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How does the World view America these days?

Rubin Farr

By Rubin Farr
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Hey just gonna drop in here because it’s getting tense and I know we all know capitalist whizz-boy Bill Gates is getting a divorce.   I wanted to let everyone know I am going to continue to get

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auxien Grand Master

auxien

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anyone interested in a good short overview of what's going on in Texas: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/even-power-disasters-are-bigger-in-texas-heres-why/

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One key reason for this is because Texas maintains its own power grid largely in isolation from those of its neighbor states. In North America, most customers are served by two major grids that operate on the same alternating current frequency—one serving the eastern half of the continent (including the US, Canada, and parts of Mexico) and the other serving the western half. However, Texas—along with Quebec—both maintain power grids that are largely separate from these larger networks.

...

A somewhat larger surprise was that Texas also lost nuclear and coal capacity. Rick Perry, while at the Department of Energy, tried to pay coal and nuclear plants to keep fuel stored onsite (a policy that ended up being rejected), under the assumption that it would ensure a reliable supply of energy. Clearly, that didn't work out. And there's some reason to expect it wouldn't help in cases like this, as giant piles of coal can completely ice over in cold weather, making it difficult to use.

...

Over the course of Wednesday, ERCOT seems to have brought roughly 7 Gigawatts of generating capacity back on line, and supplies have continued to ramp up on Thursday. Its measure of demand has also gone up, but that's not an indication that actual demand is lagging supply; instead, it means more areas of the grid are receiving power. In other words, ERCOT is still managing demand by keeping power cut off to many locations.

i saw joshuatx on IG posting some updates earlier in the week, and the weather around here is starting to warm up today and over the next few days to winter levels we're all more used to (i'm just over the border in Louisiana and am lucky to have had next to zero problems) so hope all those Texas WATMMers are well :catsalute:

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Rubin Farr Grand Master

Rubin Farr

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What I'm reading about Texans' upcoming electric bills is sobering. Some people charged $450 for ONE DAY of power, prices on Monday soared to $9,000 per megawatt hour. I'm afraid we'll see yet another wave of suffering as these residents will have no recourse to pay their bills, because if they don't, their power could be cut off again. 

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ignatius Grand Master

ignatius

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1 hour ago, Rubin Farr said:

What I'm reading about Texans' upcoming electric bills is sobering. Some people charged $450 for ONE DAY of power, prices on Monday soared to $9,000 per megawatt hour. I'm afraid we'll see yet another wave of suffering as these residents will have no recourse to pay their bills, because if they don't, their power could be cut off again. 

i lived in california during Enron and the power bill fluctuations were crazy. My work's power bill doubled some times with no changes in usage. there were also all kinds of 'freelance operators' making individual deals with customers for different power sources.. usually green energy solutions that were kinda bogus. this is in the late 90s early 00s. I lived in a 2 bedroom apt at the time and one month our powerbill would be $90 and the next month it would be $300.  we didn't have AC. most people didn't have AC in san diego. when the power grid/sources aren't regulated you get all kinds of instability and always money flowing up to a handful of people. 

 

btw all this dovetails so conveniently with new adam curtis doc series. amazing timing really.

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zero Grand Master

zero

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1 hour ago, Rubin Farr said:

What I'm reading about Texans' upcoming electric bills is sobering. Some people charged $450 for ONE DAY of power, prices on Monday soared to $9,000 per megawatt hour. I'm afraid we'll see yet another wave of suffering as these residents will have no recourse to pay their bills, because if they don't, their power could be cut off again. 

still a lot of uncertainty regarding this, but yeah, I'm expecting we'll somehow get screwed over in the end. the $450 thing could have been a hypothetical, as I saw it mentioned in this article also:

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texans-variable-rate-electricity-contracts-paying-astronomical-prices-power/285-0c150cdd-eb76-4197-8695-aa6952e277b1

 

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When you sign a contract with an electricity provider, you get two options: a fixed-rate plan or a variable-rate plan.

The fixed-rate plan locks you into a set price per kilowatt hour of electricity.

A variable-rate plan charges you based on the current wholesale price of power, where supply and demand determines the rate.

This week’s extremely cold weather increased customers’ demand, while at the same time, generators lost the ability to provide the supply.

“That’s right. It’s a lot like shorts and puts in the stock market,” said Fred Anders who runs the website texaspowerguide.com.

He says the price of power went from 3 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour, to as much as 900 cents per kilowatt hour.

“For the average home in Texas, it translates to roughly $450 a day if they didn’t curtail their usage at all,” Anders said.

 

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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19 hours ago, chenGOD said:

Isn’t  @joshuatxuk living there? And @Atop? Who else...I feel like C Brown (I do miss his mixes) is there too. Whatevs. Hope all Texans are making it through despite the republicans’ best efforts to fuck things up. 

Well howdy. A-ok. Me and the family were without power from 8am onward on Monday (2/15). 6-8" snow and sun that day but it was in the teens and wind chill wasn't over 0 deg F until afternoon. Still ok enough to bust out the propane grill and make a hot dinner. Tuesday was technically warmer but overcast and freezing rain covered everything. That day felt more grim. Both nights it was 52 deg F inside. We had plenty of food, beverages, blankets and flashlights but man, it was still kind of surreal and chilly. Thank god I had a shitload of batteries and some random battery radios/tape players. Kids were good sports - got used to no electronics, tried chess out with my 5 year old, daughter busted into her toys. Our goofy as dire wolf mutt loved it. 

Anyway water has become boiling required in Austin and some power is coming back. Driving is doable too - yesterday I managed to wait a bit and get 93 octane gas. That's the one thing I wish I topped off on before all of this shit. We went to a friends house yesterday who has power. It's been nice. Hot coffee. Quick but warm shower. No visible breath inside. Going outside isn't as daunting in terms of warming up. Work calls and emails are starting to trickle in again but thankfully not a lot of pressure or urgency. If our house still doesn't have power by tomorrow we'll likely drive down to Spring, TX with my FIL who has power. 

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