Quote (InsaneBobb @ Feb 22 2021 05:27pm)

In 2011, the "freeze" did not cause millions of homes and businesses to go without power. The freeze (and yes, it was a hard freeze) caused a minor rolling blackout that impacted a couple million people, and never left any home without power for longer than 45 minutes. It was this way because the baseline power provided by coal, natural gas, and nuclear was sufficient. In the last 10 years, multiple coal plants have been shut down. There has been virtually no increase in natural gas supply, and the percentage of wind reliance went from 8% to 25%. Lower baseline+complete failure of unreliable sources led to disaster. The issue with the nuclear plant that shut down was 100% unforeseeable. It had gotten to within a degree of as cold and not experienced issue. No regulation would have made that occurrence avoidable. Nuclear power is federally regulated. Period. No nuclear power plant in the nation is free from federal regulation. Losing 25% of the nuclear (green) power baseline was a hard shot.

Coal power supplies were not effected in any meaningful way, and have performed near peak the entire time. Natural gas supplies were only nominally effected regarding the base supply. The larger concerns with natural gas was that a lot of the Natural Gas was diverted to heat homes under an unforeseen demand. Think of a garden hose. Your water pressure is great under normal circumstance. Now put a splitter on it. The 1 hose becomes 2. You either lose half your pressure to the end sources, or you use smaller hoses. With the excess diversion to household Natural Gas heating, there was far less supply to the Natural Gas power plants, causing heavy impact on the grid.

The #1 "preventable" issue here was the Wind Turbines. Retrofitting them with cold weather packages should help alleviate the concern. The #2 issue was how the single safety sensor froze. That's likely going to lead to a massive federal case study that may well have an impact on national Nuclear power.

Voters aren't stupid, and neither are power companies. To say they're "wrong" when you don't understand the grid or how it was actively impacted is a rather odd attempt at a flex.

Quote (Thor123422 @ 22 Feb 2021 15:58)

Fossil fuels lost 28000 MW and wind and solar lost 18000 MW. Everything underperformed, and it underperformed because Texas did not adequately prepare for a harsh winter, and federal regulations would have required them to do so, and these things are done in all other states. The fact that every other state doesn't have a flawless record is irrelevant, as the bare minimum is to winterize the source of power.

Clearly the voters were wrong, and that is provable with the consequences we now see.

Quote (Saucisson6000 @ Feb 22 2021 03:21pm)

Yes and maybe there's other cheapers ways with different fuels. All i see here is people making money over it.
Maybe this event will responsibilize Texans. Propane heaters is my advice at this point.

Quote (Surfpunk @ 23 Feb 2021 15:11)

The problem there is, you have to have heating systems capable of running on propane. A furnace that operates on natural gas can't just have the plug pulled from the NG source and plugged into a propane tank. That's a huge residential mechanical change, the cost of which would be borne almost entirely by consumers

Quote (fender @ Feb 23 2021 03:19pm)

Quote (InsaneBobb @ Feb 22 2021 06:05pm)

You now count Nuclear as a fossil fuel? And again, what regulation would have prevented the windmills from freezing? Arizona and SoCal aren't regulated to install cold weather kids on their Turbines. The loss of power generation due to natural gas was primarily due to diversion to home heating. Can't "create power" with natural gas that's not going to the power plant.

Like, you don't want to address actual issues here, you just want to repeat the same nonsensical talking points. You have no solutions other than "Regulate Regulate" yet you also do not address that regulation failed. Nuclear power is already federally regulated. The lack of increase in natural gas supply even as the population has increased is due to increased reliance on wind. Regulation in Oregon regularly fails. So, what are your solutions? Well, exactly what voters in Texas are now demanding: Freeze-proof the grid. And now the voters in Texas are willing to pay for it via temporarily higher power bills.

This, ironically, is the perfect example of a free market acting to correct itself. Whatever "point" it is you think you're making is relatively useless. If your point is an alteration to power related FEMA funding that to be eligible for said funding, you need to outfit your grid for all weather conditions? We agree! What other real proposal do you have, and what would it realistically accomplish, and what are the downsides? :)

Quote (Thor123422 @ 23 Feb 2021 22:28)

Cruz helped put water in an SUV. That's more than AOC did. She actually hurt Texas by trying to introduce socialism and hand-outs through her so-called "charity". Ted Cruz labored and no socialist has ever done labor!