Texas winter power outages

[lifegives]

I can't read the link because it's behind a paywall, so please tell me if new information is there. We have already established that de-regulation means a lot more wind and solar power, which causes a higher chance of failure. In my view, the extra wind power is worth it. I'm personally a fan of wind power and solar power, and like it better than coal and natural gas. This is just my opinion, and you're free to disagree, but if "free-market fundamentalism" means more wind power at the cost of a little less reliability, sign me up.

Pretty sure you're the only one who has established that deregulation means more wind and solar. While both those are known as "intermittent" the "higher chance of failure" seems to be a reach.

To snip a few more words from Mr Krugman:

Texas isn’t the only state with a largely deregulated electricity market. It has, however, pushed deregulation further than anyone else. There is an upper limit on wholesale electricity prices, but it’s stratospherically high. And there is essentially no prudential regulation — no requirements that utilities maintain reserve capacity or invest in things like insulation to limit the effects of extreme weather.

"Free Market Magic" is great for luxury items, but electricity has become an essential resource that we can see means life and death so it shouldn't be left to vagaries of producers whims. (paraphrasing referenced article)

As for "free-market fundamentalism":

Market fundamentalism, also known as free-market fundamentalism, is a term applied to a strong belief in the ability of unregulated laissez-faire or free-market capitalist policies to solve most economic and social problems. It is often used as pejorative by critics of said beliefs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_fundamentalism

BTW, I lost power for 24 hours during the major storm in January and plus 3 days last year in the dead of winter. No heat, no phone, no power, and no cell reception for 3 days for many, many people. Did I demand BC Hydro add redundant lines? Nope, I just put blankets over my windows and pulled out the old kerosene lights. Maybe Texans should be a little more prepared and stop being such complainers of first world problems.

You're sounding like that Mayor of Colorado City who called his constituents "lazy" for complaining about the cold. We are much more prepared for dealing with temperatures we see as normal, for us a freezing night is not extreme. Our power outages are typically localized and can be blamed on a hungry squirrel or a mistreated transformer. We get a wind storm and the connections between the generators and our homes are broken, there they get a cold snap and the generators shut down.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas- ... midoutages

[Glacier]

Pretty sure you're the only one who has established that deregulation means more wind and solar.

Well according to engineers, it does... https://judithcurry.com/2021/02/18/assi ... -in-texas/

[lifegives]

Pretty sure you're the only one who has established that deregulation means more wind and solar.

Well according to engineers, it does... https://judithcurry.com/2021/02/18/assi ... -in-texas/

Most of what I read in that link and some others point to a correlation between the two but not a causal link.

But the idea of renewables being a cause of this failure of the grid and generation scarcity has been debunked and taken back by those that first went out with that claim. We keep coming back to a failure in planning for extreme events which were called for 10 years ago.

[Glacier]

Most of what I read in that link and some others point to a correlation between the two but not a causal link.

But the idea of renewables being a cause of this failure of the grid and generation scarcity has been debunked and taken back by those that first went out with that claim. We keep coming back to a failure in planning for extreme events which were called for 10 years ago.

For sure, it was bad planning. That's not de-regulation though.

[Randall T]

Turns out now it's all fake snow brought down by Bill Gates. Geez, between him and AOC they brought Texans to their knees!

[Pappywinkle]

For sure, it was bad planning. That's not de-regulation though.

Who’s planning was bad, though? None of the private energy providers wanted to make the investment into winterizing because it didn’t make sense to shareholders. Regulation is a means of mandating certain risks be mitigated.

[cyruslosco66]

right wingers cant accept they are wrong on carbon fuel and texas proved it .

[The Green Barbarian]

right wingers cant accept they are wrong on carbon fuel and texas proved it .

LOL - this sentence is just so silly.

[Glacier]

For sure, it was bad planning. That's not de-regulation though.

Who’s planning was bad, though? None of the private energy providers wanted to make the investment into winterizing because it didn’t make sense to shareholders. Regulation is a means of mandating certain risks be mitigated.

You still don't get it. There is a regulator in Texas just as there is in BC or Florida, or Quebec, or anywhere else. Their design criteria was too high, however, so winterizing means an assumed worse case of 13F (at Dallas). This is too high of a value. They need to set the design value to 0F.

[lifegives]

Who’s planning was bad, though? None of the private energy providers wanted to make the investment into winterizing because it didn’t make sense to shareholders. Regulation is a means of mandating certain risks be mitigated.

You still don't get it. There is a regulator in Texas just as there is in BC or Florida, or Quebec, or anywhere else. Their design criteria was too high, however, so winterizing means an assumed worse case of 13F (at Dallas). This is too high of a value. They need to set the design value to 0F.

The reason that deregulation is being called out for this is because of the outsize role it played in setting up the pins so that winter could knock them all down.

As mentioned, Texas took it's deregulation to the extreme, there are 45 different REPs (Retail Energy Provider) listed on the CallMePower website. How well do you think the state regulator was able to make sure even the 13F setpoint was handled properly? A nuclear plant couldn't even handle temps below 32F for their water supply pipes which froze and meant it had to be shutdown. None of these companies are altruistic, and when that happens the lower portion of the population suffers, representing over 4 million people. They have a poverty rate higher than the national average.

They said 10 years ago that companies weren't prepared, last week proved that nobody was listening. Money wins, people lose.

[Pappywinkle]

You still don't get it. There is a regulator in Texas just as there is in BC or Florida, or Quebec, or anywhere else. Their design criteria was too high, however, so winterizing means an assumed worse case of 13F (at Dallas). This is too high of a value. They need to set the design value to 0F.

Yes, and that design decision was made by the utility commission, despite the 2011 recommendation it be revised. The utility commission chose not to increase regulation on energy providers, as that wouldn’t be consistent with the state’s deregulation efforts.

I don’t think we’re that far apart. I guess my view is that merely having a regulatory body doesn’t mean you’re not deregulated. I.e. if a regulatory body were to have zero regulations it shouldn’t be considered as a regulator. So I still view the cause as insufficient regulation that is due to ongoing de-regulation efforts.

[Glacier]

Yes, and that design decision was made by the utility commission, despite the 2011 recommendation it be revised. The utility commission chose not to increase regulation on energy providers, as that wouldn’t be consistent with the state’s deregulation efforts.

I don’t think we’re that far apart. I guess my view is that merely having a regulatory body doesn’t mean you’re not deregulated. I.e. if a regulatory body were to have zero regulations it shouldn’t be considered as a regulator. So I still view the cause as insufficient regulation that is due to ongoing de-regulation efforts.

Any de-regulations efforts have come in the form of price controls as far as I can tell. Are power plants in Louisiana required to be winterized to 0F? Or Mexico? I don't know the answer to that, but it would be interesting to know.

[Ka-El]

One economist's perspective:

• Economist James K. Galbraith said policymakers failed Texas during the state's recent power outage.
• Texas' deregulated electrical system incentivized the cheapest production without accounting for resilient machinery.
• Galbraith says the only way to fix the system is to turn it into a public utility.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/markets ... li=AAggNb9

[Jlabute]

Society of Petroleum Engineers:
“The Texas Power Failure — What Went Wrong and Why?” 0900 CST Today


This may be interesting to watch. It is a start towards finding answers.

SPE Live: The Texas Power Failure — What Went Wrong and Why?

[cyruslosco66]

listen to big oil ? lmao . um we already know what went wrong , infact gov abbot said many times what went wrong . theres no mystery