Finally....... a few are getting their asssses called out on this BS. Please read the entire page. Well worth the 5 minutes.

https://www.texaspolicy.com/correcting-the-record-why-texas-blackouts-occurred/


While Texas attempts to identify the causes of the tragic blackouts this week and the sources of mismanagement, it’s clear that poor policy decisions are the root of the problem. Texas has lost significant fossil fuel generation capacity over the past several years and instead counted on nearly 20,000 MW of new wind and solar generation to satisfy steadily rising electricity demand. It has been known for years that a weather event combining low wind and solar production and record demand could lead to blackouts. This week, that event became reality as new wind and solar generation failed to produce when it was needed the most.

The power plant which should be our most reliable source failed us.

You know what never gets too cold? Nuclear.

++1

And clean. The one thing France can take pride in....

Operators have restarted the Unit 1 reactor, which is currently at about 5% capacity, said Victor Dricks, senior public affairs officer with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

They are working to reconnect to the electric grid.

The most recent outage of a South Texas Nuclear Project reactor was on May 1, 2016.

About 5:30 a.m. Monday, workers at the South Texas Nuclear Project shutdown the Unit 1 reactor because of freezing water, said Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald.

The reactor has a 1,350 megawatt generation capacity and was expected to come back online at about 10 p.m. Tuesday. The full generating capacity cannot be reached immediately as it needs to “coast back up” to a normal generating level while workers monitor the reactor.

Workers manually shutoff the reactor Monday out of precaution for “safety before profit.”

The Unit 2 reactor remains online at full generating capacity.

South Texas Nuclear Project officials have not responded to requests for comment.

The power plants that failed us is where the power you are using now is coming from. It's not wind or solar. If wind and solar are producing it is a minute amount.

The end answer is going to be a combination of factors, increased demand from unprecedented low temps across the entire state, coupled with decreased production.

Decreased production was three fold:
1. Decreased production from wind and solar, the wind turbines froze up and the solar batteries become way less efficient in the cold. These factors led to decreased “green” energy production
2. Power plants were not properly winterized, and caused a drop in production including at least one nuclear plant. This led to decreased production. Permanent winterizing was a possibility but the decisions were made to save money for what turns out to be a once a decade issue.
3. Texas is the only state on its own energy grid. Had we been tied to other states we could have just drawn some extra energy from surrounding states. Not sure we could have drawn enough, but we will never know.

The end answer is going to be a combination of factors, increased demand from unprecedented low temps across the entire state, coupled with decreased production.

Decreased production was three fold:
1. Decreased production from wind and solar, the wind turbines froze up and the solar batteries become way less efficient in the cold. These factors led to decreased “green” energy production
2. Power plants were not properly winterized, and caused a drop in production including at least one nuclear plant. This led to decreased production. Permanent winterizing was a possibility but the decisions were made to save money for what turns out to be a once a decade issue.
3. Texas is the only state on its own energy grid. Had we been tied to other states we could have just drawn some extra energy from surrounding states. Not sure we could have drawn enough, but we will never know.

Evidently the other grids winterized their equipment. They are not having the massive failure Texas is experiencing. ERCOT is responsible for the integrity of the grid. Bad all the way around.

Evidently the other grids winterized their equipment. They are not having the massive failure Texas is experiencing. ERCOT is responsible for the integrity of the grid. Bad all the way around.

This will be the ultimate answer. Had ercot put in place permanent winterizing facilities, we would have been fine even with the green failures.

Expect to see some increased costs for these hard costs...

Not Ercot, power plants.... I dont know what or how much control Ercot has over power plants.

My thinking if Texas isolates itself with its own grid, it should of the extra mile to insure it will be able to handle once in a decade storm.... things should change going forward. Sometime it takes getting kicked in the teeth to learn a lesson. Hopefully we will learn....... its gonna cost everyone though.

Not Ercot, power plants.... I dont know what or how much control Ercot has over power plants.

My thinking if Texas isolates itself with its own grid, it should of the extra mile to insure it will be able to handle once in a decade storm.... things should change going forward. Sometime it takes getting kicked in the teeth to learn a lesson. Hopefully we will learn....... its gonna cost everyone though.

Not Ercot, power plants.... I dont know what or how much control Ercot has over power plants.

My thinking if Texas isolates itself with its own grid, it should of the extra mile to insure it will be able to handle once in a decade storm.... things should change going forward. Sometime it takes getting kicked in the teeth to learn a lesson. Hopefully we will learn....... its gonna cost everyone though.

I dont know exactly either, but hearing the leader of ercot on the news earlier the week, he made is sound like they made the choice not to permanently winterize to save money, knowing this kind of an issue comes about once every ten years (89, 11, 21). He was almost giggling about the decision. Kind of creepy honestly, knowing how many folks were really hurting from that decision.

So whether it is ercot that is in charge or the individual power plants i dont know, but my bet is we will see some hardened facilities like the states around us who arent having these issues, and we will all pay for it (again).

I sure don't have a problem with Texas being on it's own grid.

But we definitely need to harden our generating sources.

ERCOT has failed us all. They need to go away, or be drastically restructured.

Their ongoing failures in these winter blasts are getting worse, not better.

Time to change something.