Well...it’s finally a Cold Day in Hell.

[geohorn]

There’s a classic old poem “Hell In Texas” ... written by someone in a former-century when it was fun to make-fun about the best place to live in the world.... BUT... it finally got seriously COLD this week. The coldest I’d ever witnessed in my 70+ years here in central Tx was about 17-F...and that only rarely, maybe every 4 or 5 years.

In the past I’d read about the guys online here that discussed ad nauseam which Anti-Gel additive to use...and after the umpteenth discussion-thread on that subject I quit “clicking” on them in search of a more interesting topic. Diesel doesn’t “gel” until it gets colder than 15-F. Never thought I’d have to face the problem. It’s Six-Degrees here right now and forecast to drop further tomorrow night.

I decided to go check on my water-well-house about 1/4 mile away before retiring last night and repaired pipe-insulation I’ve been ignoring for years. I also placed a milk-house heater out there and aimed it appropriately.... and immediately 6 baby field mice gathered around it ...No kidding! (I’ll give ‘em somthing to eat later today.).
I gave my little RTV-X900 about 10 secs of GlowPlug and she fired right up... but she lives in a metal bldg where the interior is at 40-F. After a warm up, she drove around just fine on my two trips to the well-house and back for supplies.

Citizens and “Authorities” are all acting crazy over this... They are actually deliberately instituting “rolling blackouts” as a “Preventive Measure” to avoid excess energy use! (This is in an area that has 5 hydro-electric lakes, and a wholly-owned (Austin Energy) atomic energy plant down on the coast.... meanwhile warning citizens to be careful, stay warm, and look after the elderly.... while THEY reduce power. Doh).
Meanwhile, local television is making an announcement which they apparently believe is “News”.... Their statement is: “If you go out driving... You are on your own!”

Is that something new for anybody?
It seems a self-imposed idiocy is going around.

Meanwhile, I’ve got my generator fueled up and ready just in-case. The dog (a whiteGerman/Swiss Sheperd) won’t even go out in the 4” of snow. ?

 

[Mork]

Funny but what you discribe is a typical winter here in eastern Canada.

 

[Bigorangething]

I was thinking the same thing. Minus 36F here in Wisconsin today. Chicken eggs freeze solid before we can pick them up. ?

 

[Rtarchery]

Rearranged the garage and got the Bobcat welder out. Been without power in Round Rock since 2 yesterday morning. A bucket of water froze in the garage. Up to 22* finally. I've figured out Oncor's meaning of rolling blackouts-- when you roll into a blackout you won't roll out.

 

[RickW]

I am just NorthEast of Downtown Dallas and for the past 36 hours we have been part of the rolling blackouts. Initially 20/on then 10/off. This morning they went to 10/on 10/off. Now we are up to 30/on 15/off. Not a lot of fun.

The reason for the power issues is lack of prep for the storm (weather had it right for 1 week prior to storm). Basically generation facilities not fully prepped for the extreme cold (too expensive). Thank you deregulation! Plus a dependence on electricity from Mexico .......

 

[shinnery]

Well I had six hour off then 3 1/2 hours on and 9 hours off. It got down to -4 in Abilene and I was down to 28 in the bedroom when it came back on the last time. Sooooo far. Some rolling blackout......

 

[geohorn]

Our lovely politicians decided that they didn’t want higher gov’ts to regulate downward... so to prevent Federal regulation of Texas electricity our politicians created ERCOT , Electric Reliability Council of Texas... (if THAT’s not a misnomer).... the idea that Texas would have its OWN GRID separate from the rest of the country...and will not sell electricity out of state...and has no plan to purchase from other grids. (Although last time they got into trouble like this (2011?) they bought electricity from MEXICO so they’d not have to go begging with hat-in-hand to the other U.S. Grids. ...Anyway... I notice our governor is on TV every day pontificating on Austin city mgmnt, Covid-19, global warming.... and blaming the ERCOT they created... while threatening Austin that the state will take-over Austin city govt services if Austin reforms it’s police budge. (I thought he didn’t approve of higher govts regulating smaller govts...)...
ANYWAY.... the ERCOT they created which serves only Texas and will not exchange with other electrical grids.... that silly man is blaming ERCOT for the power-shortage.... which has a MANAGER those politicians approved... a man who lives in MICHIGAN ! LOLOL

 

[RickW]

Our lovely politicians decided that they didn’t want higher gov’ts to regulate downward... so to prevent Federal regulation of Texas electricity our politicians created ERCOT , Electric Reliability Council of Texas... (if THAT’s not a misnomer).... the idea that Texas would have its OWN GRID separate from the rest of the country...and will not sell electricity out of state...and has no plan to purchase from other grids. (Although last time they got into trouble like this (2011?) they bought electricity from MEXICO so they’d not have to go begging with hat-in-hand to the other U.S. Grids.

Actually ERCOT does still purchase power from Mexico. The dependency on cheap power from Mexico is just one puzzle piece of this catastrophic failure. When the temperatures crashed, Mexico had less power to sell as they needed it for itself. That is why Abbot got on Fox News and started blaming it on "Wind" and "Green" energy. Funny thing is Wind/Green energy accounts for about 10% of the energy resources/supply. Gov Abbot has also confirmed, all be it quietly, that Coal, Natural Gas & Nuclear (about 75% of resources/supply) all experienced failures contributing to this current crises.

...Anyway... I notice our governor is on TV every day pontificating on Austin city mgmnt, Covid-19, global warming.... and blaming the ERCOT they created... while threatening Austin that the state will take-over Austin city govt services if Austin reforms it’s police budge. (I thought he didn’t approve of higher govts regulating smaller govts...)...
ANYWAY.... the ERCOT they created which serves only Texas and will not exchange with other electrical grids.... that silly man is blaming ERCOT for the power-shortage.... which has a MANAGER those politicians approved... a man who lives in MICHIGAN ! LOLOL

ERCOT is being setup as the political scapegoat in my opinion. I spent 9 years as in a elected post serving the city I live in. On Tuesday when Abbott got on TV, started blaming ERCOT I knew right away by the tone & positioning that ERCOT was being setup to take the fall weather they deserved it or not. ERCOT only manages the grid. ERCOT does not generate power. ERCOT can only tell the generators that more power is needed but can not make them. If the power is not created/produced then ERCOT has to shed load from the grid to prevent a failure of the grid.

Wholesale power on the free market in Texas typically sells for about $50/Mw. Over the past few days the wholesale rate peaked at $9k/Mw. Imagine being a retail customer who has their rate based on market rate and not a fixed rate? Your next electric bill is going to a heart stopper!

I think some of the companies who run the generators knew that the cost of fuel was about to spike due to demand from the weather. Due to contracts with some of the brokers it was more profitable to shutdown and pay contract fines vs deliver power at a contracted prices with fuel prices spiking. Other generators failed to winterize their generators. Winterizing is expensive. If the storm fizzles and winterizing was not necessary then they save big bucks for not winterizing.

What really sucks is those of who purchase our power from coops or municipal electric companies. We have to participate in the energy grid but are unable to participate in the same free market others in the power grid participate in. We are forced to participate in the Coop or municipal utility due to where we live. So we pay a higher price typically for power but also traditionally have a balanced (supply/demand) system. My coop was able to meet demand. Same for a local municipal utility just south of me. But customers in both endured rolling blackouts because of the grid failing.

I think when the dust settles and if we are allowed to hear the REAL answers we will learn that capitalism is the root of the failure. Don't get me wrong, I am all for capitalism. It is why my business is successful. I clearly see the framework here where doing nothing or not preparing was more profitable. In capitalism there is no incentive selling at a loss. By design a company will always follow the money unless the company is willing to lose money to do the right thing. In todays world a CEO only needs 1 non-profitable quarter to be out of a job. As dependent as we are to things like power and water we need to ask ourselves is it in our best interest to let capitalism govern these necessities of life. T Boone Pickens made his fortune in fossil energy. The last 20 years of his life he was investing in "water rights". He clearly saw water ownership as the next big resource to be the owner of. Are we prepared for what we are setting ourselves up for?

 

[bordercollie]

Well, it supposed to be much warmer today so hopefully we can get a load of our feed in. It was supposed to come well over a week ago so we were running very short. Power came back on last evening.

 

[aurthuritis]

The Real Cost of Wind and Solar

The main problem with either wind or solar is that they generate electricity erratically, depending on the wind or sunshine. In contrast, a fossil-fuel plant can generate electricity predictably upon request. Blackouts are very expensive for society,...

www.americanthinker.com

cost of wind power

 

[aurthuritis]

coldest we got was -14F 35 mph wind. the new holland tS100 tractor with a flame starter fired right up!!! the RTV started up fine but the transmission oil was to thick to run. the Kubota MX5100 tractor started right up also. i used copious amounts of anti gel before the storm hit so i was good to go.

 

[geohorn]

RickWs’ post pretty well is how I saw it the moment Abbott got on-camera... he seems to be running for another office...the peter-principle-in-politics...
I was prepared with a standby generator.... I guess that’s why I never need it. I’m on a co-op (PEC) and on a small, relatively unimportant branch-line so figured I’d lose the power early-on.... I guess this branch went unnoticed as we never lost power except for a “blink” that made me reset the clocks....and that was all.

 

[aurthuritis]

i remember on the first day of the outages there was a rep from the southwest power pool talking on tv. he was referring to these as "PLANNED" power outages. he went on to say uncomfortably that this was all caused by some sort of climate agreement that the states had with the FED.
now the narrative has changed to rolling blackouts

 

[HBTexas]

hehehe Turning the whole country into Calif with those rolling black outs.
Man was cold as hell here in East Texas too.. think it go to 6 below zero.. and we got about 10 inches of that snow mess.
That must be the Liberals version of Global Warming ?? I aint buying it !

I sure did enjoy those trips to the store in the X1100C.. warm heat . Even pulled a couple of trucks that had slid off the road out . Had lots of fun .