Texas' Underregulated Energy Grid Responsible For Millions Without Heat, Electricity

Guno צְבִי

We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
Texas' privately managed power grid is responsible for leaving millions of residents without power after a once-in-a-century winter storm. Not connected to any other power grids that could have mitigated this self inflicted disaster

 
Texas' privately managed power grid is responsible for leaving millions of residents without power after a once-in-a-century winter storm. Not connected to any other power grids that could have mitigated this self inflicted disaster


Even worse?

DALLAS—As a historic winter storm raged across Texas over the weekend, Akilah Scott-Amos received an alarming message from her power company: Please switch services because “prices are about to explode.”

The 43-year-old owner of an organic skincare and apothecary shop was initially confused by the message from Griddy, which sells wholesale power for a monthly membership, but she began to look for other providers.

Then she checked her bill.

“I paid $450 for one day. I was in shock,” Scott-Amos told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “It made no sense because we have a gas heater, a gas fireplace, and we have been keeping the temperature around the house at 65 degrees. With that amount of money, and the labeled amount of usage Griddy said was used—we would have to be lighting up the whole neighborhood.”

The nightmare only got worse on Monday, when she realized her bill had increased by another $2,500. In comparison, Scott-Amos paid $33.93 last year for the entire month of February.

“I don’t have that type of money,” she said. “I now owe Griddy $2,869.11. This is going to put me in debt, this is going to mess up my credit. Are they going to cut me off? In the middle of this ongoing crisis?”

Data from ERCOT suggests the price of getting the lights back on might be too steep for some Texans. As first reported by Reuters, the market prices on the power grid spiked more than 10,000 percent on Monday in the aftermath of the deep freeze. Prices skyrocketed to more than $9,000 per megawatt-hour—compared to the pre-storm prices of less than $50 per hour.

www.yahoo.com/news/5-152-power-bill-texas...

Teabagger "capitalism".
 
Texas' privately managed power grid is responsible for leaving millions of residents without power after a once-in-a-century winter storm. Not connected to any other power grids that could have mitigated this self inflicted disaster


Here is the thing with Texas electricity....they have not invested anywhere near enough into their system...they have chased making electricity as cheap as possible and yet it is only slightly cheaper than the US average....50% of it is produced with gas which is from the state, they should be able to get good prices, and yet electric prices are only slightly below the national average.

I smell profiters skimming money, and corrupt politicians, and citizens who are not paying attention as they are being swindled.

Tell me I am wrong.
 
Even worse?

DALLAS—As a historic winter storm raged across Texas over the weekend, Akilah Scott-Amos received an alarming message from her power company: Please switch services because “prices are about to
======.
snip

Even if this happens to relatively few people the political class that allowed to happen is sunk.

This is abuse.
 
The Texas political class has been telling anyone who will listen over the last decade "We are doing things different, we are doing things better, the nation should follow our example".

Obviously not went it comes to either natural gas production or power production or power grid management....obviously.
 
Even if this happens to relatively few people the political class that allowed to happen is sunk.

This is abuse.

Yes, it is.

If it happened with one provider, I'm sure there are several others doing the same.

Wonder if Abbott with address this obvious gouging.
 
There is so much to fall out from this, one of the bigger things is that Mexico just got a 2x4 upside the head lesson that Texas government is incompetent, irresponsible, and undependable.
 
Texas' privately managed power grid is responsible for leaving millions of residents without power after a once-in-a-century winter storm. Not connected to any other power grids that could have mitigated this self inflicted disaster


At least El Paso and Beaumont are unscathed.

Texas is nearing the end of what Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called "a once-in-every-120-year cold front," but that doesn't entirely explain why more than a million households still had no electricity early Thursday, after three full days of below-freezing temperatures. Plenty of places in the world keep their power on in prolonged arctic weather, and so did parts of Texas.

Those edges of Texas, including El Paso, "are primarily in areas outside of those supported by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the electric grid for 90 percent of the state and operates separately from federal oversight and regulation," KHOU 11 Houston reported Wednesday night.

After the 2011 winter freeze, El Paso Electric, on the Western Interconnect grid, spent heavily to "winterize our equipment and facilities so they could stand minus-10 degree weather for a sustained period of time," Eddie Gutierrez, an El Paso Electric spokesman, told KHOU. So this year, "we had about three thousand people that were out during this period, a thousand of them had outages that were less than five minutes."

On the other side of Texas, near the Louisiana border, the city of Beaumont also appears to have weather the storm without massive outages. Entergy, which powers Beaumont on the Eastern Interconnect grid, told KHOU it also winterized its infrastructure after the 2011 storm. Weatherizing power generation and extraction equipment is voluntary in Texas, though the state legislature will probably revisit that strategy when it dissects ERCOT this year.

news.yahoo.com/parts-texas-not-ercot-power...
 
At least El Paso and Beaumont are unscathed.

Texas is nearing the end of what Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called "a once-in-every-120-year cold front," but that doesn't entirely explain why more than a million households still had no electricity-
===============
snip..

The experts have no idea when the gas lines will thaw and get back into use.
 
At least El Paso and Beaumont are unscathed.

Texas is nearing the end of what Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called "a once-in-every-120-year cold front," but that doesn't entirely explain why more than a million households still had no electricity early Thursday, after three full days of below-freezing temperatures. Plenty of places in the world keep their power on in prolonged arctic weather, and so did parts of Texas.

Those edges of Texas, including El Paso, "are primarily in areas outside of those supported by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the electric grid for 90 percent of the state and operates separately from federal oversight and regulation," KHOU 11 Houston reported Wednesday night.

After the 2011 winter freeze, El Paso Electric, on the Western Interconnect grid, spent heavily to "winterize our equipment and facilities so they could stand minus-10 degree weather for a sustained period of time," Eddie Gutierrez, an El Paso Electric spokesman, told KHOU. So this year, "we had about three thousand people that were out during this period, a thousand of them had outages that were less than five minutes."

On the other side of Texas, near the Louisiana border, the city of Beaumont also appears to have weather the storm without massive outages. Entergy, which powers Beaumont on the Eastern Interconnect grid, told KHOU it also winterized its infrastructure after the 2011 storm. Weatherizing power generation and extraction equipment is voluntary in Texas, though the state legislature will probably revisit that strategy when it dissects ERCOT this year.

news.yahoo.com/parts-texas-not-ercot-power...

After listening to all the nonsense about the power issue Here in Texas, you are the First one that actually hit the nail on the head. Congrats :good4u:
 
I am just now thinking of all those folks who have recently moved to Texas from California to escape that colossally incompetent and corrupt government....

"WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW!"
 
Back
Top