Is it even being investigated? It sure seemed like a manipulation and show of power by the DS. There was shenanigans about a power source being turned off from going to their grid or something.
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Mother Nature, Texas has a history of dramatic and extreme weather.
One 'big' problem which was highlighted was the fact Texas has allowed our power grid to include too many windmills and solar farms. Many of the solar farms are chinese owned too, but that's another story. So when it's cloudy/rainy and the wind doesn't blow OR blows too hard that power is not available. Those two sources, wind and solar, should never be counted as part of the available grid, never, because they simply are not reliable and can not meet energization inrush demands.
So roughly 20% of the stated power supply was not available to begin with, then we had some failures in equipment and operations which did cripple traditional gas generated plants. These are normal maintenance issues, pipes freeze and lines ice over, stuff habbens.
I'm not defending ERCOT here, far from it, we worked with them for a long time and I understand their faults. And the politicians ultimately are to blame here, but much of the trouble is at the Federal levels. The Feds actually refused us the ability to start some units because it would exceed pollution controls, even tho Texas had offered to pay all fines and costs.
So a combination of things, extreme storm, an agenda-driven political decision to allow solar and wind to be counted alongside traditional power as a grid component and Federal interferences caused all the mess, with the expected additional problems of normal maintenance failures associated with ice storms.
But media has blown it all way out of reasonable proportions. Hours into the storms media was already claiming people died, doing interviews with (idiots) who did not understand that you cannot let your kids play in the snow when you have no power in your home and no hot water to bathe in. Idiots who failed to heed all the warnings which are issued down here concerning preparing for the storms, storing foods and water and heat sources/warm clothes. And it's always the same (idiot) class of people, many don't speak English or have a simple high school education because illegals or militant blacks. Harsh words, yeah but so it is.
I disagreed with ERCOT daily for years, they tried to manage us power plants remotely and in real time, screwing it up for everyone with micro-managed agenda-driven foolishnesses. But it isn't 'all' their fault, they had help screwing up from politicians.
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This is why our grid needs to be controlled by Texas and not the fed.
I'm in San Antonio. We never lost power or water, no damage to our home, lost a few plants, got 3 days paid off from work. It was a very unusual situation.
Our actual Grid is controlled by Texas, but the Feds control pollution permits. It's a little more complicated than that but basically yeah.
Texas has a stand alone Grid but we do tie to the outside world at two easily disconnected points, all our power plants and switching yards are metered and relayed so as to disconnect us immediately if the national grids become problematic - they cannot hurt us with their rolling brownouts and cascading blackouts for instance, but we can ship power to them.
When we wish to crank a turbine or two in emergency we are supposed to get permission slips from the Feds so they can decide how much to fine us for exceeding pollution limits, that had been arranged ahead of time but then 'someone' in the Federal office simply denied us permission, so a couple plants we needed could not be started legally.
Were I the governor I'd have ordered it done and dared the Fed to do something about it, we had already agreed to pay the fines and fees, so what could they do? I simplify here, it is harder than that, the Feds threaten every one when they do those things, a turbine has to have water and you have to do 'something' with the steam you make and a utility has to let you switch...it's a process so even if 'my power plant' fires up the Feds can order the utility to not let us switch, or tell the gas company to not let us have gas or the water authority to not let us have water...
It isn't as simple as saying 'screw you Federal government'. But each step the Fed makes to thwart you is clocked so NOW you have a case in court, except you can't sue the double damned corrupt Federal government easily. And that court case later does not help people suffering in real time.
I'm in the woods outside Houston and we were down a while, not as bad as hurricane Ike when power was down for over 2 months but several days, about 4 is all for us, longer for some others. During that time a lot of people had water pipes break because they failed to protect them properly, and a lot of those people are now trying to sue but it isn't anyone else's fault they failed to insulate their pipes or let the lines drip. One yuge problem with our Society is about half of us are not capable of functioning as viable citizens.
Anyhow, we do control our Grid but the damn Federal government has tentacles, it does, and they manage to regulate what they may not outright control. If 'Coastal Water Authority' gets a call from the Feds telling them to not give a plant water, that plant isn't gonna get water. They can backdoor us just that easy.
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Thanks for the reminder. I actually had read that earlier, but my little brain only held on to "It's the Fed fault!" I hope as time goes on we will see Abbott breaking the tentacles of the Federal govt, and maybe he's making little steps toward that. It's probably more complicated than we understand. Have a great day, fren!