Real life thread

[Gatekeeper]

Let us remind ourselves where the blame for this fiasco should be directed. Private greed over public health and safety.

Corporate operator saw this as a once in a generation event, and it might not come around on their watch. So they save money and profit for their shareholders instead. A bit like the Ford car recall scandals of the 50s and 60s.

 

[nlalyst]

Why should the customer bear the brunt of providing electricity It should be the responsibility of electric provider to have extra capacity and they should be mandated by law for the right to sell electricity in the state as simple as that.

The customer will end up paying for it one way or the other. I imagine most would prefer to do it "invisibly" via taxes. But I agree that it's the responsibility of the state to legislate the winterization of power generation equipment and power storage capacity. Reading from the news I learned that many gas wells in Texas froze and because the state has almost no gas storage capacity and relies overwhelmingly on gas as source of electrical power, which in turn is needed to pump the wells, the whole system entered into a vicious cycle until it crashed.

Solar energy is not cost effective for average home owner with average usage of 1000 wats. It never pay for itself and it is vulnerable to hail and storm damage. And typical composite roof that need replacement every decade or so It just nightmare to do it with solar panel. Insulation does not help when the temperature below zero you must be kidding yourself.

Where I live we have 1000 hours less of sunshine than in Austin, Texas (by latitude, equal to mid Canada, something like 900km north of Ottawa). My house with rooftop solar, electric heating and thick insulation is entirely energy neutral (returns to the grid the same amount of energy as consumed). We have net metering which makes the whole investment quite favorable as we don't need to buy energy storage solutions. Since 2018, all new homes built in the country must be certified as energy neutral and designed all-electric for power and heating. It's up to private companies to figure out the best way to do it (not all adopt rooftop solar solutions).

Just a few days ago, we had a week of -15C temperatures. My indoor temperature did not budge from the 21C I set on the thermostat, just like it does during summer heatwaves of 35C. So if those well insulated households with rooftop solar in Texas had electric heating, they should've done just fine.

My neighbor bedroom is now dry up and he got Chinese plumber to fix the leaky pipe good for him. I am glad I can help him because he just a kid born in California but went back to Taiwan and now returning to state with his grandfather to keep him company and clueless what to do . My wife help them yesterday

That's very nice of you!

 

[PiSigma]

Stay safe

Just saw this and thought it brought into perspective what you guys are going through.

View attachment 68965

Just another Thursday here in Canada of -17C. Now it's Friday, only -6C, practically t-shirt and shorts weather.

 

[vesicles]

Just another Thursday here in Canada of -17C. Now it's Friday, only -6C, practically t-shirt and shorts weather.

Hahaha! Very funny! Let’s see how you guys do when it’s 110F and 99% humidity...

 

[Hendrik_2000]

Only now they move with mandating power company to winterize but that is not enough they should have at least 10% spare capacity. see they didn't do anything after 2011 freeze just platitude

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tells lawmakers to mandate winterization of power generators​

Eleanor Dearman
Thu, February 18, 2021, 4:49 PM CST

Texas power plants should have been ready to handle the freezing temperatures seen across the state, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday, prompting him to announce a two new emergency items for lawmakers to consider.
Abbott is calling on Texas legislators to pass measures mandating the winterization of power generators, as well as provide funding to ensure the winter preparations and modernization occurs.
“I want everyone to know that all of us in the state of Texas believe it is completely unacceptable that you had to endure one minute of the challenges you faced,” Abbott said. “All of us agree on the necessity of action. Not just the action taken to restore your power, but the action to ensure that you never have to endure anything like this ever again.”
Abbott has slammed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas in recent days over its handling of the winter weather event that led to millions of power outages.

Abbott claimed that ERCOT, which oversees Texas’ power grid, purported to be ready for the cold weather in the days ahead of its arrival.
After freezes and blackouts in 2011, the Legislature passed a bill related to winterization for power generators. But the legislation lacks enforcement teeth and only requires generators file a weather preparation report with ERCOT that’s then sent to the Public Utility Commission.

 

[Hendrik_2000]

Just another Thursday here in Canada of -17C. Now it's Friday, only -6C, practically t-shirt and shorts weather.

I still don't relish digging thru 1 meter snow just to get the car going or buy grocery You can buy snow blower but those little IC engine froze up in the winter . But the worst is snow plough dump ton of snow on your driveway and you have to dig it out to drive the car Yup winter is terrible

 

[PiSigma]

Hahaha! Very funny! Let’s see how you guys do when it’s 110F and 99% humidity...

I'm in Calgary, never hits that because it's dry here. But 110F and 99% humidity is a typical Tuesday in Toronto from may to september. Ya Canadian weather sucks

 

[solarz]

I'm in Calgary, never hits that because it's dry here. But 110F and 99% humidity is a typical Tuesday in Toronto from may to september. Ya Canadian weather sucks

LOL, what are you talking about man. Toronto humidity is pretty low.

I still remember starting to sweat profusely the moment I got off the plane in Shanghai Pudong airport, at a balmy 22C. Yup, after decades in Canada, I'm just not used to Shanghai humidity anymore.

I live in Oakville, which is just a tad warmer than Toronto, and I have to say it's pretty good. Canadian summers are the best since it never gets super hot (i.e. 38+C). In the winter, Oakville gets a couple of days below -15C and maybe two or three big snow storms. This year we haven't had any snow storm until last week, and the hardest shoveling I've had to do this winter was a couple of days ago.

Of course, I've had it easy since I don't need to leave home for work or shopping.

 

[AssassinsMace]

I saw right-wing articles at first try to blame China saying the mass outage was because of a hack. Now they're saying China manipulated the weather because of all those recent stories of how China was cloud seeding for rain. You find stories like China trying to build a time machine in the fringes of the media but then I actually saw it being talked about on TV. So when China comes up with some new tech, don't be surprised when you hear from the conspiracy crowd that China used a time machine to steal US tech from the future. Or how China manipulated time to why the US lives in a false future that China manipulated against the US.

 

[PiSigma]

LOL, what are you talking about man. Toronto humidity is pretty low.

I still remember starting to sweat profusely the moment I got off the plane in Shanghai Pudong airport, at a balmy 22C. Yup, after decades in Canada, I'm just not used to Shanghai humidity anymore.

I live in Oakville, which is just a tad warmer than Toronto, and I have to say it's pretty good. Canadian summers are the best since it never gets super hot (i.e. 38+C). In the winter, Oakville gets a couple of days below -15C and maybe two or three big snow storms. This year we haven't had any snow storm until last week, and the hardest shoveling I've had to do this winter was a couple of days ago.

Of course, I've had it easy since I don't need to leave home for work or shopping.

Maybe I'm just unlucky, everytime I'm in Toronto it's 40C and 100% humidity. Start sweating buckets the moment I step outside.