That was our issue. To make steam you need ultra pure water. Water so pure that if you drink it, it'll suck the minerals out of your teeth. We were teetering on losing our demineralized water capabilities so we started shedding steam users. You don't have to worry about the water that makes steam freezing its superheated. You worry about losing the raw water supply that is purified to make boiler feed water. The boiler feed water is used to make the steam.

When RR commission cut natural gas to users that don't make electricity that didn't help. We had to trip our steam producers that, while they don't "make electricity", they take load off the steam producers that do make electricity.

Silver lining is we are now exporting 20x the electricity to the grid than we normally do. Enough to power 150k homes.

Are we pulling off the top? How big are those intake pipes?

Edit: Never mind Texflip answer with the pure h20, water has to be cleaned first. I was thinking intake not distillation

Off the top of what?

That’s 1/3rd of the board of directors living outside Texas. One of the board members is from Canada.

Lake Arlington, squaw creek etc.

I was thinking he was saying supply was frozen, I didn’t realize it was distilled

It isn't the water supply that freezes its the instrumentation that tells you how much flow you have. You lose critical instrumentation and equipment trips offline to stop a catastrophic failure.

I spent several years working in power plants (gas & steam/not nuclear). We also produce our own electricity from gas on every deep water Oil & Gas Production Platform in the GOM. I know a thing or two about power generation and distribution.

You keep mentioning enclosing our power plants like they do up North, but what you are thinking enclosed means does not necessarily mean enclosed. Like I said previously, I have some questions that I would like to know the answers to before I start blaming all of this on the power plants not being Winterized. I’m not getting my information 2’nd or 3’rd hand (still never told me who your BIL works for), I have hands on experience working in power plants and I know quite a bit about Wintertime preventive measures. Like I said before, there’s gotta be more to the story. Hopefully we get some specific answers soon so we can learn from this.

Why won’t we enclose them? Too much cost?

ROI

Gotcha. Maybe this will change the thinking. A burned up investment ain’t much of an investment. IDK I’m just reading and learning....

Even when winterization is 100%, chit happens. You blow a fuse on one section of electric heat trace and a line to an instrument can freeze. A bad value on an instrument can tell a compressor to trip. A tripped compressor can shut down an entire plant.

If they can have a reliable electric grid in Alaska and North Dakota, seems like we could have one here. I know we have more demand but we also have the concomitant amount of paying customers. Just seems to me anyway.....


I get we have to prepare more for heat than cold. Is it just too costly to do both?

Some of the board members are not even Americans. And yes, it absolutely matters.

I wonder how many billions this just cost the people and state of TX

No Sir. Gas Turbine Generators do not use steam to spin the turbine, only needs NG. The only water involved is a Cooling Water System, different animal vs steam generation.

Big companies will put pressure on the state to get this right. They lost their azzez on this one.

Every event like this we learn from; freeze, hurricane etc. We have a winterization list that grows every year after something is exposed as a weak point. You can't predict every failure.

I know from working in a refinery if you wrap an instrument well enough for this kind of cold it will cook the electronics come summer.

Yes Sir that is true for chemical plants and refineries, NG powered Power Plants are another animal though. Like you said even if Winterization is 100%, chit still happens BUT in a power plant if there is an upset with a unit it is easily bypassed. Output may be temporarily decreased but the other generators are still running.

Yeah, but you could minimize the over all failure of soo many plants. Everything failed in one way or another.... failure rate was too high.

Sure, I get that. Just seems there’s a lot of space between not being able to predict every failure and the entire grid coming within minutes of being destroyed.

Correct.

How can I ride with both on this thread.

I think folks need to settle down. This polar vortex was the 'perfect storm' to exploit EVERY kink/weakness in the whole system, from generation to consumption.
I think this will become a learning lesson for everyone.
'Decisions' from Ercot or elsewhere would not have been enough to mitigate all these weaknesses compounding into what happened.

Cold hard cash spent on preventative measures in anticipation - both on generation side AND consumers could have prevented this, as well as conservation measures in crisis by consumers.

While I did not enjoy the 48 hours being in the dark & cold, I am thankful Ercot kept the major infrastructure from blowing out, which would have been the real catastrophe.
Could they have done their job better, anticipating this, and sending more warnings & advisories out? Yes, perhaps. But who (consumers) would have listened?
Do you (the consumer) even have a plan on how to reduce your consumption in a cold weather crisis? Or a plan to reduce your consumption in a heat wave?
Still lots to discuss/figure out.

All you Rocket Surgeons out there, please heed the words of OldOak.