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Texas grid-here we go again.

tomcatmv

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Apr 13, 2017
2,481
3,906
Central Texas
Just got this email yesterday about power here in Texas. Here we go again.
 

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Google offered me $50 to sign-up for a program that allows Ercot to control my Nest thermostats in these conditions...
They claim you can manually over-ride it once they raise the temperature...
Fuck that... keep your money.
 
That was one of the big issues that many voiced when Texas forced residents to switch to the Smart Meters. In fact, I don't think that they gave you a choice. Many believe that the smart meters will give the state the ability to remotely shut off electricity to the homes that the state deemed to be using too much electricity.
My neighbor works in the electrical generation industry. The ability to remotely turn off your meter IS there. At least for the power companies, so they can easily shut you off for non-payment.
 
I believe this is how they managed micro-black-outs here back in Feb. They didn't turn off power in blocks/areas with hospitals, police or fire stations, but there were a few areas they kept on-line without these such as the area McKinney mayor lives in as well. They kept his entire apartment complex with power. He also owns several business within the same complex.
 
My neighbor works in the electrical generation industry. The ability to remotely turn off your meter IS there. At least for the power companies, so they can easily shut you off for non-payment.
Fuck'em, whole house LP generator.
 
My neighbor works in the electrical generation industry. The ability to remotely turn off your meter IS there. At least for the power companies, so they can easily shut you off for non-payment.
Something that people fail to realize is that power companies use their wires to communicate,they've been doing that for years.
Something that wasn't brought up when the power was out this winter was their 1st choice in communication was severed.
 
Wait until the entire country gets a heat wave this summer.

And then next summer, adding in the retired plants.

And the next summer, with more units offline.

This cuntry ain't seen nuthin' yet.

By the time it comes to a head, there's no turning back.

Vote Democrat, early and often 👍
 
Wait until the entire country gets a heat wave this summer.

And then next summer, adding in the retired plants.

And the next summer, with more units offline.

This cuntry ain't seen nuthin' yet.

By the time it comes to a head, there's no turning back.

Vote Democrat, early and often 👍
Yeah, except there are already power generation systems that only run for a few hours each YEAR, but are fully staffed year round.
 
Yeah, except there are already power generation systems that only run for a few hours each YEAR, but are fully staffed year round.
Are there some, yes. That is a misnomer. The days of peak plants everywhere are long over. The black baby Jesus shut down over 80 in one bill, many large generation plants after.

Are there very many left?

No. And they are basically retired in place now.

Most are scheduled for retirement if not already.

Bottom line is this. We aren't replacing base load generation at all, and they are being shut down each year.

Solar and wind won't do the job.

Nuclear is feared, some justified some not.

Hydro....that's pretty easy to understand why.

Fossil is the answer, scrubbed plants aren't understood even more so than nuclear.

NG, well it's cool as long as that commodity works out fiscally. And if it already running prior to a cold snap.

Combined cycle,,,,,and on it goes.

Now, take the subsidies off of so called renewables let people see what it really is, and they'd scream from the rafters.

And back to your comment, no, that's not a thing anymore.

Again, vote Democrat early and often
 
Was in a supermarket yesterday - two power outs, one lasting 30 minutes, in less than an hour...I said to others "well, as we were told to expect" and everyone else looked shocked "what do you mean??"...
 
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Was in a supermarket yesterday - two power outs, one lasting 30 minutes, in less than an hour...I saw to others "well, as we were told to expect" and everyone else looked shocked "what do you mean??"...
California pulls that shit. Rolling brown outs or whatever. Just to act like the grid is failing. Such a joke. But then push electric cars.... like that won’t have an impact on the already “overworked” system. And how about the nuke plant by camp Pendleton? Offline. I am sure for more bs reasons.
 
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Most smart meters do not have the capability of turning the power off, that option cost money and there is no reason to have that on a residential customer. Accounts subject to frequent changes like apartments are another matter and they frequently do have that ability. Meters communicate two different ways, some use the power lines others use radio signals that communicate with other meters and to repeaters located throughout the service area, it just depends on how a company wants it. I’m in MISO and can tell you what the projected load and generation capability is for tomorrow, next week and even a month out but longer range forecast are less accurate of course. Someone in ERCOT can do the same but that is very confidential information that has to go through the power company, the state’s public service commission, in Texas that’s the railroad commission and NERC before anything is made public. There are different levels of contingency plans kind of like defcon 1-2-3 and they’re dependent on current conditions as well as forecast.
 
We are moving a shit load of gas East
 

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There was a mixup when we moved in.. they disabled our power remotely and after we called they turned it back on within an hour. Nobody came by the house.
 
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Yeah, I got a notification yesterday. Meh, I grew up without AC so I am not worried.
A big difference between the housing then and now. Newer housing is built airtight and without A/C is hotter than shit and deteriorates quickly. Old homes in the south were were built specifically to move air and create shade. I’ve seen new homes in Florida, built so airtight per new standards, that they start mold growth inside in less than two weeks without A/C.
 
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Shouldn’t have the loss of generation from plants tripping due to freezing, that was a kind of perfect storm situation. A summer perfect storm would be little or no wind and solar not producing because of clouds, high loads and unexpected loss of some large base load units. This may cause localized under voltage and or frequency excursions. Gas shouldn’t be a problem because there isn’t a demand from residential customers to heat their homes.
 
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I remember in school studying native americans that lived here in Tx. In Tx history class taught by coach coachly. Anyways they had these huge huts with ceiling fans, inside blades on a shaft connected to outside blades. Pretty genius as long as there is a breeze.
 
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A big difference between the housing then and now. Newer housing is built airtight and without A/C is hotter than shit and deteriorates quickly. Old homes in the south were were built specifically to move air and create shade. I’ve seen new homes in Florida, built so airtight per new standards, that they start mold growth inside in less than two weeks without A/C.
Yup! The old “Shotgun shack”. Long and narrow with a straight shot from front door to back door and a pier and beam foundation for airflow under the house. Open both doors and the windows in the side rooms and the air flow moved well and those old houses felt pretty cool. And they all had covered porches and old growth hardwoods for shade. It always flabbergasts me when someone buys a lot, cuts down all the shade trees and puts a house In the middle of a fucking barren field. Or how about that blast from the past… a whole house attic fan. My first place in Arkansas had one (all the old houses did) and you would open the doors, turn that sucker on and the airflow would blow your hair back. Eh, ancient technology. Worked pretty damn well!
 
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Google offered me $50 to sign-up for a program that allows Ercot to control my Nest thermostats in these conditions...
They claim you can manually over-ride it once they raise the temperature...
Fuck that... keep your money.
tenor.gif
 
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Bro, if its hot and the power goes out. We bbq and keep the beer on ice. Sit around a fire pit... its not so bad, as long as its not cold nobody should bitch at all.
This.

Just get out of the sun and hope for a light breeze. Of course if your 95 and in an apt in Dallas and no power that can be tough to do.

Fuck snow and ice and cold.
 
Y'all should coordinate and start your clothes dryers and central AC all at the same time

That's about 18 - 20 KW of surge per home.
 
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This entire thing is more of a political move then anything else. The Socialist hate that they cannot get into the grid.
 
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I will say if you own a pool, variable speed pumps work awesomely, I used to have a regular 1.5 hp iG pump on my pool that i ran for 8 hours a day. Usually, during the late morning into the early evening 7 days a week. When it died, I upgraded to a variable speed. I ran my pump 24 hours a day 7 days a week on a low rpm setting of around 1300 and my bill dropped close to a hundred bucks a month. What is also nice with variable speed pumps is when you want to turn on the waterfalls, jets, slide etc.. you just hit button and the pump will kick it up to however fast you want the water to move then drop back down to low speed once the party is over.
 
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Bro, if its hot and the power goes out. We bbq and keep the beer on ice. Sit around a fire pit... its not so bad, as long as its not cold nobody should bitch at all.
Until half a beef in the deep freeze starts to thaw, and everything in the fridge starts to turn.
 
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This entire thing is more of a political move then anything else. The Socialist hate that they cannot get into the grid.
That isn't anywhere close to reality.

Spend some time studying this issue before being so sure of your opinion.

Two threads to pull on to help you.

1: the political slant of utility CEOs'
Mine is a leftist. Daily reading of leftist propaganda in meetings, true story.

2: how every single critical infrastructure item is controlled remotely, read internet. Load center controls our plant remotely, just like every other plant. There's a lot more, if you study it, you'll understand. It's mostly open source, but not all.

I work in generation, if everyone knew, understood and had comprehensive knowledge of this house of cards, there would be great concern to put it mildly.
 
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Bro, if its hot and the power goes out. We bbq and keep the beer on ice. Sit around a fire pit... its not so bad, as long as its not cold nobody should bitch at all.
This reminds me of Alas Babylon.
 
That isn't anywhere close to reality.

Spend some time studying this issue before being so sure of your opinion.

Two threads to pull on to help you.

1: the political slant of utility CEOs'
Mine is a leftist. Daily reading of leftist propaganda in meetings, true story.

2: how every single critical infrastructure item is controlled remotely, read internet. Load center controls our plant remotely, just like every other plant. There's a lot more, if you study it, you'll understand. It's mostly open source, but not all.

I work in generation, if everyone knew, understood and had comprehensive knowledge of this house of cards, there would be great concern to put it mildly.
One of the other big factors is a de regulated market. But then your have regulations that skew the market. Such as wind and solar with priority. There is less and less thermal rolling generation every year. Aging plants everywhere that are expensive to maintain.

Load dispatch doesn't get to remotely control our plant! They have to call us.

People want cheap power and on all the time, that is getting tougher to do in this market. I also work in generation. That's why 15kw of solar got built this year , enhancements to the generator setup were done also.
 
One of the other big factors is a de regulated market. But then your have regulations that skew the market. Such as wind and solar with priority. There is less and less thermal rolling generation every year. Aging plants everywhere that are expensive to maintain.

Load dispatch doesn't get to remotely control our plant! They have to call us.

People want cheap power and on all the time, that is getting tougher to do in this market. I also work in generation. That's why 15kw of solar got built this year , enhancements to the generator setup were done also
15 kW 😂, what a fucking joke.

Each of our units puts out well over 600 MW.

They're putting them up all over my area too. On good farmland no less.

Great planning 👍.

And it's our fault. Everything is out there to see. Nobody cares. But they know what their neighbors posted on facefuck. And the stats of their favorite sports ball team.

Priorities I guess.

We could both post a doctoral thesis on the current state of generation vs demand, future load demands, and a hundred other things.

But it wouldn't matter.

Too many people are intellectually lazy and lack an understanding of what is coming.

We both see the day to day on the screens, I'm an old turbine operator. Not ever sitting on the board, someone has to tell the kids where to go and what to run towards vs away from.

You'd know my plant by name, it's grown into a scary frigging machine over the last year's. No money, lost tier 1 status, takes 3-6 days to spin one up anymore, hell, the load center has cancelled a start up in the middle because simply takes too long anymore.

3550 psi
1050 deg steam.

That shit is finding interesting ways out because of no repairs, even on outages.

Anyways, I could go on for days, but I'll wager you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The bottom line is this.

Electrical generation is the most important thing in this country. Without exception.

Without it, every single thing stops.

But personally, I'd take the 1850s' again. Separates the herd pretty quickly.

Anyone who gives it a serious look will realize this issue us getting close to critical mass.

Any wonder why they are changing it so drastically ?

Of course not.
 
Until half a beef in the deep freeze starts to thaw, and everything in the fridge starts to turn.
I have a dual fuel generator just in case. Barring that one of the perks of being an oil feild guy is i know where an unlimited supply of lightplants are that are filled with deisel. I can do the ole swaparoonie indefinitely.
 
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To surmise, they are taking money from reliable generation methods, and pouring it into unreliable generation methods, while making regulations to ensure we can't build or maintain the plants that reliably produce power. In the mean time they continue to use other tax dollars to cover the cost of these unreliable methods, so people don't get savvy to the actual cost before the whole thing comes to a head.

Very much like the water crisis in CA after destroying hundreds of damns.
 
That isn't anywhere close to reality.

Spend some time studying this issue before being so sure of your opinion.

Two threads to pull on to help you.

1: the political slant of utility CEOs'
Mine is a leftist. Daily reading of leftist propaganda in meetings, true story.

2: how every single critical infrastructure item is controlled remotely, read internet. Load center controls our plant remotely, just like every other plant. There's a lot more, if you study it, you'll understand. It's mostly open source, but not all.

I work in generation, if everyone knew, understood and had comprehensive knowledge of this house of cards, there would be great concern to put it mildly.
I do understand infrastructure and I have studied it extensively. I also understand the political motives of taking from the haves and making them pay for the shit stains. Look at the California grid and research that before you say YOU understand. They pull from everyone around them too feed the socialist beast.
 
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To surmise, they are taking money from reliable generation methods, and pouring it into unreliable generation methods, while making regulations to ensure we can't build or maintain the plants that reliably produce power. In the mean time they continue to use other tax dollars to cover the cost of these unreliable methods, so people don't get savvy to the actual cost before the whole thing comes to a head.

Very much like the water crisis in CA after destroying hundreds of damns.
Yes.

Fwiw, I watched a sky news program on YouTube months ago. It referenced the green energy push, effects and cost currently in Australia.

I'm not there, won't ever be there, but it seemed pretty legit and should be a bellwether.

But it's not. So onwards we push into a very painful future.
 
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I do understand infrastructure and I have studied it extensively. I also understand the political motives of taking from the haves and making them pay for the shit stains. Look at the California grid and research that before you say YOU understand. They pull from everyone around them too feed the socialist beast.
Lol, you win.

I don't know anything about it.

The post I quoted was wrong, I called you out, nicely, your ego is mad.

Get over it. This is political yes, it's much larger than simply politics.
 
I'm guessing that's his personal home including the generator comment. Seems reasonable to me.
I bought 12kw of panels, hybrid inverter, and 13kw of battery backup along with my generator.
I have some too, I get the math.

Do the math that would require each home, every one of them, not a grid tie but an actual standalone capable with batteries for all the times where extremely inefficient, degrading solar necessary to replace the base load generation we were talking about. As a point, the extreme swings of this stuff not to mention the unreliability of it is trashing the remaining base load units left.

He got what I meant, I guess you didn't.

Solar is a decent concept to help out grid, wind is okay, neither replaces base load needs. And it never will. I'm sure he sees the same projected vs actual vs demand screens I see. It isn't always 75 and sunny.

I keep using that term because it's important, not just two words I randomly chose to type out.

Base load is the Lynch pin and it's being removed yearly, and not sufficiently replaced. What replacements exist are not reliable or proper long term substitutes.

There is so much money in renewable subsidies that corporations are falling over themselves to get their hand in your pockets. Corporations and politicians don't give a damn about the long term effects of this scam.

It's an ideological cult.