Yeah been 12+; crazy town now
Bitter cold Temps in Texas
Amazon sent me a notice that the faucet covers I ordered just shipped... should be here by end of feb 
Gonna be a fun night w/ temps around 0.
Amazon sent me a notice that the faucet covers I ordered just shipped... should be here by end of feb
I've never used one. We just shut the water off to our outside faucets sometime in October. It can be very bad if you forget, lol.
Those of us in the north deal with this every year. Welcome to the party.
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I grew up in the Chicago area. Moved down to Dallas after graduate school. I don't own a snow shovel. lol
This will only continue to get worse when we have these extreme weather conditions as more and more coal fired generation is retired. Solar and wind just cannot support it all, especially when their generation is impacted by less than ideal weather.
The demand is so high, that ERCOT is not connected to enough supply to fulfill it all. Thus, the blackouts. This is probably outside of what they have in contingency plans, plus the freezing of natural gas, it's a worst case scenario.
I had never heard about the freezing of natural gas until this polar vortex. Wild!
I know, same here. I wonder how the natural gas infrastructure differs in the north vs the south to allow it to freeze.
Is Oklahoma having these power outage issues?
livegolf
Well-known member
I'm up in Richardson. Lost power about 9am and still out. Not really an emergency for me but just frustrating as 30 minutes turns into the 10 hours. With an ice storm coming up I'm thinking Friday is the earliest it might be back. Hopefully I'm wrong! Stay safe all.
Just read that around 25% of power generated in TX is from wind. That is a crazy number for a state with such a large supply of natural gas and oil.
Unfortunately these wind turbines are more expensive, less efficient, and less reliable than coal and natural gas. It's fine to support renewable energy, but there has to be a balance. This is a big reason I don't like mandates coming from those who don't know how to run the power grid. This will be more of the norm, under current renewable technology, as we become more reliant on solar and wind.
Unfortunately these wind turbines are more expensive, less efficient, and less reliable than coal and natural gas. It's fine to support renewable energy, but there has to be a balance. This is a big reason I don't like mandates coming from those who don't know how to run the power grid. This will be more of the norm, under current renewable technology, as we become more reliant on solar and wind.
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In the north, they're smart enough to bury their supply lines. All the supply lines in Texas are above ground.
I was wondering if that was the difference
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To be fair, Texas, to this point didn't need to bury their supply lines. This a "hundred year event". Tough to be prepared for every possible contingency.
I agree. The cost to be prepared for it all would be quite high, thus costing rate payers each year, for something that will occur every 100 years.
Just caught this news brief covering the crisis:
The recap of an Aegis CC held yesterday afternoon, by Dan Steffens of Energy Prospectus, says that not only renewable energy but also that from other forms was not working very well over there:
I just got off the webinar shown below. It is very important that you understand how SERIOUS the electricity problem in Texas and Oklahoma is. Here are my notes:
Electricity:
In Texas, power demand will ramp up to 70,000 mega watts tonight and the state only has ~45,000 MW of power generation on-line
Just for clarity, that isn't my take, but the author's.
The recap of an Aegis CC held yesterday afternoon, by Dan Steffens of Energy Prospectus, says that not only renewable energy but also that from other forms was not working very well over there:
I just got off the webinar shown below. It is very important that you understand how SERIOUS the electricity problem in Texas and Oklahoma is. Here are my notes:
Electricity:
In Texas, power demand will ramp up to 70,000 mega watts tonight and the state only has ~45,000 MW of power generation on-line
- All wind and solar in Texas and Oklahoma is offline due to freeze off. Ice on windmill blades and snow covered solar panels have taken a large percentage of our electricity offline.
- A nuclear power plant was also offline and several gas fired power plants froze up because they lost natural gas supply.
- ERCOT was going to do rotating power outages, but rotation consumes too much power so areas without power are likely to be offline thru mid-day on Wednesday. Obviously, this is a DEADLY situation for many people that won't have power tonight.
- Situation is worse than a hurricane because of such a widespread event. Surrounding states cannot send power or repair crews.
- Electric storage facilities (small) are no help because they are all drained and cannot recharge.
- Unlikely that problem will be solved until Saturday based on current weather forecasts.
- On Sunday, over 9 Bcf per day of U.S. gas production was offline because of well freeze offs, with 7 Bcfpd in Texas and Oklahoma. Situation in Oklahoma is much worse because they were hit harder by the weather and they depend heavily on gas fired power plants. In the past, they could fire up coal fired power plants, but most are now gone.
- Per Matt Marshall: Gas offline will probably be more on Monday and Tuesday.
- Spot prices in some areas exceed $100/mcf with no supply available no matter how high the price.
- Per Matt Marshall: Futures only up 9 cents today, but Matt blames that on light holiday trading and lack of understanding by the traders as to how under-supplied the U.S. gas market is going to be in 2021 and 2022. He expects the futures for winter 2021-2022 to go a lot higher.
- In Texas, the gas used for power generation is down about 4.5 Bcfpd because so many power plants are offline.
- Matt asked who gets priority if natural gas has to be rationed? Diana Liebmann said that LDCs and power plants get top priority and then homes are next. Unlikely that any homes will be cutoff from gas supply. More of a problem in rural areas because large cities like Dallas and Houston have large amounts of gas storage nearby.
- LNG Export companies may sell gas into the U.S market rather than export it because of the very high spot prices. Short term opportunity for them.
Just for clarity, that isn't my take, but the author's.
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3rd coldest temp ever recorded last night. a lot of people have had maybe 90 minutes of power over the past 30 hours or so. lots of houses are probably already in the 30* or worse ambient temps. more freezing rain coming tonight. temps below freezing until friday.
is not good.
is not good.
People going 24 hrs w/o power still.
with a couple of brief exceptions, each lasting less than 30 minutes, we were without electricity for almost 24 hours. It got down to 49° here in the house with outside temps hitting zero overnight. We still may experience "rolling brownouts" which are only supposed to last 15-60 minutes so we'll have to see. As of now the power has been back up about an hour.
My dad called and said my mom either got a notice or heard from someone that Georgetown's water supply my have cratered. About an hour before that she said they may implement a boil water notice as the water plant was without power.
Hit 32 + hrs without power; tough night last night
Guy In Lyon
Active member
A Texan's reaction to any ambient temperature under 50 degrees is hilarious.
Snow and ice on the road?
Get off the roads. Stay home.
Power outage?
Break out those knitted things that your grandmothers made.
Snow and ice on the road?
Get off the roads. Stay home.
Power outage?
Break out those knitted things that your grandmothers made.
We do suck with cold.
but this is a bit different, a once in a generation cold spell is going to kill quite a few people. I don't think a scarf is the answer.