Texas Grid

I kind of like Texas being independent is some regards but does it makes sense to tie into the nations grid? It doesn't appear that we have reserves to send to neighboring states but maybe this allows more generating capacity to be built. ??

Background info

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

No, we will come out of this way more redundant. Then rape rest of the country like they just did us.

No but we need to make changes so that what happened this past week never happens again. Those changes can be made without tying into the national grid.

The interesting thing is we pay for electric service, and when the system fails us, we are still expected to pay for the failed services, no questions asked.

Think of it as a car service, you pay a monthly fee for a car to be used, and then when you need the car the most, the service quits and you are still expected to pay for it. There seems to be a disconnect (no pun intended) between the expectations and payments....payment is expected regardless of how good the service is. Should be the other way around.

I'm not understanding "redundant". Did you mean resilient?

Redundant meaning when one goes down another can come online and total production wont be hit.

It seems we had enough energy production to meet max demand, but barely. We didnt expect environmental
Issues to reduce max production by almost 25% and when that happened we were screwed.

We need more than max capacity, so in the future when environment dictates a decrease in demand we can still churn out enough power for all to enjoy. It also makes sense to he an energy exporter if we have the ability. Not sure why we cant export energy to surrounding states...

I voted no. It seems every time we sell anything to an outside state, they pay less than I do. I know everytime somebody handles anything there need be a markup.

It just seems deals are made to sell our products then our prices rise because demand exceeds supply.

Yes. Texas knows how many people are moving here every week, not the feds. Plants and grid should be state controlled and regulated. The way things are now I expect the same thing to happen this summer. It's a lot easier to warm up than to cool off. And they want us to all to have electric cars and no more fossil fuels b.s. Right now its, not enough elec. Soon it's, not enough water.

My wife was showing me on some podcast report where a they talked about a big freeze you folks suffered about 30-40 years ago, and recommendations were made but not done. Then they talked about a lesser freeze that happened about 9 years ago, a whole bunch of the same recommendations were made again, and no one followed through. Normally I won't make comments on another state's business, but when it is -32*F outside, clear and sunny, then your power goes out due to a real disaster a 1000 miles away... people get peeved at these energy power pools. Up in my area, all the rural power companies are profit-sharing cooperatives with elected boards of directors. They get an earful every time people get pissed. The bigger towns on the other hand usually fall under the larger power companies without any local governing input. Does Texas operate about the same way with their grids?

A lot of people up here looking for a quick payday hopefully learned their windmill lesson. 22% on average of our electricity is supplied by these giant slot machines that cannot operate in extreme cold. That and the producers going offline September to May because June through August makes their yearly nut.

My understanding.

Our system is regulated, maintained, and distributued by private organizations and buisnesses. These can be a co-op or a for profit corporation.

This is a result due to the size and geographical differences in our state. A solution in area may or will not be applicable in another. We often have all four seasonal type weatther within the stste on thr same day.
We can have snow in the Panhandle and west Texas with floods in Houston and tornados out east all on same week.

Now, lets consider population growth. 30 years ago, Collin county was an ag county. I am not sure the is a square mile of bare dirt there now.

This is true, but it is very expensive to have additional capacity just sitting there idle - kinda like you having an extra brand new Ford 350 diesel just sitting in the garage 'just in case' you need it (think extra monthly payments & insurance).
We have become such a 'just in time' society that there is actually a (financial) penalty for having any excess capacity or inventory sit idle anywhere - there therein lies the problem.
'Exporting' a surplus generation during times that the state doesn't need it begins to sound like a great idea - but then that gets the Fed involved (interstate commerce) and what then happens when you pull the plug suddenly for THOSE out-of-state customers that were depending on it, when Texas really need it for itself? Federal penalties?

More Fed involvement alone makes it a bad idea IMO.

I know everybody is probably about tired of seeing this graph but it tells us allot about what took place during the storm. We lost the wind generators early and gas increased to make up for the loss. Nuclear and coal pretty much stayed the same which leads me to believe they are generating pretty much max at this point. There are claims that gas also seen failures due to circumstance freeze related and some seem to think the drop in gas production wasn't related at all but having to throttle back due to all the state wide distribution failures. We still have allot of people without power and will be repairing downed lines for a couple of weeks just trying to get all the wells back up. When there's no where to go with the power you're capable of producing you reduce production. Gas, Coal and Nuclear all reduced production at around the same time. This is just me and my theory based on what the graph says and what I know about all the statewide delivery failures. There's a bunch of finger pointing, accusations and excuses being made involving all sources of energy but the one that's getting the least amount of attention is the massive amount of line failures we've experienced.

They can operate year round if winterized, only high winds stop our blasted things from turning.
Got to pay to play and your companies did not want to spend the dough to winterize.

GREAT point, SUMMER is coming !!!

Gas power plant issues were the biggest headache.

Ercot board: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/l...287-2a1286b8-9cf5-4336-ae58-97b1997f9fa0

Dude. Does your BIL work for CNN? Why do you keep posting fake news?

Gas DELIVERY system issues were the biggest headache, not the plants.

Sure, I think something needs to be done to fix the mess that was revealed this past week. But my personal take-away from the ordeal is, that when it really matters we have only ourselves on whom to rely. It was more a reaffirmation than realization on my part, but for many this seems to have been their first rodeo.

Some of the power plants also had a problem getting enough water for cooling the turbines. That by itself shut down out put of the Matagorda Bay Nuclear Plant.

The main reason we can’t export power is because we are not connected to other grids except for 2 DC ties going to Oklahoma and 2 DC ties into Mexico. The ties into Oklahoma are only good for 400 mws DC. The big steel tower lines you see around North Texas carry 345,000 volts per circuit and some of the towers have 3 circuits.

Loss of out put from what was online...In that graph matched wind and solar.

Proportionally if we still had the coal that wind and solar replaced, and grew NG or coal to meet rising needs, We would of faired much better. If we had harden our NG infrastructure with money we spent On Wind and Solar infrastructure we would of been golden.

That’s the real agruement when you compare apples to apples.


But doesn’t matter we will continue to throw money at wind in solar while importing both.

Yes Sir, I do understand that happened at the Mat Bay Nuclear Plant. I have still not seen or heard of frozen cooling water being an issue at any NG fired plant in Texas. Closed loop systems are a blessing, just like your vehicle. As long as it's running...and they run.

Government will only make it worse

it was relayed to me from the power plant where I worked that the gas fired plants that were on when the chit hit the fan, none tripped off. however there were some that were not on or able to get on due to freezing up.

I've spent a few years working in gas fired power plants.

A friend and neighbor is a Plant Manager in one of those plants.

I will trust my experience and others that I respect, over some opinion from somone's BIL who is some kinda undisclosed Top Secret Expert on the Matters at hand. I'd bet money that such expert hasn't squeezed very many crimpers.

For the 5'th time, if I'm wrong. Correct me. I probably know who you BIL is San Antonio.

If he's your BIL, that means he's from my home town and I'd like to learn his name Sir. Chance I might know him.

Stay independent

If not, we’ll make a surplus and send it to California or some other democrat state

I’d rather piss away the extra should we get there

I'm not at liberty to discuss his identity...... lol

He has direct knowledge, and its not an option. He's been in that business for 30 years, but has never worked at a power plant. That being said if something happens he knows about it.

This is stupid. There are already three interconnections with other grids.

How did that work out last week? Might want to read up on that a bit

There are actually DC connections. 2 to Oklahoma and 2 to Mexico. The problem is you can move very little power thru
A DC connection. Then it has to go thru a transformer to change it back to AC before it can be put out on the grid.

If TX stays independent it will be easier for those that still want to succeed from the union. Either way, we will be in trouble in the future on some Homefront need if we were to join the national grids and send our ever increasing need for power elsewhere.