everything in the house but just not all at once, it can run the ac/ heat pump unit alone or water heater and stove together and along with lighting. A 3kw Honda inverter 110 unit that I have wired into both legs, all I have to do is turn off all 220 and everything 110 works fine. Then a little 2kw Honda inverter. The 12 drinks 1 gal/hr the 7 lives on 1 gal/3-6hrs depending on load and the 3 is 1 gal/5-10hrs. I run the 7 about 60-70% of the time and the 3 the rest of the time. During winter my electrical load is lower than summer because my wood heater/ fireplace has ducts going to each room just like central air has and all I have to power is the blower. Water supply is what I struggle with the most.
 
#165
#166
Sgtsideways said:
I will be the first to admit that I know very little about the solar panel thing, but I do know that it is not perfect and a lot of the components are from commie crap land. Where I see a huge flaw, is in the electronics, for instance the inverters and the battery systems. Out of pocket cost has to be huge for an average home not to mention maintenance.
Great as long as everything is working, but I don't see them as making you energy independent. You are dependent on the control systems and those that make and supply them. Just a thought or two and feel free to correct me.
Where I do see more potential is the passive water heating systems, but they won't supply the electricity of course.
I see a lot of people hopping on this bandwagon and I wonder if it will be like the electric vehicles in Texas. Remember that the revenue monster is never satisfied so if these things ever do get perfected or become efficient, count on a stage coach robbery or two.
Click to expand...

If you're thinking about going off-grid, or having a standby system, the first thing is, you have to be honest with yourself, determine what your needs and requirements are, and if they can be met with a budget that you can come to terms with. You need a realistic approach, not some pie in the sky dream that green energy is your salvation to an endless energy source.

I just had this conversation with a friend who lives in Scottsdale, AZ. I told him that a PV solar system with battery storage would work, but would be an expensive proposition if he expects to keep his 3000-sqft home air-conditioned during the middle of Summer. Yes, it can be done, but it will be a large, and expensive.

I told him a better solution would be to go buy a chunk of land in a hilly area outside of town, and build an underground or earth-berm house, that way you don't have to worry about trying to stay cool in the Phoenix where it can get well over 100-deg often.

My electric footprint is small compared to most Americans.
My average monthly use is around 300KWh. Last month was the biggest I've ever seen where it peaked to 347 KWh.

My home has a propane fired boiler for both domestic hot water, and infloor radiant heat. So I think most of my energy use is from that systems circulation pumps, as they run almost constantly during the Winter.

I burn firewood to offset the burning of propane, and here in Colorado, we see an average of more sun than not, so I do get a lot of solar gain in that department also.

With that said, once I disconnect from the grid, my electric needs will be even smaller, as I will rely on the Sun and wood burner for heat, propane for on-demand hot water and stove top cooking. The PV electric/battery plant will solely be for well pump, refrigerator, lights, stereo, and TV, with the occasional wood working projects where I'll have to fire up a table saw, or charge the cordless tools, etc.

I will still have an electric cloths dryer, and plan on exercising the 8Kw Honda standby generator when I dry cloths.

With a 6600 watt inverter, 185-amp service panel, I'll be covered. I just need to get a larger battery plant so I can go extended days without the sun or standby generator. My goal is to eventually get 1100 to 1300 Ah flooded battery plant. The battery plant is the most expensive part of a system, but the prices continue to drop.

My system;

Mission Solar panels assembled in USA (with Chinese grown crystals, can't get away from that part because of our environmental laws)

Magnum battery controller, monitor, and inverter, all made in USA

Currently have C&D AGM battery's in a 48-VDC configuration. Made in USA, as most high Quality batteries available are made here in this country.
 
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#167
Be careful estimating appliance drain when using a generator.
Electric water heaters often have an upper and lower element.
AC and or Heat Pumps draw power to run a compressor.
Electric stove tops and oven and electric clothes dryers are also large draws.
Check ratings first.
 
#168
GrantB said:
Getting off the grid is easier said than done. First the expense then maintenance then the fuel cost will eat you alive. Just stay connected but be prepared for outages. I have 4 generators. A big 12kw gen / welder that will run the entire house, a 7kw Honda inverter type that can run everything in the house but just not all at once, it can run the ac/ heat pump unit alone or water heater and stove together and along with lighting. A 3kw Honda inverter 110 unit that I have wired into both legs, all I have to do is turn off all 220 and everything 110 works fine. Then a little 2kw Honda inverter. The 12 drinks 1 gal/hr the 7 lives on 1 gal/3-6hrs depending on load and the 3 is 1 gal/5-10hrs. I run the 7 about 60-70% of the time and the 3 the rest of the time. During winter my electrical load is lower than summer because my wood heater/ fireplace has ducts going to each room just like central air has and all I have to power is the blower. Water supply is what I struggle with the most.
Click to expand...
Thats what I meant, having a backup power source in case the energy companies want to play the "Lets fuck with the customers and turn their power off" game again.

The first of many times they turned our electricity off in the wee hours of the morning, my well was off and my pipes froze. They're still frozen and won't thaw until tomorrow, maybe. We'll see whats busted.
 
#169
BigPrince said:
Click to expand...


Yea that’s kinda the problem. In our area we have the most trouble with local municipalities and cities that have their own generators. On paper there available to run because they get a small payment for every mw they have available. Their generators are old and not maintained and unreliable so there never called on to run during normal times so they sit there and guess what that does. Per nerc standards they have to run the unit once a year and do a performance test to prove they can operate, and they do after about a week of trying to startup. So they sit there claiming they are available for operation and the transmission planner has to count their generators as part of the available stand by power and when there called on to start they usually get going after the storm has passed. Another issue is you have to run your generator at least once a year and do a performance test, what you produce in that test is now the rating of the unit. Upper management likes to see the biggest number because that number is used in all sorts of ratings and ultimately tied to money. So the pressure is on the generator operator to get biggest numbers possible so they do stuff like run over pressure, bypass the hp heaters so more steam goes through the turbine and run the test after outages knowing the boiler and/or the turbine are their cleanest and can produce the most power. Kinda like the car people do to get the mpg rating on their new cars.
 
#170
GrantB said:
Yea that’s kinda the problem. In our area we have the most trouble with local municipalities and cities that have their own generators. On paper there available to run because they get a small payment for every mw they have available. Their generators are old and not maintained and unreliable so there never called on to run during normal times so they sit there and guess what that does. Per nerc standards they have to run the unit once a year and do a performance test to prove they can operate, and they do after about a week of trying to startup. So they sit there claiming they are available for operation and the transmission planner has to count their generators as part of the available stand by power and when there called on to start they usually get going after the storm has passed. Another issue is you have to run your generator at least once a year and do a performance test, what you produce in that test is now the rating of the unit. Upper management likes to see the biggest number because that number is used in all sorts of ratings and ultimately tied to money. So the pressure is on the generator operator to get biggest numbers possible so they do stuff like run over pressure, bypass the hp heaters so more steam goes through the turbine and run the test after outages knowing the boiler and/or the turbine are their cleanest and can produce the most power. Kinda like the car people do to get the mpg rating on their new cars.
Click to expand...
Standards Working Groups and Drafting Teams at NERC are compromised of industry representatives from all levels of generation/transmission/distribution - IOU, Muni, Co-op, etc. I would suggest speaking with your management about joining one of the teams. I don't mean that in a butthead way - I mean that it sounds like you have ideas of why the standards are not working, and would like to possible contribute.
 
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#171
BigPrince said:
Standards Working Groups and Drafting Teams at NERC are compromised of industry representatives from all levels of generation/transmission/distribution - IOU, Muni, Co-op, etc. I would suggest speaking with your management about joining one of the teams. I don't mean that in a butthead way - I mean that it sounds like you have ideas of why the standards are not working, and would like to possible contribute.
Click to expand...
Yea I’ve been on a couple of those. It Ended up taking too much time away from my “real job”. My company is midsized so transmission and generation engineering was assigned to develop and administer the standards or procedures as well as keep up with the documentation at the same time perform our regular duties. They eventually dedicated a group to help with the regs but they weren’t experts or engineers so they didn’t have the knowledge base to do the heavy lifting. Me in generation and another good guy in transmission have mostly straightened out our company but there is still a lot to improve on. The municipal people are another problem. It seems nobody wants to lay down the law to them for various reasons. They stopped sending me to the munies because I called bs on a lot of stuff, one day I was at a munie teaching there personal how to use the power gads program and I noticed they had the turbine on their boiler feed pump torn apart for some reason so I asked them if the unit was declared unavailable for operation. They said no because they could have it put back together and not delay startup. I laughed and said really. My manager said it was none of our business how they reported their generators. I went back a week later and it was still torn apart. You know this event will end up being like most of the rest, after investigating it they will find a bunch of small stuff happened to align just right to create the perfect storm, No pun intended.
 
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#172
First off, 10-4 on the Earth Stove. We used one to heat our farm house for more than a decade. Kept the whole place warm. Loved it. But, Brenda did not want a wood stove in her new home.

Second, Texas has grown exponentially in recent years. The old joke when I was growing up, was that Texas was the largest state in the union but there were more people living in NYC than in all of Texas. No Longer. Needs have increased exponentially as well.

Third, (the important point) Too many decisions regarding just about every major area of concern in our nation and the world are made by uninformed, uncaring people. These decisions are based on emotions of the people making the decisions and the emotions of the large voting blocks on the far east and far west coast.

We need people in charge who are concerned enough to make real decisions based on real facts and not based on their emotions and/or the (preceived) necessity of being re-elected.

So, why did Texas have issues with power in a time of crisis? The simply was not enough RELIABLE sources to generate electricity.

Me, I like natural gas and nuclear
 
#175
Wiillk said:
First off, 10-4 on the Earth Stove. We used one to heat our farm house for more than a decade. Kept the whole place warm. Loved it. But, Brenda did not want a wood stove in her new home.

Second, Texas has grown exponentially in recent years. The old joke when I was growing up, was that Texas was the largest state in the union but there were more people living in NYC than in all of Texas. No Longer. Needs have increased exponentially as well.

Third, (the important point) Too many decisions regarding just about every major area of concern in our nation and the world are made by uninformed, uncaring people. These decisions are based on emotions of the people making the decisions and the emotions of the large voting blocks on the far east and far west coast.

We need people in charge who are concerned enough to make real decisions based on real facts and not based on their emotions and/or the (preceived) necessity of being re-elected.

So, why did Texas have issues with power in a time of crisis? The simply was not enough RELIABLE sources to generate electricity.

Me, I like natural gas and nuclear
Click to expand...
I agree but easier said than done. I guess I’m woke because I like diversity, coal, gas, hydro, geothermal, and nuclear. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, what’s that about a chicken and a basket.
 
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#176
One more item sorta related. Light bulbs. Old style light bulbs put out 95% heat and 5% light. In many applications for folks who do not live in the city, this has many advantages. They work great to keeping outdoor water systems from freezing and small animal shelters warm. They draw far less energy than small heaters making them safer for the wiring.

Obama never thought of this when he mandated we go to modern “chinese” low energy bulbs. mr and ms obama never thought of a lot of things. I remain forever angry at ms obama’s mandating school lunches to “healthy meals. My students were mostly poor and they needed Calories not celery sticks. I don’t forgive easily when my students were put at risk.
 
#177
Wiillk said:
First off, 10-4 on the Earth Stove. We used one to heat our farm house for more than a decade. Kept the whole place warm. Loved it. But, Brenda did not want a wood stove in her new home.

Second, Texas has grown exponentially in recent years. The old joke when I was growing up, was that Texas was the largest state in the union but there were more people living in NYC than in all of Texas. No Longer. Needs have increased exponentially as well.

Third, (the important point) Too many decisions regarding just about every major area of concern in our nation and the world are made by uninformed, uncaring people. These decisions are based on emotions of the people making the decisions and the emotions of the large voting blocks on the far east and far west coast.

We need people in charge who are concerned enough to make real decisions based on real facts and not based on their emotions and/or the (preceived) necessity of being re-elected.

So, why did Texas have issues with power in a time of crisis? The simply was not enough RELIABLE sources to generate electricity.

Me, I like natural gas and nuclear
Click to expand...
Yup, and thats...stupid, considering we sit on some of the biggest oil and natural gas plays in the world plus I live on the Highland Lakes chains formed by six dams, all of which crank out hydro-electricity. We don't need to be relying on no stinkin' green new deal wind turbines that freeze up in bad weather and having to do an emergency camp-out in your house.

I bet these scheduled, rolling blackouts wouldn't have happened on Trump's watch.
 
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#178
7.62willdo said:
last time I checked you could fit 3 Texas’s inside of Alaska!
Click to expand...
That just demonstrates how old I am. Texas “was” the largest state in the Union when I was young.

Moses was a fine young man, I felt he was destined for greatness when he was a boy. He always called me sir.

I was around when GOD was inventing dirt.
 
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#179
Wiillk said:
That just demonstrates how old I am. Texas “was” the largest state in the Union when I was young.

Moses was a fine young man, I felt he was destined for greatness when he was a boy. He always called me sir.

I was around when GOD was inventing dirt.
Click to expand...
Did Keith Richards hang out with you and Betty White?
 
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#180
GrantB said:
Yea I’ve been on a couple of those. It Ended up taking too much time away from my “real job”. My company is midsized so transmission and generation engineering was assigned to develop and administer the standards or procedures as well as keep up with the documentation at the same time perform our regular duties. They eventually dedicated a group to help with the regs but they weren’t experts or engineers so they didn’t have the knowledge base to do the heavy lifting. Me in generation and another good guy in transmission have mostly straightened out our company but there is still a lot to improve on. The municipal people are another problem. It seems nobody wants to lay down the law to them for various reasons. They stopped sending me to the munies because I called bs on a lot of stuff, one day I was at a munie teaching there personal how to use the power gads program and I noticed they had the turbine on their boiler feed pump torn apart for some reason so I asked them if the unit was declared unavailable for operation. They said no because they could have it put back together and not delay startup. I laughed and said really. My manager said it was none of our business how they reported their generators. I went back a week later and it was still torn apart. You know this event will end up being like most of the rest, after investigating it they will find a bunch of small stuff happened to align just right to create the perfect storm, No pun intended.
Click to expand...
We all make our choices.
 
#182
GrantB said:


Here is the undervoltage / load shedding standard that everyone is so interested in. All these standards apply to EVERYONE and not everyone except ercot.
Click to expand...
The grid got WAY too close to a complete fubar blackout Monday morning also. Frequency was down to 59.6hZ, which most plants under frequency trip is 59.5hZ. Many generation station emergency diesels were started and black start generators were started.

I saw ERCOT's emergency letter to the DOE a few days ago. Doesn't surprise me one bit. One of our sets of combustion turbines is can produce almost 20% more power bypassing the emissions equipment.
 
#183
Alpine 338 said:
You guys see this...

www.infowars.com

Infowars Article

Infowars: There's a War on for your Mind!
www.infowars.com www.infowars.com
Click to expand...
Man oh man, people I know are already suspicious and know something was up, myself included.

Just like the pandemic and all the manufactured drama that trashed Trump's MAGA, Democrats are using every opportunity to punish and cripple Texas and other non conformist states.
 
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#184
My quick take on it is they gave permission to exceed environmental limits all be it at a high cost and not to exceed the limits until they have exhausted every resource available. They did their best to have their cake and eat it to, they wanted to be able to say they gave permission and it’s not our fault but make it really expensive, difficult and taxing for ercot to follow through. Typical political ass hats.
 
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#185
Alpine 338 said:
You guys see this...

www.infowars.com

Infowars Article

Infowars: There's a War on for your Mind!
www.infowars.com www.infowars.com
Click to expand...
BS , has nothing to do with why the grid failed, Texas is basicaly off US grid because it doesn't give a fuck to what 'federales' say and it ended up with a grid that is even more fucked up than rest of US , because it can't get the power from outside. Note that US power grid ranks dead last by a huge margin(order of magnitudes) in terms of grid reliability among western nations.

*no Musk tweets so far?
 
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#187
Wiillk said:
One more item sorta related. Light bulbs. Old style light bulbs put out 95% heat and 5% light. In many applications for folks who do not live in the city, this has many advantages. They work great to keeping outdoor water systems from freezing and small animal shelters warm. They draw far less energy than small heaters making them safer for the wiring.

Obama never thought of this when he mandated we go to modern “chinese” low energy bulbs. mr and ms obama never thought of a lot of things. I remain forever angry at ms obama’s mandating school lunches to “healthy meals. My students were mostly poor and they needed Calories not celery sticks. I don’t forgive easily when my students were put at risk.
Click to expand...
Cool post
 
#188
Sean the Nailer said:
I'm wondering how many of those pools and hot-tubs that have been frozen over, are going to break? Do they even know what to do to prevent that?
Click to expand...
Most pools/spas with up to date modern equipment have freeze guards, a thermostat that automatically turns the equipment on when temps drop below freezing.

When temps drop below freezing and there's a power outage than all bets are off.

My out of town neighbor asked me check on his pool, which I did when I was getting buckets of water out of it to flush the toilets and do dishes, and I told him it was up and running. When I checked it yesterday morning I could hear his pool pump squalling and cavitating which is a sign of dirty filter or low water/air in the pump. I saw he had a substantial leak coming out of a filter so I called him.

He asked me to turn the equipment off and he would call a pool repair guy. (I thought 'Good luck getting someone out the same day.') Anyway, last night was the last below freezing night and it was 20* on my deck when I woke up. We'll see if it caused more damage to the pipes.

His options were slim and none. The pump would have burned up due and would have stopped circulating water if I left it running.
 
#189
TexPatriot said:
Man oh man, people I know are already suspicious and know something was up, myself included.

Just like the pandemic and all the manufactured drama that trashed Trump's MAGA, Democrats are using every opportunity to punish and cripple Texas and other non conformist states.
Click to expand...
Remember the famous words of rahm emmanual:


‘Never allow a crisis to go to waste’​

This will allow for a whole lot of mischief, the likes of which we can't imagine at this time. Texas has now provided a spring board for the blame game and a lot of new regulations that will help to bankrupt the middle class. This has been the end game in d.c. for a long time. Also, watch those 401k's, 403b's, and ira's. They certainly are. After all, it's not your money.

I know it's a little off topic, just looking at how these elites and globalists have operated in the past.
 
#190
BigPrince said:
That is 100% false.
Click to expand...

This is a decade old,and the system was rapidly deteriorating, so even before power outages became Comiefornias national sport and many additional renewables were added , of course some of the diffreneces might be due to distances US grid covers v Europe or Japan ,but most is down to investment into the grid . Maybe Texas finaly joins the grid after this.


gt.jpg

Being on top of this list isn’t good. Larger values of SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) indicate less reliable power. Roughly, SAIDI reflects the average number of minutes per year that customers are without electricity and SAIFI reflects the average number of outages customers experience per year. Americans endure 10 times as many minutes of outages compared to Germans.These outage durations tell only part of the story. In Japan, the average customer loses power once every 20 years. In the United States, it is once every 9 months, excluding hurricanes and other strong storms. Not to mention Outage for- SAIFI count in Europe 3 minutes and in US 5 minutes.

www.tdworld.com

U.S. Power Reliability: Are We Kidding Ourselves?

Over the years, I’ve had a growing niggle that we may be in a little bit of denial about U.S. electric reliability and our power quality in general. I tossed this question out...
www.tdworld.com www.tdworld.com
 
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#191
Mr.BR said:
This is a decade old,and the system was rapidly deteriorating, so even before power outages became Comiefornias national sport and many additional renewables were added , of course some of the diffreneces might be due to distances US grid covers v Europe or Japan ,but most is down to investment into the grid .


gt.jpg

Being on top of this list isn’t good. Larger values of SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) and SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) indicate less reliable power. Roughly, SAIDI reflects the average number of minutes per year that customers are without electricity and SAIFI reflects the average number of outages customers experience per year. Americans endure 10 times as many minutes of outages compared to Germans.These outage durations tell only part of the story. In Japan, the average customer loses power once every 20 years. In the United States, it is once every 9 months, excluding hurricanes and other strong storms. Not to mention Outage for- SAIFI count in Europe 3 minutes and in US 5 minutes.

www.tdworld.com

U.S. Power Reliability: Are We Kidding Ourselves?

Over the years, I’ve had a growing niggle that we may be in a little bit of denial about U.S. electric reliability and our power quality in general. I tossed this question out...
www.tdworld.com www.tdworld.com
Click to expand...

If you have to go to a decade old number to back up your claim, I don't need to say anything else.
 
#192
UKDslayer said:
I live in the smallest, cheapest house in a pretty nice gated community. According to Next-door, all the neighborhoods around me have been experiencing the rolling blackouts since early Monday morning, but we haven't had any. I can only assume some pretty important people live in the more expensive enclaves in the back...I'm kind of ashamed to be the recipient of this benefit.

PS - Climate change my *ss. We are 49 degrees below our average for this time of year. This is HARRP created.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure you are correct. I live in a nice neighborhood. My block was without power yet the next block had NO interruptions at all, power, gas or water. The City Manager lives on that block, two doors from me.
 
#193
carbonbased said:
Exactly how cold and how much snow did Texas get this week? (In general, obv Texas is a vast place)
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In Kerrville it got down to -11 at my house. The snow was hardly an issue, but as soon as cars drove on it, it hardpacked. Previous to the snow, we had sleet and freezing rain, so the roads were slicker'n snot.
No one down here knows how to drive in those conditions, so it was a handmade disaster, from that alone. In Oregon, I drove to Bend from Lakeview on secondary roads, over 2 feet of snow, often. No big deal. IN Texas the system was paralyzed, the people shocked, and panicked.
On a day between storms when it cleared, there was a run on gas stations and the two supermarkets. Cleaned out in hours. Since the roads were still frozen, people with 2 WD cars were stuck at intersections, and on any slight incline, or rear-ending others at lights. Then the lights stopped working, compounding the situation.
I though my pipes were frozen, but actually the water system had shut down, they lost LARGE pipes, and drained the entire system before they figured it out.
Worse, service workers, and linemen here often do not have that final level of cold weather gear that allows one to work in arctic conditions with impunity. Guys were getting hurt, or unable to put in significant work time before having to break or quit.
The Rangers at the Alamo stood their ground, but were very badly exposed. I hope none were injured. The cold and wind were unforgiving.
One side of my pickup was completely glassed over by frozen rain, on the first night.
For me, no big deal, we have proper preparations, including water, and heating. For seniors living in mobile home parks, they were freezing, literally.
Today it should get to 50f. Every single plumber is out and there are none coming from San Antonio, to provide relief, since that town is dealing with the same issues, broken pipes and such.
I filled my trucks tanks the day before the storm.
Added no-gel to the diesel.
Bought salt from Walmart before that closed down.
Shoveled snow BEFORE it consolidated, so I could get to the mailbox, all those little tricks you know from living up north.
Checked on my neighbors, especially the widow across the street, and the old couple (who live on the block that didn't lose power.
Only had one small pipe crack on a feed line. Pex, so I was able to fix that immediately.
It is over for now, until the government powers up the HAARP again, to punish Texas for voting Red.
 
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#194
hankpac said:
In Kerrville it got down to -11 at my house. The snow was hardly an issue, but as soon as cars drove on it, it hardpacked. Previous to the snow, we had sleet and freezing rain, so the roads were slicker'n snot.
No one down here knows how to drive in those conditions, so it was a handmade disaster, from that alone. In Oregon, I drove to Bend from Lakeview on secondary roads, over 2 feet of snow, often. No big deal. IN Texas the system was paralyzed, the people shocked, and panicked.
On a day between storms when it cleared, there was a run on gas stations and the two supermarkets. Cleaned out in hours. Since the roads were still frozen, people with 2 WD cars were stuck at intersections, and on any slight incline, or rear-ending others at lights. Then the lights stopped working, compounding the situation.
I though my pipes were frozen, but actually the water system had shut down, they lost LARGE pipes, and drained the entire system before they figured it out.
Worse, service workers, and linemen here often do not have that final level of cold weather gear that allows one to work in arctic conditions with impunity. Guys were getting hurt, or unable to put in significant work time before having to break or quit.
The Rangers at the Alamo stood their ground, but were very badly exposed. I hope none were injured. The cold and wind were unforgiving.
One side of my pickup was completely glassed over by frozen rain, on the first night.
For me, no big deal, we have proper preparations, including water, and heating. For seniors living in mobile home parks, they were freezing, literally.
Today it should get to 50f. Every single plumber is out and there are none coming from San Antonio, to provide relief, since that town is dealing with the same issues, broken pipes and such.
I filled my trucks tanks the day before the storm.
Added no-gel to the diesel.
Bought salt from Walmart before that closed down.
Shoveled snow BEFORE it consolidated, so I could get to the mailbox, all those little tricks you know from living up north.
Checked on my neighbors, especially the widow across the street, and the old couple (who live on the block that didn't lose power.
Only had one small pipe crack on a feed line. Pex, so I was able to fix that immediately.
It is over for now, until the government powers up the HAARP again, to punish Texas for voting Red.
Click to expand...
I bet the HEBs in Kerrville and Fredericksburg were busy. Got down to 0 on my back deck here on Lake Travis with a -15 wind chill.

What Yankees don't realize when they scoff at Texans for reacting to this record setting cold is we have humidity here to mix in with the cold. It cuts deeper and harder than dry cold and goes in like a Bowie knife.

I lived in Washington for two years as a military brat, left there in Nov. '66 with two feet of snow on the ground and when we arrived back here in Austin right when a blue 'norther hit I never felt such cold. My mom had to buy me a heavier coat than the one I wore in Washington when I arrived back here.

I've spoken to guys that have worked on the Alaskan Pipeline who said they worked in well below zero temps but never felt the deep, bruising cold like we have here in Texas.
 
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#198
Mr.BR said:
BS , has nothing to do with why the grid failed, Texas is basicaly off US grid because it doesn't give a fuck to what 'federales' say and it ended up with a grid that is even more fucked up than rest of US , because it can't get the power from outside. Note that US power grid ranks dead last by a huge margin(order of magnitudes) in terms of grid reliability among western nations.

*no Musk tweets so far?
Click to expand...
Everything you’ve posted in this thread is complete bullshit. Stop making a fool of yourself.
 
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#199
I am seeing on the news down here in tx all these citizens saying “poor me”. They are lashing out at sen Cruz for going on vacation. Why isn’t anybody blaming biden? I guarantee if President Trump was in the White House he would be blamed for this somehow. Gotta blame somebody so the dems are blaming sen cruz.

I even seen how aoc has raised something like $2mil for texas. She is trying to buy votes for 2022 and 2024.
 
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