Texas power grid back to normal, says the provider.

[powderman]

   
Texas power grid back to normal, says the provider.
« on: Today at 12:24:52 PM »

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/texas-power-grid-back-to-normal-ercot#&_intcmp=hp1r_1,hp1r

Texas power grid back to normal: ERCOT
Millions of Texans lost power during winter storm

By Jonathan GarberFOXBusiness
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Texas winter storm leaves millions without clean water
Texas’ power grid is running at normal operations, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said on a conference call Friday morning.


"We just got the notice from our control room that we have left in the last stage of emergency operations, so we are completely back to normal operations," said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness. ERCOT manages power for more than 26 million Texans, about 90% of the state’s electric load.


Millions of Texans had been subject to rolling blackouts since Monday morning as freezing temperatures and a winter storm idled many of the state’s wind turbines and resulted in reduced oil and gas production, impacting the electricity generators that rely on fossil fuels.

At the same time, the frigid weather conditions resulted in increased demand from ERCOT customers, sending electricity prices soaring.

Texas lawmakers will next week hold hearings on the power outages in an effort to determine what went wrong. ERCOT board of directors is also scheduled to meet on the matter.

"Texas can't afford for this to happen again," Magness said.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

[BUGEYE]

I'm ignorant of a lot of this stuff, but it seems to me the storm didn't tax the grid any more than their usual heatwave in July or August.
And I'd bet that the Texas power company doesn't fully rely on those windmills and solar to run all those air conditioners and the extra juice required for refrigerators and freezers in the summer.
So, IMHO, the power company is trying to show that you need to buckle to their liberal agenda, which is, making you beg.

BTW, the colder the line, the more efficiently the electricity can flow along that line.

[Argent 88]

Xcel energy here didn't do any of that. And we had zero blackouts, not even brown outs. And hasn't raised thier rates through all of this.

[wtxbadger]

The warning signs on the Texas power grid have been there for years and ignored. There have been blackouts during Texas summers in extreme heat in the past. There has been more than one study that predicted the crisis Texas just went through. All wind farms were supposedly required to keep backup generators running in standby in the event there farm went down to prevent it from affecting supplied power. Many coal fired plants have been shuttered by the EPA, apparently every state has federally mandated emissions for power generation and Texas had to at the last minute beg the feds for permission to exceed the those limits. That petition was submitted on Monday because you have to be in crisis before you can ask for relief. The power outages/rolling blackouts also depended on whether the circuit you were on was automated or not. Some sub grids were supplying power to hospitals which are designated as necessary as opposed to some residential areas. The entire thing is fairly complex in what happened and a book could be written on the multiple failures involved. There is not just one power company in Texas, there are multiple distribution networks/grids and wholesalers of electricity in Texas after deregulation. No one is trying to show anyone anything other than the feds who majorly contributed to this crisis with regs and mandates. Texans are plenty ticked off about it and fingers crossed there will be enough push back to make a difference.

[Ranger99]

Encor, that delivers the electricity here,
has stated all along that there wasn't
any problems or failures with their
systems and lines, and there wasn't.
The problem was with ERCOT, the
bureaucratic organization that says
what, who, and where. There were
many in this area that were quick to
jump in and defend all involved, especially
the line workers when nobody had
even mentioned linemen at all.
This whole thing was ERCOT.
A bureaucratic, administrative cluster
flop from the get go.

In the past, (and I'm sure more to
come in the future ) we've had
many problems with our natural
gas delivery with some houses
even blowing up to splinters and
killing a few people. The problem
is well known that a huge percentage
of gas delivery lines are grossly
outdated, and need total replacement.
Well it was known when Atmos
bought out Lone Star Gas that
much would have to be spent on
line replacement. I guess their
position is to pay whatever lawsuits,
and monitor for leaks and repair
only when needed.
Thanks corporate America