Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Grandpa Shooter on February 17, 2021, 09:15:49 AM
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I came across this story and thought some of you might identify with it. I don't know if this is a general discussion topic or a political one, but I am offering it as food for thought. I saw another article that talked about areas that are dependent on wind and solar suffering because the generation is either nil, or way below what's needed.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-mayor-tells-residents-to-fend-for-themselves-during-power-outage-only-the-strong-will-survive/ar-BB1dL1ii?ocid=NL_ENUS_D1_20210217_5_2
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I read the story earlier today. The Mayor was rather tactless, since there are going to be many residents in his city, like the elderly and disabled, who might have difficulty doing what he said.
Bad presentation aside, he makes good points regarding able-bodied people that sit around waiting for someone to take care of them. He might have have framed his statement more into "able-bodied people get off your ass, stop waiting for the government to save you, and be a good citizen and check on your neighbors who might not be able to help themselves."
IMO, anyone who lives in a home (vs an apartment or similar) should at least have a small 2KW generator or some other power source for things like minimal heating with portable heaters, etc. Plus water and other reserves. We talk about this stuff all the time here, so other than the Mayor's poor choice of words, what he's saying is what we say all the time at APS.
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You sleep in the bed you make.
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What about the part about Texas declaring itself independent of the national power grid, thus denying citizens of power in an emergency? We have a coal powered plant near here that the Feds are trying to shut down despite the wishes of state residents so we haven't had a power emergency yet. I don't consider myself a prepper, but we are prepared to weather the storm.
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I think a whole lot of people have realized how dependent on electricity they are. The home generator people will be doing good business this year.
I lost power Monday night. Finally got it back Tuesday night. Lost it again for a little bit early this morning.
I have natural gas heat, but I still need power to run the blower and air circulation. I might have to look at a portable propane heater or something like that. While out of power, my house got down in the 50's. Bearable but it sucks. Only saving grace was I could still take a hot shower. I never lost water. I hope I don't lose power again, but we will see.
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Friends of mine in the Dallas Ft. Worth area are having rolling blackouts. They're surviving, but don't have heat when the power is out because they have forced air gas. They can at least use the gas cooktop, but not the oven. I suggested to him that it's time to install a free standing unvented (or vented) gas fireplace. Ambiance and warmth.
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I think a 1kw-1.5kw ish inverter makes sense for alot of suburban types that are at least minimally handy.
A generator sitting around for years is unlikely to want to start during a power outage. Clogged carb, bad gas, etc. Most folks already own and maintain a car, which should start up and run just fine. At idle, it'll run a long time on a full tank of fuel. An inverter is also cheaper than a generator.
Wired correctly*, most furnaces will run off an inverter.
* Don't use the ground on the inverter. Use a two prong setup, and at the furnace bond the ground and neutral together. If you don't do this, the flame sense circuit is unlikely to work with most cheap inverters.
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Only saving grace was I could still take a hot shower. I never lost water. I hope I don't lose power again, but we will see.
Some areas have little to no water
Houston mayor tells residents to conserve water as ‘nearly all of Harris County has low water pressure or no water at all’
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2021/02/17/houston-mayor-tells-residents-to-conserve-water-as-nearly-all-of-harris-county-has-low-water-pressure-or-no-water-at-all/
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Our water was off for nearly 12 hours yesterday. Our little podunk town water department doesn't do too bad most of the time so I won't give them too much hell for it.
I was more concerned that with low/no pressure I would be more likely to get a freeze up and break a pipe. So far so good.
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I think a whole lot of people have realized how dependent on electricity they are. The home generator people will be doing good business this year.
I lost power Monday night. Finally got it back Tuesday night. Lost it again for a little bit early this morning.
I have natural gas heat, but I still need power to run the blower and air circulation. I might have to look at a portable propane heater or something like that. While out of power, my house got down in the 50's. Bearable but it sucks. Only saving grace was I could still take a hot shower. I never lost water. I hope I don't lose power again, but we will see.
I recently bought two dual fuel freestanding space heaters, 20,000 BTU each. I can run them off my natural gas feed, or simply move the elbow to the other inlet and hook up to propane. They keep this 101 year old farmhouse toasty. There is a built in small fan but plugging it in is not necessary to the operation of the heater. Inexpensive at $160 each.
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I think a 1kw-1.5kw ish inverter makes sense for alot of suburban types that are at least minimally handy.
A generator sitting around for years is unlikely to want to start during a power outage. Clogged carb, bad gas, etc. Most folks already own and maintain a car, which should start up and run just fine. At idle, it'll run a long time on a full tank of fuel. An inverter is also cheaper than a generator.
Wired correctly*, most furnaces will run off an inverter.
* Don't use the ground on the inverter. Use a two prong setup, and at the furnace bond the ground and neutral together. If you don't do this, the flame sense circuit is unlikely to work with most cheap inverters.
I agree that if you get a gas generator, you can't just park it in the garage until something happens. I have my generator (in fact all my small gas stuff, like portable water pumps) on my calendar to start at various times. The genny gets started on the 15th of every month. I actually just replaced the battery in mine because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore. Luckily my genset has a pull cord as well. Also can run on gas or propane.
They sell those "battery gensets" which are basically ginormous UPS units. I see them at Costco rated for I think 1.5KW, which is enough to run something like a portable oil heater for a little while. They are kinda pricey for what they are though, IMO, at around $500. You can by one of those HF Predator 2KW gensets for that. Plus you have to "maintain" the UPS by making sure it stays charged, so I'm not sure which is less work to maintain.
For warmth alone, I bought a Tractor Supply indoor kerosene heater. It is very "smell free" except at stop and start. It will run all night and put out good heat. Of course you can't just let a kerosene appliance sit until you need it either. Basically, most anything you choose for emergency power, heat, etc., needs to be maintained.
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A two stroke generator and a couple gallons of premixed, stabilized fuel would be a pretty cheap, easy to store, and maintenance free emergency setup.
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When I first got my pellet stove a few years ago I considered getting a small propane powered generator (Ryobi had one at the time) in the 1,000 watt range. Pellet stoves don't take much -- mine uses about 470 watts on start up and about 80 watts with the fans and feed motors running.
But, I rarely lose power, and I've never lost power in winter for more than a few minutes. Summer is a different matter -- I've lost power for a couple of days at a time in the summer due to major storms, but it's never been bad enough to make me consider getting a generator big enough to power the AC.
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But, I rarely lose power, and I've never lost power in winter for more than a few minutes.
Give Biden and gang a couple of years to "fix" that
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MikeS
@MikeS64620982
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2h
Replying to
@AmandaOnFOX7
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@ERCOT_ISO
The Texas power grid is tapped out. They have no power to provide. 63% of the power is based on wind and gas. Equipment was never winterized. This is deregulation in action. Can’t import power or export. The government is sending in experts to help us.
Tip
LabPadre
@LabPadre
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1h
Wind and solar is supplemental in Texas . ERCOT won't let Texas crank the power because it will exceed the pollution threshold. Someone needs to get their priorities straight.
https://twitter.com/LabPadre/status/1362062731734614024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3ALabPadre%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.starshipstalker.com%2F
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(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/x383/WLJohnson1/0DED2AAD-AD09-41B2-BDEF-DFA486F42F0B.jpeg)
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The problem is obviously not enough taxes :facepalm:
Asha Rangappa
@AshaRangappa_
Just a reminder that Texas doesn't have a state income tax. Curious to hear from my Texas friends how they think that impacts the current situation
11:10 AM · Feb 17, 2021
CNN analyst Asha Rangappa is ‘curious to hear from [her] Texas friends’ how having no state income tax is ‘[impacting] their current situation’
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/02/17/cnn-analyst-asha-rangappa-is-curious-to-hear-from-her-texas-friends-how-having-no-state-income-tax-is-impacting-their-current-situation/
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The problem is obviously not enough taxes :facepalm:
CNN analyst Asha Rangappa is ‘curious to hear from [her] Texas friends’ how having no state income tax is ‘[impacting] their current situation’
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/02/17/cnn-analyst-asha-rangappa-is-curious-to-hear-from-her-texas-friends-how-having-no-state-income-tax-is-impacting-their-current-situation/
Hmmmm, why does that matter for a once in a lifetime occurrence?
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Hmmmm, why does that matter for a once in a lifetime occurrence?
It matters not at all. As if more tax money to the govt would actually help in this situation. Maybe they can build a salt dome to store electricity.
The screwed up perspective that shows is just nuts.
This will be over in a few days or so and people will be again to forget that all their stuff runs on electricity and they will go back to assuming they can get all that from solar and wind because... Then this will happen again in 5 years or so and people will get through it again.
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I'm surprised that they're not blaming Trump for this mess...
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I'm surprised that they're not blaming Trump for this mess...
They don't have to, everything bad leads to Trump by default.
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I think a 1kw-1.5kw ish inverter makes sense for alot of suburban types that are at least minimally handy.
A generator sitting around for years is unlikely to want to start during a power outage. Clogged carb, bad gas, etc. Most folks already own and maintain a car, which should start up and run just fine. At idle, it'll run a long time on a full tank of fuel. An inverter is also cheaper than a generator.
Wired correctly*, most furnaces will run off an inverter.
* Don't use the ground on the inverter. Use a two prong setup, and at the furnace bond the ground and neutral together. If you don't do this, the flame sense circuit is unlikely to work with most cheap inverters.
Sounds interesting.
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I think a 1kw-1.5kw ish inverter makes sense for alot of suburban types that are at least minimally handy.
A generator sitting around for years is unlikely to want to start during a power outage. Clogged carb, bad gas, etc. Most folks already own and maintain a car, which should start up and run just fine. At idle, it'll run a long time on a full tank of fuel. An inverter is also cheaper than a generator.
Wired correctly*, most furnaces will run off an inverter.
* Don't use the ground on the inverter. Use a two prong setup, and at the furnace bond the ground and neutral together. If you don't do this, the flame sense circuit is unlikely to work with most cheap inverters.
How many amps for a basic alternator on a four banger?
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I agree that if you get a gas generator, you can't just park it in the garage until something happens. I have my generator (in fact all my small gas stuff, like portable water pumps) on my calendar to start at various times. The genny gets started on the 15th of every month. I actually just replaced the battery in mine because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore. Luckily my genset has a pull cord as well. Also can run on gas or propane.
They sell those "battery gensets" which are basically ginormous UPS units. I see them at Costco rated for I think 1.5KW, which is enough to run something like a portable oil heater for a little while. They are kinda pricey for what they are though, IMO, at around $500. You can by one of those HF Predator 2KW gensets for that. Plus you have to "maintain" the UPS by making sure it stays charged, so I'm not sure which is less work to maintain.
For warmth alone, I bought a Tractor Supply indoor kerosene heater. It is very "smell free" except at stop and start. It will run all night and put out good heat. Of course you can't just let a kerosene appliance sit until you need it either. Basically, most anything you choose for emergency power, heat, etc., needs to be maintained.
Aside from removing fuel, lube oil and coolant (if any), and protecting from dust and rust, what else should be done to a small genset to prep it for proper long term storage?
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How many amps for a basic alternator on a four banger?
130-150ish. Most newer ones will have the voltage regulator installed on them already. I honestly don't know if they need a field current to get working or if they will self start when spinning, as I haven't played with a newer (after 2006-ish) one in a while. Some of the older GM alternators I used to work on needed a field current to start actually charging.
Aside from removing fuel, lube oil and coolant (if any), and protecting from dust and rust, what else should be done to a small genset to prep it for proper long term storage?
That's probably good. If I was buying a generator that I knew I was going to store long term, I'd look for a 2-stroke powered one so I could just drain the fuel and carb and call it cool, but it's better to actually run them every now and then to keep all those fluids moving around and the internal parts coated in oil. My gen sits in the shed in front of my lawn mower and I just wheel it out ever month or so when I start mowing the lawn and start it. When I finish mowing and go grab the weed whacker I turn off the fuel and let in run dry, then I put it away when I am done with yard work. No real added time and it runs through maybe half a gal of gas a year that way. Keeps the battery charged as well.
which reminds me.....I need to start the generator this weekend.
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130-150ish. Most newer ones will have the voltage regulator installed on them already. I honestly don't know if they need a field current to get working or if they will self start when spinning, as I haven't played with a newer (after 2006-ish) one in a while. Some of the older GM alternators I used to work on needed a field current to start actually charging.
That's probably good. If I was buying a generator that I knew I was going to store long term, I'd look for a 2-stroke powered one so I could just drain the fuel and carb and call it cool, but it's better to actually run them every now and then to keep all those fluids moving around and the internal parts coated in oil. My gen sits in the shed in front of my lawn mower and I just wheel it out ever month or so when I start mowing the lawn and start it. When I finish mowing and go grab the weed whacker I turn off the fuel and let in run dry, then I put it away when I am done with yard work. No real added time and it runs through maybe half a gal of gas a year that way. Keeps the battery charged as well.
which reminds me.....I need to start the generator this weekend.
So for a hypothetical, if you wanted to put one away in a barn for a decade or more, would it be enough or is that tear down and cosmoline time?
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For a decade or more?
I don't think you can expect it to work without serious reconditioning.
I would say fill the crankcase with oil to the top. That will keep the inside from rusting, but every seal and rubber piece in it will crack or fall apart in that timeline. Certainly fuel lines, fuel pump diaphragms, and probably the carb float and seat will be deteriorated. Plastic pieces will crack (like the recoil starter pawls).
You'd want to find some way to seal the generator portion, ideally with some desiccant. Also some way to make sure small creatures don't remove your wire insulation (as they love to do).
But that's probably pissing up a rope. After 10 years expect to have to recondition and replace a bunch of stuff, no matter how you stored it.
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Aside from removing fuel, lube oil and coolant (if any), and protecting from dust and rust, what else should be done to a small genset to prep it for proper long term storage?
Convert it to propane or NG.
I have a Yamaha inverter genset. I used to start it every other month to keep the carb clean. I missed one time, and it wouldn't start after that; it's jetted too lean to begin with (probably for California) and not adjustable, and any clogging at all is enough to take it out of commission. If I squirt a little gas in the air cleaner (which is very hard to get to) it will start but it won't keep running. Someday I will take the carburetor off and see if I can open the main jet just a little.
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So for a hypothetical, if you wanted to put one away in a barn for a decade or more, would it be enough or is that tear down and cosmoline time?
I'd be looking at a PTO driven generator then and find a reason to own a small tractor that gets used regularly.
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I'd be looking at a PTO driven generator then and find a reason to own a small tractor that gets used regularly.
We've already covered that, get and inverter for your car. My question is about long storage.
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We've already covered that, get and inverter for your car. My question is about long storage.
and I answered that, this is a PTO generator FYI, it's not an invertor.
(https://www.toboaenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PTO-Trailer-TDM76-200.jpg)
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For a decade or more?
I don't think you can expect it to work without serious reconditioning.
I would say fill the crankcase with oil to the top. That will keep the inside from rusting, but every seal and rubber piece in it will crack or fall apart in that timeline. Certainly fuel lines, fuel pump diaphragms, and probably the carb float and seat will be deteriorated. Plastic pieces will crack (like the recoil starter pawls).
You'd want to find some way to seal the generator portion, ideally with some desiccant. Also some way to make sure small creatures don't remove your wire insulation (as they love to do).
But that's probably pissing up a rope. After 10 years expect to have to recondition and replace a bunch of stuff, no matter how you stored it.
So yeah, near total disassembly, removal of anything rot or ageable, and packaged durably against moisture, oxygen, and vermin. Very good to know.
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Add Missouri to the list
Ford Motor Co. is shutting down production of its highly profitable 2021 F-150 pickup trucks and Transit Vans for a full week in Missouri, the company confirmed Monday.
"Due to unseasonably cold temperatures in the midsection of the United States, Ford was warned that the availability of natural gas could be restricted in the Kansas City area in the coming days," said Kelli Felker, global manufacturing and labor communications manager.
Pleas to conserve
Natural gas companies in Missouri have urged all customers in recent days to reduce their use of heat as much as possible. Bitter cold has sent both gas demand and gas prices soaring, while also creating supply issues such as frozen gas wells, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“It’s just straining the entire system,” said Scott Carter, president of Spire Missouri, the St. Louis-based natural gas utility.
Ford stops F-150, Transit Van production at Kansas City Assembly plant due to gas shortage
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2021/02/15/2021-ford-f-150-transit-production/4487837001/
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My irrigation wheel line is run by a Honda small engine, one of the lawnmower sized ones, and every October, I just throw some Stabil in, start it up, turn the fuel off after a couple of minutes and let it run out the fuel. It stays outside all Winter with just a plastic cover and starts right up the next April after 3-4 pulls.
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How many amps for a basic alternator on a four banger?
Nowadays cars put out more than they used to. Figure 70 A minimum, or about 1 kW. Most probably, it will be more like 120A or closer to 2kW.
You can store engines for a decade successfully. Just copy what outboard motor and snowmobile winterizers do. Shouldn't be a problem and usually the hazards are more like mice build a nest in it, or wasps colonize it or something.
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If i was doing a long storage generator I would buy some of the canned gas and have stabile for all the fuel I had at home or purchased as the event came on.
The older alternators like the big subarc's I used to run and work on needed an exciter. For the alternator it was just a momentary 12 volt zap.
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If i was doing a long storage generator I would buy some of the canned gas and have stabile for all the fuel I had at home or purchased as the event came on.
The older alternators like the big subarc's I used to run and work on needed an exciter. For the alternator it was just a momentary 12 volt zap.
Had an interesting one on my old massey ferguson: it was converted to 12 volt at some point, and had a GM alternator. It wouldn't charge until I revved the rpm up to 2000ish. At that speed, it would self-excite and be fine. Before that, no charging. Not ideal.
Simple alternator with a built in regulator, it had a big battery output post terminal, and two spade connectors. One was to sense battery voltage, and could be tied directly in to the output lug. The other was for the charge indicator lamp.
I looked and looked, and finally found documentation on the internals of the alternator. As it turns out, it uses the small amount of current passing through the charge indicator lamp as startup excitation current! I replaced the missing bulb in the charge indicator lamp holder, and it started working right from low rpm startup. I couldn't decide if I thought it was ingenious or really stupid.
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Mine is the same way.
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If i was doing a long storage generator I would buy some of the canned gas and have stabile for all the fuel I had at home or purchased as the event came on.
The older alternators like the big subarc's I used to run and work on needed an exciter. For the alternator it was just a momentary 12 volt zap.
Propane pretty much never goes bad, right?
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That's true I just don't have a propane generator and it seems every February I'm running low in the big tank.
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Propane pretty much never goes bad, right?
Not in your lifetime but seals degrade and leak out the contents, or seal tear when you crack it after sitting for years and don't reseal. I had the later happen to me on a old 100# bottle I found and cracked the valve. At least it was less than 10% full and it was outside.
Propane is heavier than air and will settle, makes for a big kaboom in homes with basements.
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I live just west of Austin, TX.
CATV and Internet were out from Sunday evening through Wednesday evening, just under 72 hours.
Landline phone has been out over a week. (Thanks, AT&T)
No loss of electricity yet. No loss of water, either.
No newspaper delivery since 2/13
No mail delivery since 2/13
Both continuous and rolling blackouts in Austin . . . Austin Energy buys a lot of it's electricity from wind power producers, and a lot of the wind farms' windmills are frozen.
The same people who advised homeowners to "drip" faucets to prevent pipes from freezing are now telling people to stop dripping faucets because of potential water shortage.
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My daughter lives in Houston proper and has been without power for several days. They just took off for New Orleans to see the place right after Mardi Gras (the city cleans up pretty good) I don't know if that's smart or not given the road conditions.
My parents live north of Houston on US-59; about 10 miles from Humble. Their power was out for about 14 hours and is back on now. They had one pipe freeze but it didn't break. (My outdoor faucets and the pipes leading to them freeze every year; they are fine as long as there's not a hose attached, and the freezing water doesn't get caught between two closed valves or ice blockages.)
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Regarding propane...
Back in 1989 we had a really nasty polar vortex over much of the country that iced the living hell out of the Mississippi. That stopped the propane barges from moving and led to spiking energy prices and shortages throughout a lot of the Southern United States. It might not go bad, but if it can't move, it's of no use to anyone.
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I heard advice to make sure you vehicle is topped on fuel. The Gulf Coast refineries are shut down. It will take time for them to get back online. There will be a short term gap where no fuel will be produced at least locally.
The plant I work at is largely able to start back up if we had feed gas and utilities such as service water to refill cooling towers and nitrogen gas. The biggest limit now is a lot of the utility infrastructure such as river water supply and gases like nitrogen are not available. In my area, the severe freeze is over (just a little more tonight and maybe Friday night). There is a great deal more interdependency in the chemical industry than most people realize.
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I heard advice to make sure you vehicle is topped on fuel. The Gulf Coast refineries are shut down. It will take time for them to get back online. There will be a short term gap where no fuel will be produced at least locally.
The plant I work at is largely able to start back up if we had feed gas and utilities such as service water to refill cooling towers and nitrogen gas. The biggest limit now is a lot of the utility infrastructure such as river water supply and gases like nitrogen are not available. In my area, the severe freeze is over (just a little more tonight and maybe Friday night). There is a great deal more interdependency in the chemical industry than most people realize.
Anhydrous plant?
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Crap, never thought about gasoline. I'm down to a quarter tank right now.
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Gasoline has already shot up here.
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Up twenty cents in a couple of days here.
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Gas prices have been going up lately because oil has been going up, but this weather is having a big impact on energy prices across the board. I'm really glad that I heat with pellets.
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Gas prices have been going up lately because oil has been going up, but this weather is having a big impact on energy prices across the board. I'm really glad that I heat with pellets.
Have you looked to see if pellets are still available? I know you stockpiled in advance, but I'm curious if it's something that has gotten hit hard.
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.40 increase in the last 2 days and I live by a terminal
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Have you looked to see if pellets are still available? I know you stockpiled in advance, but I'm curious if it's something that has gotten hit hard.
I've been buying my pellets from Lowes. Kind of hard to find places that stock them here in Northern Virginia.
The Lowe's near me is out, but one about 10 miles away still has 1,700 bags showing up in their online inventory.
I've got between 10 and 15 bags left, so I should be good to very close to the end of the heating season, I think.
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I don't watch it as much as gas but propane has doubled since last fall but that normal for winter prices. At least it didn't jump five times like it did several years back.
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A lot of rural and small town residents here have propane or natural gas whole house generators. There are parts of the state that losing power for days after a strong summer storm or winter ice storm happens fairly regularly anymore. Alliant Energy (provider in my area) is moving to bury all their power, even rural due to weather issues.
Whole house generators are pretty awesome, just need to make sure your LP tank is full because it doesn't take too many days to go through 400-500 gallons of LP.
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Shreveport, LA, my neighbor trying to escape. He's STILL stuck.
http://herohog.com/images/misc/210218Stuck.mp4
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Karl Denniger:
The Bidens and AOCs of the world are literally going to kill you.
You're seeing it right here and now across the nation, including in Texas.
Texas, like so many other areas, has put up windmills and solar "farms" for the last 20 years, shutting down older coal-fired plants and not modernizing and improving their "fossil fuel" energy production infrastructure. At the same time on a national basis the natural gas pipeline operators, in service to the woke green mob, have replaced fuel-fired pumps (that run on the gas in the pipe, therefore are failsafe so long as the pipe has something in it and is intact) with electrically powered booster pumps because, of course, you can get the power for them from "green" sources instead of all that eeee-vile carbon.
I remind you that natural gas does not freeze at other than cryogenic temperatures and as such the problem is not the gas freezing and as for machinery you have plenty of heat source in the pipe. By putting up with and responding to the "woke mob" instead of immediately frying and eating their entire blood line these companies took an ultra-reliable and essential energy delivery system that other than by physical destruction would nearly-always continue to operate and turned it into a fragile system dependent on multiple outside elements where if any of those elements failed so does the natural gas delivery.
Winter in the south is when nuclear plants are typically taken down for maintenance as well -- since it's the middle of summer when the A/C is blasting away. But those NatGas peaking plants and coal-fired base load infrastructure, well.... it's not green enough, so let's turn that stuff off and rely on the windmills and solar panels -- and hope it doesn't get destabilized.
Of course the "Globull Warming" screamfest folks always and forever have prognosticated that it will forever get warmer, that wind levels will rise forever and thus both solar panels and wind will forevermore continue to yield more and more useful energy.
All of that got blown up this week.
Texas is seeing wind chills in negative (Fahrenheit) numbers along with single digit or below temperatures. That plus moisture = ice, and windmill blades are wings and not only suffer the same problem an airplane wing does when it gets loaded in addition they go out of balance and thus the windmill has to be shut down lest it destroy itself. At the same time ice and snow cover solar panels and reduce their output to an effective zero.
The problem with the power grid is that in the event you demand more of it than can be delivered it becomes unstable due to a number of factors including, in the case of A/C transmission, phase sag. If expected resources are not available -- such as when your wind turbines ice up -- then you have no alternative but to shed load (turn off people's power intentionally) because if you don't you will get an uncontrolled collapse and possible severe equipment damage. Further most nuclear plants cannot quickly load-follow -- if you need more power quickly you better have something else, and if a bunch of load drops off rapidly you better have some other generation source you can shut down. Go outside the operating parameters and a nuke plant will "trip" and if they do most of them cannot immediately restart due to a phenomena called "xenon poisoning"; if the fuel has some age on it you must wait until that bleeds off because the core does not have enough reactivity to go critical until it does, which can take a couple of days or even more.
That's exactly what happened.
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^^^Ron, I learned many interesting things from your post. Especially about the natural gas freezing; I was perplexed as to how the heck that could happen.
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LabPadre
@LabPadre
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1h
Wind and solar is supplemental in Texas . ERCOT won't let Texas crank the power because it will exceed the pollution threshold. Someone needs to get their priorities straight.
https://twitter.com/LabPadre/status/1362062731734614024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3ALabPadre%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.starshipstalker.com%2F
I'm wondering, since it is an emergency, why in the hell didn't ERCOT say "*expletive deleted*ck 'em", fire off the coal plants and just pay any fines.
snip...
The same people who advised homeowners to "drip" faucets to prevent pipes from freezing are now telling people to stop dripping faucets because of potential water shortage.
One of the DFW contractors* was being interviewed on the radio when the freezing started, he said that running the faucets wouldn't do any good - Niagara Falls freezes. A day or two later, the same radio host (a friend of the contractor) mentioned the contractor had a couple pipes freeze & burst.
*Big local company; foundations, plumbing, etc. He has his own radio show on Saturdays at noon giving homeowners advice. Normally I agree with him, but not on this.
My water has been running, not dripping, since this all started. Except for 30 - 60 minutes prior to my shower, I really don't like cold showers. Ten years or so ago we had a similar event. I didn't run the water at as high a setting then. Crawling under the house in freezing weather with snow on the ground to fix 3 busted pipes is not my idea of fun.
I hope that this episode wakes up a few of the global warming folks to the fact that wind & solar can not supply all that's needed, when it's needed.
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Shreveport, LA, my neighbor trying to escape. He's STILL stuck.
http://herohog.com/images/misc/210218Stuck.mp4
Backup lights are on and he floors it
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A friend showed me a text he got from someone he knows in TX after their power came back on. Their smart meter was showing a cost of $9 per kw/h.
And I thought I was paying out the nose at my new property at $0.11 per kw/h.
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Backup lights are on and he floors it
But it's in Drive. Wheels spinning forward.
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A friend showed me a text he got from someone he knows in TX after their power came back on. Their smart meter was showing a cost of $9 per kw/h.
And I thought I was paying out the nose at my new property at $0.11 per kw/h.
:O ....owe!
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Shreveport, LA, my neighbor trying to escape. He's STILL stuck.
http://herohog.com/images/misc/210218Stuck.mp4
There's like two inches of snow, the only way that guy is stuck is if he's trying to be stuck. It looks to me like he's in reverse and spinning on the curb.
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There's like two inches of snow, the only way that guy is stuck is if he's trying to be stuck. It looks to me like he's in reverse and spinning on the curb.
Yeah, I still consider myself a snow newbie and I can't figure out how he could be stuck, besides smacking down the accelerator, maybe with bald tires or something.
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Snow crushing down into ice the second you put any pressure on it.
I've seen it happen before with a pick up truck.
I've had it happen to me with a pick up truck.
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I got stuck in my driveway because my wheel rears were on ice and the traction control system wouldn't let me spin the tires. I had to turn the control completely off to get moving.
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Worst is a 1/8" of freezing rain followed by a 1-2" snowfall. I don't care what kind of 4x4 you have, you're not getting anywhere unless you have chains or studded tires. Thankful ly usually those events where I live at most melt off with in 24hrs with salt/sand mix and heavy street plow trucks.
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Worst is a 1/8" of freezing rain followed by a 1-2" snowfall. I don't care what kind of 4x4 you have, you're not getting anywhere unless you have chains or studded tires. Thankful ly usually those events where I live at most melt off with in 24hrs with salt/sand mix and heavy street plow trucks.
Yep, new snow on top of ice is a HUGE pain in the arse.
Ice on top of snow usually isn't too bad.
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My water has been running, not dripping, since this all started. Except for 30 - 60 minutes prior to my shower, I really don't like cold showers.
No reason to run hot water in this instance. The pipes freeze before they get into the house, when the water is cold. Letting the hot water run is just running gas down into the sewer.
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Texas can blame ChiNah for their electrical woes :P
Large windfarm in Texas is owned by the Chinese.
https://foxsanantonio.com/news/yami-investigates/chinese-wind-farm-in-texas-its-the-greatest-national-security-concern-said-hurd
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No reason to run hot water in this instance. The pipes freeze before they get into the house, when the water is cold. Letting the hot water run is just running gas down into the sewer.
Another Winter thing I need to learn. I think it's generally colder where you are than where I am. I'm assuming you already have well-insulated and well-placed pipes. At what temps are you turning the water on?
It's not gotten colder than ~6deg since I've been here and I've never run the water. Are you doing it at neg temps? The only Winter prep I do here for water is blow the sprinkler pipes and put one of those insulating caps on the frost free valve that sticks out of the house. I never touch the frost-free yard hydrants. Oh, I also close the crawlspace vents.
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Given that you're in Idaho my guess is that your water lines are already pretty well hardened against the cold -- buried below the frost line and insulated where they come up into the house.
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Given that you're in Idaho my guess is that your water lines are already pretty well hardened against the cold -- buried below the frost line and insulated where they come up into the house.
They are, but the fact that Larry turned his water on got me wondering about out of the ordinary temps here where I might need to do the same.
Oh - nevermind. Dummy me just realized he was replying to someone else. Geez, and I already had three cups of coffee this morning. :laugh:
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If they're below the frost line the only real problem will be where they come up into the house or where they branch to different fixtures. Especially problematic are pipes that run on exterior walls. That's the one thing I love about my house. With the exception of the two hose bibs, all of the pipes for the house run up the center core of the structure. No chance of them freezing unless the entire house goes below freezing.
The only ones that MIGHT be an issue are the pipes to the laundry sink and the washing machine in the basement, but those don't travel inside the walls -- they're in the conditioned part of the basement (but partially hung on the exterior (below ground) basement wall, so I don't worry about them, either.
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None of mine, except for the frost free outside valve, hit an exterior wall. The master bath comes close as they come up from the crawlspace right next to an exterior wall, but in single digits, just for safety, I keep the under sink cabinets partially open there.
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Sounds like your only real vulnerability is in the crawlspace.
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Sounds like your only real vulnerability is in the crawlspace.
I'd have a switched outlet installed in the crawl space and wrap the pipes with a heat tape. Switch on when the temps are low.
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The 8-Bit Guy posted a video
Texas in Crisis - My house is ruined!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4_PnKoea4
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I'd have a switched outlet installed in the crawl space and wrap the pipes with a heat tape. Switch on when the temps are low.
but that might cause all of the hobo bodies to thaw out premature and start to stink before he can bury them when the ground defrosts...
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I'd have a switched outlet installed in the crawl space and wrap the pipes with a heat tape. Switch on when the temps are low.
There's an outlet down there. Also one in the laundry room, where the hatch is, so Iwouldn't even have to go down to plug it in. I might do the tape at some point. It's a good idea, but man, do I hate crawling around down there. It might be a normal design, but when I do my 2-3 times a year inspections, there are some places I can barely squeeze through to get from one section to the next. Almost literally, if I gain ten more pounds I'll end up wedging myself in one of them and somebody is gonna find my decomposed body a year later. :laugh:
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but that might cause all of the hobo bodies to thaw out premature and start to stink before he can bury them when the ground defrosts...
Please, give me a little credit. That's what the backhoe and gravel pit are for.
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We put some PTC heat tape around the drain pipe for the washing machine (it is against the wall of an unheated garage) as it sometimes freezes up when the temperature gets single digits or sub-zero. It has a power switch that only comes on if the temperature goes below freezing, but I only plug it in when it starts to get really cold.
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It has a power switch that only comes on if the temperature goes below freezing, but I only plug it in when it starts to get really cold.
I have one of those thermostat switches hooked up to a heat lamp in my well house. Comes on at ~34deg and turns off at ~45deg. It has worked well so far.
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No reason to run hot water in this instance. The pipes freeze before they get into the house, when the water is cold. Letting the hot water run is just running gas down into the sewer.
Unfortunately the PVC piping to all of the fixtures is run beneath the house. There's a few inches (~4") of fiberglass insulation under the entire house, the piping is sandwiched between the insulation and the floor joists. Most of the piping is perpendicular to the joists, so it's not even sucked up against the sub-floor. Last time one of the broken lines was a hot water feed to the master bath.
The way I figure it, running the hot water not only keeps the water in those pipes running, it's also heating the immediate area, however minimally that may be.
At least there's plenty of room to work under there, relatively speaking. The crawl space varies from ~18" to almost 30".
I'd like to replace it all with PEX, but realistically, that's not likely to happen.
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Please, give me a little credit. That's what the backhoe and gravel pit are for.
OK. VERY little credit.
Satisfied? :rofl:
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https://babylonbee.com/news/tragedy-local-texas-man-so-focused-on-staying-warm-he-has-forgotten-the-alamo
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Elon Musk Rescues Texans With Giant Flamethrower Mech
https://babylonbee.com/news/elon-musk-rescues-texans-with-giant-flamethrower-mech
:rofl:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1363295255676653576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Aelonmusk%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.starshipstalker.com%2F
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
·
2h
Why don’t we have these already!?
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Yes I know it's Vox but can anyone comment on this story?
Note: A quick scan of the article they claim they're quoting says $5k while Vox ups that to $17k unless I'm over looking something. Still really really bad but come on Vox.
According to the Dallas Morning News, some Texans have been hit with power bills totaling as much as $17,000 for only a few days of electricity, many times more than the usual cost of power in Texas.
Specifically, it’s Texas residents who rely on a wholesale power plan, rather than a fixed-rate plan, who have seen their bills climb after the demand for power jumped dramatically across the state this week as Winter Storm Uri struck and temperatures plunged. Texas, which has a deregulated electricity market, has a number of providers, both wholesale and fixed rate.
Why some Texans are facing catastrophic electric bills after a winter storm
Wholesale power plans left Texans on the hook for thousands of dollars after prices spiked.
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Yes. That would be how a wholesale, variable rate plan works. As demand goes up, and supply goes down price dramatically increase.
One could insulate themselves from something like that by paying for a fixed rate plan. It will be more expensive during high supply times, but unlikely to fluctuate wildly during emergencies.
Next Vox can discover how an Adjustable Rate Mortgage works.
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Yes I know it's Vox but can anyone comment on this story?
Note: A quick scan of the article they claim they're quoting says $5k while Vox ups that to $17k unless I'm over looking something. Still really really bad but come on Vox.
Why some Texans are facing catastrophic electric bills after a winter storm
Wholesale power plans left Texans on the hook for thousands of dollars after prices spiked.
Some Texans are on variable-rate electric contracts. Usually it saves a little money. But I read a news story last week about this that said the Texas Energy Commission raised the rate (or the rate ceiling, it wasn't clear) to $9/kWh. It didn't say for how long, but that's almost 100x higher than normal.
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Some Texans are on variable-rate electric contracts. Usually it saves a little money. But I read a news story last week about this that said the Texas Energy Commission raised the rate (or the rate ceiling, it wasn't clear) to $9/kWh. It didn't say for how long, but that's almost 100x higher than normal.
Same commission that kept generation capacity offline because reasons or am I misreading something?
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Same commission that kept generation capacity offline because reasons or am I misreading something?
I don't know. I'm a Texan, but I haven't live here in about 30 years. I'm visiting my parents for a month or so and just catching up on local and regional news.
I think they just haven't maintained the equipment and didn't winterize it, and the way the grid is setup they cannot just buy any significant power from out of state during a crisis.
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(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xi3XB03mEDA/YCwiB5R0ksI/AAAAAAACpEM/yJR6krh0Le4Dx9cA3MHu9AD9gfLVulzHACLcBGAsYHQ/w624-h640/1%2B1%2Bb833b9040639fc573571b52c9ec69935_bf58b6ae_400.jpg)
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and the way the grid is setup they cannot just buy any significant power from out of state during a crisis.
From what I read (if accurate), most of Texas is on a "private" grid for wont of a better word, with only like 20% hooked up as part of the national grid. That 20% was able to get rerouted power from other areas, while the rest was not.
If that's accurate, I would wonder why there was no thought to leaving a way for the "private" side to be able to get power from the national grid in emergency situations.
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^^^From my reading, this was a choice by the state government so that they would not have to abide by Federal regulations/standards for the power grid.
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From what I read (if accurate), most of Texas is on a "private" grid for wont of a better word, with only like 20% hooked up as part of the national grid. That 20% was able to get rerouted power from other areas, while the rest was not.
If that's accurate, I would wonder why there was no thought to leaving a way for the "private" side to be able to get power from the national grid in emergency situations.
Irrelevant in the face of Texas having enough local generation to cover themselves 110%. The shortfall during the storm came allegedly because DOE wouldn't allow Texas coal and gas plants to throttle up.
Meanwhile a couple zeros got added to a bunch of utility bills because of government suppressed supply in a period of peak demand.
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Please post your favorite MSM article or blue-check tweet attacking Biden for causing this problem in Texas or for an insufficient response.
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Irrelevant in the face of Texas having enough local generation to cover themselves 110%. The shortfall during the storm came allegedly because DOE wouldn't allow Texas coal and gas plants to throttle up.
I've seen this on social media a couple times, but never with an attributable source.
Do you have a primary source for this info?
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The local post office where I am finally got going again delivering mail on Friday. Friday I got a couple of letters that looked like they had been at the Post Office a few days. Saturday brought more junk mail (so back to normal). I got an Amazon delivery today.
I have a FedEx delivery scheduled for Monday. Should be okay I guess.
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In some of the reports I heard, electricity was cut to certain oil & gas fields due to shortages. This aggravated the problems as the oil & gas couldn't be pumped nor could the pipes be kept warm enough to prevent the oil from thickening in the cold. This cut natural gas supplies to many locations, including power generating plants that use gas instead of coal. A "double whammy" that screwed up everything.
Now they are finding that, without power, many of the refineries have had damage that will keep them off-line for weeks, causing gasoline supplies to drop drastically and prices per gallon to skyrocket. In this area of IL-ANNOY near St. Louis, prices are already up to $2.799/gal., which have gone up over $0.25/gal in just the last 2 weeks.
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I wasn't out of power as long as some people. But I was out a full day and a couple evenings. One thing I was thinking about was light. I have a handful of the cheap LED lantern lights that were given to me as gifts. Those came in real handy for general use and lighting the room. A candle in the kitchen worked well, but not for detail stuff.
One thing that also occurred to me is the little cheap pocket flashlights I have were the most useful. I have a few powerful high-lumen flashlights, but I rarely used them. It was the small cheaper Olight I3T lights that I used since they were bright enough and I could put them in a jacket pocket or shirt pocket. The high power lights didn't get used.
Pocket light.
https://www.olightstore.com/i3t-eos.html
LED Lantern. This is just an example. The cheap lanterns I have were a gift and they can switch to a red light mode. They aren't good for reading by, but they light up the room pretty good.
https://www.amazon.com/WdtPro-Batteries-Collapsible-Waterproof-Flashlight/dp/B089RBWKVZ/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=LED+lantern&qid=1613935902&sr=8-9
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In some of the reports I heard, electricity was cut to certain oil & gas fields due to shortages. This aggravated the problems as the oil & gas couldn't be pumped nor could the pipes be kept warm enough to prevent the oil from thickening in the cold. This cut natural gas supplies to many locations, including power generating plants that use gas instead of coal. A "double whammy" that screwed up everything.
Now they are finding that, without power, many of the refineries have had damage that will keep them off-line for weeks, causing gasoline supplies to drop drastically and prices per gallon to skyrocket. In this area of IL-ANNOY near St. Louis, prices are already up to $2.799/gal., which have gone up over $0.25/gal in just the last 2 weeks.
I am trying to make sure my truck fuel tank is topped off. I also filled up a couple of 5 gallon cans as a backup. Not sure we will have any temporary shortages, but we will see. The price is up here as well.
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Got my first post office delivery in over a week on Saturday, 2/20/21.
Got a week's worth of newspapers late in the afternoon on the same day.
STILL have no landline phone, which went out on 2/10, just before the storm hit. AT&T has lied repeatedly about when it would be fixed. A tech actually called me on Friday, 2/19, and said he was on the way . . . then called again less than an hour later to say that "management" had called back ALL phone techs. (Roads were pretty good by then - I know, I went out for a while.)
One good thing - I never lost power or water. My only really "vulnerable" pipes are the outside faucets; I'd put styrofoam insulators over them, and - with single digit temperatures predicted - put a 7 watt incandescent night light in each. Seemed to work just as expected - no frozen pipes.
Snow is all gone today, temperatures in 70s. Hope to get a tree service out here in the next week to deal with broken trees and tree limbs.
Yes, I know I was much, MUCH luckier than a LOT of my fellow Texans.
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https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2021/02/f82/DOE%20202%28c%29%20Emergency%20Order%20-%20ERCOT%2002.14.2021.pdf
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My parents are not on the Texas power grid; they are on a different Louisiana, Arkansas, and East Texas grid that I'd never heard of before. Their power was out for about 14 hours during the worst of the storm, and my brother says by looking at the power company map (he had to goto the LA map and scroll west to get this info) it seemed to be a rolling blackout rather than lines down. As soon as the power came on here another block somewhere else went down. The power hasn't gone out since, and they never lost water pressure either.
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https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2021/02/f82/DOE%20202%28c%29%20Emergency%20Order%20-%20ERCOT%2002.14.2021.pdf
That order says that TX is allowed to exceed the pollution limits if needed.
That is the opposite of what social media is claiming.
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I wasn't out of power as long as some people. But I was out a full day and a couple evenings. One thing I was thinking about was light. I have a handful of the cheap LED lantern lights that were given to me as gifts. Those came in real handy for general use and lighting the room. A candle in the kitchen worked well, but not for detail stuff.
One thing that also occurred to me is the little cheap pocket flashlights I have were the most useful. I have a few powerful high-lumen flashlights, but I rarely used them. It was the small cheaper Olight I3T lights that I used since they were bright enough and I could put them in a jacket pocket or shirt pocket. The high power lights didn't get used.
Pocket light.
https://www.olightstore.com/i3t-eos.html
LED Lantern. This is just an example. The cheap lanterns I have were a gift and they can switch to a red light mode. They aren't good for reading by, but they light up the room pretty good.
https://www.amazon.com/WdtPro-Batteries-Collapsible-Waterproof-Flashlight/dp/B089RBWKVZ/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=LED+lantern&qid=1613935902&sr=8-9
Honestly the walmart camping flashlights are really good in terms of $/lumens. They have $1 flashlights that honestly work great, and if you can spring for it they have some nicer ones for a couple bucks, lanterns included. LED technology has been really good to the very bottom of the line flashlights.
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I keep several of these around the house:
https://www.amazon.com/Onite-20-US24USB3W-WW-Warehouse-Emergency-WarmWhite/dp/B00QX096L0/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=usb+light+bulb&qid=1613952106&sr=8-3
I've had them for several years, and when I've had an outage, I've simply plugged them into one of the power bricks I also have laying around, and they light up the house almost like regular lighting.
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(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/x383/WLJohnson1/929C9F6E-B5ED-4734-B6D9-66EF1083FCF0.jpeg)
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The local news is reporting that the state .gov has issued a moratorium on disconnecting energy services due to non-payment and that (temporarily) energy companies can't issue bills to customers. The governor also said that people shouldn't have to pay such high energy bills (the mentioned $10k+) when they were without power for a couple days.
Bullshit.
Those customers signed a contract. They were feeling good last year when they were paying less than others, now, when the pendulum swings the other way, they start whining & crying foul to anyone who'll listen. The media's gotten wind of it and are now making a big deal of how the customers got screwed.
Bullshit.
Earlier I'd thought that ERCOT just didn't have the balls to tell the Feds to FO and crank up their plants - damn the pollution, full speed ahead! With that DOE order, it sure seems as if they didn't even have to worry about the Feds. I'm interested in hearing what other excuses their going to come up with.
Since the colds gone for now, I feel safe in saying that we didn't loose water or power this go-through. And no busted pipes. We haven't even had low water pressure like many now have. Guess we went through enough last time, the good Lord took pity on us this time.
Talked with the neighbor across the street this afternoon, they weren't quite as lucky. The second plumber was leaving their place as I got home. They'd had a busted pipe in the house early last week, had a guy out to fix it. Then their supply line froze and broke under the house. They had to wait for it to thaw to find the break. Then neither they or the second plumber could find the shutoff valve, so he had to shut the water off at the street. He'll be back later to trench and bury the new supply line that's running across their front yard. They're on 20 acres, the house is 75/80 yards from the street.
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Geeesh. How many people could afford a $10,000.oo monthly electric bill? :O :facepalm:
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Yep, it's going to hurt - for a long time. With all the publicity, I'm betting the electric company, (Gritty?) will be willing to take payments.
They signed the contract, not under duress. Most everyone understands a variable interest rate loan, well, that's what they signed up for, a variable rate for electricity. Some months (most?) you're to the good, low payments. Other times, the house wins. And you pay big.
I heard rumors somewhere that the company sent out email notices - "The rates are going to go up, big time. Quit us and sign on with someone else - NOW". Not a lot of help since it usually takes 7 to 10 days to change suppliers, but folks (supposedly) get got a heads up.
I can agree with a payment plan. But Not with a forgiveness plan. And the .gov stepping in to tell the company how/when & potentially how much they can bill/collect from the customer just ain't right.
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Griddy is a service that allows end consumers to access electric power at wholesale rates. They charge $9.99 per month to provide this service. They do not make any money off the power that's being brokered and sold to end customers.
Griddy notes:
We pushed out an email as quickly as we could, suggesting that our members switch to another provider with a fixed rate. While we value our members, we want what is best for their wallet and family even more, even if that means helping them switch away to our competitors. Their well being is more important than our bottom line.
Frankly, their customers accepted the risk of being subject to market fluctuations by buying power wholesale. If this was unacceptable, they could have paid a higher fixed rate, which is what most of us are stuck with anyway.
Further, they had advance notice of an extreme price hike coming, and presumably had access to real time pricing information. In that moment, they chose not to snap their main breaker to avoid purchasing very expensive electricity. They chose to consume it.
I find little fault with Griddy here.
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Further, they had advance notice of an extreme price hike coming, and presumably had access to real time pricing information. In that moment, they chose not to snap their main breaker to avoid purchasing very expensive electricity. They chose to consume it.
This was my question. Did they have any idea of how high the KWH charge might go? Apparently they did. If this was a case where "fluctuation" was sold to them as something where the price might double, and then it went to this super high rate, I would be looking at the power provider. If the customers knew full well the range of prices they might expect, and even had warning updates sent to them, then it all falls on the customer.
Personally, if I knew a fluctuating rate could fluctuate this much, I would never sign up for it. Too much like Vegas for me. At some point the house is going to win.
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Some conflicting information regarding the DOE and Texas:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/02/22/sick-damning-thread-exposes-the-absolute-disaster-bidens-admin-was-in-handling-deadly-texas-storm-with-receipts/
I will say that I agree with one of the commenters: Even if the DOE refused to allow requested oil and coal ramp ups, once things came down to endangerment of life, why not just tell the DOE to *expletive deleted*ck off, do what you need to do, and worry about the regulatory fallout (if there is any) later?
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Some conflicting information regarding the DOE and Texas:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/02/22/sick-damning-thread-exposes-the-absolute-disaster-bidens-admin-was-in-handling-deadly-texas-storm-with-receipts/
I will say that I agree with one of the commenters: Even if the DOE refused to allow requested oil and coal ramp ups, once things came down to endangerment of life, why not just tell the DOE to *expletive deleted*ck off, do what you need to do, and worry about the regulatory fallout (if there is any) later?
Once the freeze was happening, there were probably other issues preventing them from starting them up. It is likely something they would have to do ahead of time. Going forward, it might be standard freeze preparation.
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To be honest, I'm really surprised that the EPA didn't demand Texas outlaw use of fireplaces and the like during the crisis. Can't have that ramp up in air pollution, don't you know.
I've often said it, and this just cements it for me... Dems don't give a flying fig about the health, safety, or well being of individuals in crisis; it's nuanced as "the well being of all," which is complete and total crap as is shown in this case.
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Some conflicting information regarding the DOE and Texas:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/02/22/sick-damning-thread-exposes-the-absolute-disaster-bidens-admin-was-in-handling-deadly-texas-storm-with-receipts/
I will say that I agree with one of the commenters: Even if the DOE refused to allow requested oil and coal ramp ups, once things came down to endangerment of life, why not just tell the DOE to *expletive deleted*ck off, do what you need to do, and worry about the regulatory fallout (if there is any) later?
That Twitchy thread is Bullshit. I don't know who amuse is, but he's purposely framing *expletive deleted*it to pretend something happened when it didn't.
Dipshit says:
Biden's EPA refused Governor Abbott's request and instead offered to allow certain power generation facilities a waiver if they raised the prices they charged to Texans to more than $1,500/MWh resulting in massive statewide power outages and a failure of the grid.
The actual DOE Emergency Order (which is linked above) says:
to minimize an increase in emissions available to support grid reliability:
(i) with respect to any Specified Resource that is an ERCOT Generation
Resource or Settlement Only Generator whose operator notifies ERCOT
that the unit is unable, or expected to be unable, to produce at its
maximum output due to an emission or effluent limit in any federal
environmental permit, ERCOT shall ensure that such Specified Resource
is only allowed to exceed any such limit during a period for which
ERCOT has declared an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) Level 2 or Level
3. This incremental amount of restricted capacity would be offered at a
price no lower than $1,500/MWh. Once ERCOT declares that such an
EEA Level 2 or Level 3 event has ended, the unit is required to
immediately return to operation within its permitted limits; and
(ii) with respect to any Specified Resource that is an ERCOT Generation
Resource whose operator notifies ERCOT that the unit is offline or would
need to go offline due to an emission or effluent limit in any federal
environmental permit, and to which ERCOT has issued a Reliability Unit
Commitment (RUC) instruction, the operator may make all of the unit’s
capacity available to ERCOT for dispatch during a period for which
ERCOT has declared an EEA Level 2 or Level 3. This incremental
amount of restricted capacity would be offered at a price no lower than
$1,500/MWh. Once ERCOT declares that such an EEA Level 2 or Level 3
event has ended, the unit is required to immediately return to operating at
a level below the higher of its minimum operating level or the maximum
output allowable under the permitted limit.
That says that only the amount of electricity generated that exceeds the pollution thresholds will be charged at $1500/MWh. (Which is $1.50/Kwh, or about 10x what TECO charges me for on peak electricity, not in an emergency) The rest of the electricity that ERCOT is pumping into the grid can be charged at whatever they were charging before. SO had they spun those coal and gas plants up in time, then customers would have had power, and would have paid pretty expensive, but not crippling, rates for whatever small portion of the total grid usage was responsible for exceeding pollution limits. (i.e first 100KWh at $0.15/KWh, next 100KWh at $1.50/KWh)
We'll never know what the incremental amount would have been, because for whatever reason ERCOT didn't spin up the plants, even though they were clearly given a go ahead by the Feds.
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To be honest, I'm really surprised that the EPA didn't demand Texas outlaw use of fireplaces and the like during the crisis. Can't have that ramp up in air pollution, don't you know.
Reading the DOE letter in the Twitchy link, it seemed to me that the number one concern for DOE was "environmental impact and pollution". IMHO, that should be the first thing DROPPED from consideration in an emergency.
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So not complete BS, but not as bad as they are saying.
I am curious if that price is something built into some statute or regulation or if it was something they came up with? It would be better to simply give an end date to the waiver.
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Reading the DOE letter in the Twitchy link, it seemed to me that the number one concern for DOE was "environmental impact and pollution". IMHO, that should be the first thing DROPPED from consideration in an emergency.
Now how in the world does that contribute to the "greater good"?
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So Touchstone energy is one of the energy groups that distributes power to a lot of the REC (Rural Electric Coops) and they had no problem firing up all the energy generators during the cold snap to dump electricity on the grid. We had several news articles about all the small towns/cities firing up jet fuel/natural gas turbines and diesel generators.
Webster City press release https://webstercity.com/2021/02/18/how-we-kept-your-lights-on/
Sounds like Texas had a lot of mismanagement going on with their utility people.
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Yeah even the old Electric City power plant got powered up last week around here.
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This was my question. Did they have any idea of how high the KWH charge might go? Apparently they did. If this was a case where "fluctuation" was sold to them as something where the price might double, and then it went to this super high rate, I would be looking at the power provider. If the customers knew full well the range of prices they might expect, and even had warning updates sent to them, then it all falls on the customer.
Personally, if I knew a fluctuating rate could fluctuate this much, I would never sign up for it. Too much like Vegas for me. At some point the house is going to win.
No one would sign up if they were told their price would increase x100 in a pinch.
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Please post your favorite MSM article or blue-check tweet attacking Biden for causing this problem in Texas or for an insufficient response.
No responses? Too many, too hard to choose?
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No responses? Too many, too hard to choose?
Haven't you heard? Biden resigned over this and Harris is now president with Hillary as VP. Happy now?
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No responses? Too many, too hard to choose?
Too don't give a damn.
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"A common generator theft resulted in the unsuspecting homeowner waking up to no power and a lawnmower running in their backyard to replicate the white noise of the generator while its owners were sleeping."
https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/23/how-to-survive-for-three-days-with-no-water-or-power-on-200/
So not all criminals are complete idiots.