Can We Believe Anything that ERCOT Says?

[smw66]

ERCOT failed big time. I hope they are held accountable.

Ercot does not generate any power. The failures for power generation were not caused by ERCOT.

How exactly would you suggest that "accountability" be administered ? And who do you think should/could/would be responsible for taking the "accountability" actions ?

 

[oldag]

Electric Reliability Council of Texas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

pretty good read on the function of ERCOT.
'grid' consists of generators, switch sites and transmission lines. If switches fail, power must be 'switched' to different transmission systems or generators taken off line/ reduce output. Relative slow process. Getting back online may take a while and 'broken' parts replaced. Load dumps are havoc. Wind and solar cannot run at 'rated' capacity EVER! Weather just doesn't allow it. State is getting ready to spend a bundle on battery power storage - really BAD idea but Musk and a lot of $$ behind it. Leg. needs to get EPA out of our lives and allow more nuke/gas plants. problem with the smaller coal fired is frozen coal piles and grinders - coal is powdered before burning. Problem with nukes is not particularly rod replacement so much as storage of the 'used' coolant - which is now done underground in w. Tx. Rods can be 'refined' for re-use. So far no method of 'refining' used coolant. In the end, Gov. is usually wasteful in $$ so WE pay the bill. Definitely got to keep the Fed out of Tx. FEMA did provide 4 generators to TX for this cold spell, pretty much AFTER the problem. FEMA is normally late and equipment gets sold off as junk. Like all the mobile homes for tornado and flood victims, setting beside the road and basically trashed.

Agree on battery storage being a waste of money. State of the art 10 MW battery site will provide 10 MW, for one hour. Then what?

 

[smittyb]

A whole lot of y’all sure seem to know a lot about ERCOT and what they do...

 

[Axxe55]

On February 16, Governor Greg Abbott declared that ERCOT reform is an emergency priority for the state legislature, and there will be an investigation of the power outage to determine long-term solutions.[26] Previously, a 357 page report was written after the 2011 power outage in Texas,[27] though it seems to have been ignored, because too many critical generators lacked weatherization in 2021,[18][28] especially the natural gas system

Seems that Governor Abbott thinks there are problems with ERCOT and something needs to be done so this doesn't happen again.

Texans outside the ERCOT-controlled grid had a different power experience,[3] relatively few electric customers lost power in those regions. In counties around El Paso in western Texas, El Paso Electric reported that 3,000 customers lost power for less than five minutes, as a result of investing millions in cold weather upgrades after the 2011 cold snap. In counties around Beaumont in eastern Texas, Entergy suffered relatively few outages too, because of previous winterization efforts.

I happen to be on an electrical COOP out of Houston County in Crockett for our electrical provider. Not once have we lost power. A few times it flickered long enough that clocks started flashing and had to be reset. TV shut off and internet had to be rebooted. But all in all, we have weathered the cold weather pretty good. About three years ago, they contracted out to crews to clean up and maintain power line ROW's to prevent damage from trees to the power lines. It seems that it worked pretty good for us here in East Texas.

 

[avvidclif]

We are on a co-op also. We had no problems until ERCOT ordered the rolling blackouts. After that is was 30 on 30 off. Then it moved to 1 hour on and 30 off. Wed night it came on and stayed on. I know since we've been here power outages are few and far between, usually an hour or less. Exception was when the tornado came thru Van Zandt county it tore down several of the large transmission towers supplying power and we were down for abt 24 hours. I think a co-op is the only way to go if available.

 

[avvidclif]

Ercot does not generate any power. The failures for power generation were not caused by ERCOT.

How exactly would you suggest that "accountability" be administered ? And who do you think should/could/would be responsible for taking the "accountability" actions ?

From what I understand ERCOT had a plan in place because of the last big freeze 10 years ago, but it wasn't followed or put in place. Laying out a plan and not following thru is a politician at work. That's what ERCOT is. All talk and no hat.

 

[gll]

On February 16, Governor Greg Abbott declared that ERCOT reform is an emergency priority for the state legislature, and there will be an investigation of the power outage to determine long-term solutions.[26] Previously, a 357 page report was written after the 2011 power outage in Texas,[27] though it seems to have been ignored, because too many critical generators lacked weatherization in 2021,[18][28] especially the natural gas system

Seems that Governor Abbott thinks there are problems with ERCOT and something needs to be done so this doesn't happen again.

Texans outside the ERCOT-controlled grid had a different power experience,[3] relatively few electric customers lost power in those regions. In counties around El Paso in western Texas, El Paso Electric reported that 3,000 customers lost power for less than five minutes, as a result of investing millions in cold weather upgrades after the 2011 cold snap. In counties around Beaumont in eastern Texas, Entergy suffered relatively few outages too, because of previous winterization efforts.

I happen to be on an electrical COOP out of Houston County in Crockett for our electrical provider. Not once have we lost power. A few times it flickered long enough that clocks started flashing and had to be reset. TV shut off and internet had to be rebooted. But all in all, we have weathered the cold weather pretty good. About three years ago, they contracted out to crews to clean up and maintain power line ROW's to prevent damage from trees to the power lines. It seems that it worked pretty good for us here in East Texas.

Having a grid all our own, with limited connections to the outside obviously comes with both advantages and disadvantages...

I think it an advantage for our future independence.

 

[smw66]

That's what ERCOT is. All talk and no hat.

Maybe all hat, no cattle ?

 

[kbaxter60]

...not following thru is a politician at work.

You are being quite unfair to bean counters everywhere.

 

[Hoji]

Is this really a question , or is it rhetorical?

 

[Axxe55]

Maybe all hat, no cattle ?

How many cattle do you have?

 

[no2gates]

It's been now just over 110 hours, not that is not a typo: One hundred ten fucking cold hours that my damn power has been off. If they had done rotating blackouts, like they were supposed to do, the transformers would not have blown here in my area.

 

[HKaltwasser]

This article breaks it down pretty good and pretty well confirms what my wife has been hearing at PEC.

What Went Wrong With Texas’s Main Electric Grid and Could It Have Been Prevented?

An energy expert explains why some four million Texans suffered a barrage of winter storms without heat in their homes.

www.texasmonthly.com

 

[Rhino]

It's been now just over 110 hours, not that is not a typo: One hundred ten fucking cold hours that my damn power has been off. If they had done rotating blackouts, like they were supposed to do, the transformers would not have blown here in my area.

I'm not so sure. Transformers wear out, don't they? They can go out for a variety of reasons, too...

What to Do When a Transformer Blows |

For the safety of your family and property, it is important to know what to do when a transformer blows. Visit Expert Electric's website to find out more.

www.expertelectric.ca

 

[no2gates]

I'm not so sure. Transformers wear out, don't they? They can go out for a variety of reasons, too...

What to Do When a Transformer Blows |

For the safety of your family and property, it is important to know what to do when a transformer blows. Visit Expert Electric's website to find out more.

www.expertelectric.ca

Yes they do. But a bunch of them all at the same time? I would tend to believe it might be caused by frozen condensate due to the amount of time they were powered off.

 

[Younggun]

It's been now just over 110 hours, not that is not a typo: One hundred ten fucking cold hours that my damn power has been off. If they had done rotating blackouts, like they were supposed to do, the transformers would not have blown here in my area.

How is that?


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[Rhino]

Yes they do. But a bunch of them all at the same time? I would tend to believe it might be caused by frozen condensate due to the amount of time they were powered off.

Sounds like yours happened early on. I think a bunch of old stuff due to be replaced and barely up to another winter just got exposed...

 

[Younggun]

Yes they do. But a bunch of them all at the same time? I would tend to believe it might be caused by frozen condensate due to the amount of time they were powered off.

Anything like that one the outside will have no effect. And the transformers are filled with oil so any moisture on the inside wouldn’t be able to come in contact with anything that mattered. I’ve seen some running with all the oil gone and some water inside.

Sounds more like they overloaded from the extra load created when the power came back on and lots of appliances were trying to come to life at once.


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[no2gates]

Anything like that one the outside will have no effect. And the transformers are filled with oil so any moisture on the inside wouldn’t be able to come in contact with anything that mattered. I’ve seen some running with all the oil gone and some water inside.

Sounds more like they overloaded from the extra load created when the power came back on and lots of appliances were trying to come to life at once.


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You're telling me these things don't have fuses or breakers to prevent that from happening ?

 

[Big Dipper]

From past experience I know they can ice over during an ice storm. Then without ventilation they explode, with an eerie blue flash and an odd ringing sound.