Just curious....how is the weather in your neck of the woods?

[Stiff Clamp]

☼ Sunny . . . blue sky . . . 62°F

pleasant in East Texas

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Gonna get our first (and probably only) real freeze Sunday night, though we'll have lows in the teens and twenties for three nights so who knows if the Texas power grid will hold.

 

[highland145]

Gonna get our first (and probably only) real freeze Sunday night, though we'll have lows in the teens and twenties for three nights so who knows if the Texas power grid will hold.

Wind turbines FTW?

 

[Ajay]

Gonna get our first (and probably only) real freeze Sunday night, though we'll have lows in the teens and twenties for three nights so who knows if the Texas power grid will hold.

One would tend to think the Texas grid was being improved after the last massive outage.

 

[BoomerD]

One would tend to think the Texas grid was being improved after the last massive outage.

Don’t be ridiculous…that would require spending profits.

 

[Iron Woode]

our first major winter storm arrives Friday bringing around 15cm of snow here. It will continue to snow until Tuesday.

Cold arctic air will arrive starting Sunday. Looking at windchills in the -22C range for several days.

 

[Ajay]

Don’t be ridiculous…that would require spending profits.

Oh right. Stupid me, I assumed Texans were rational about energy security

 

[highland145]

Oh right. Stupid me, I assumed Texans were rational about energy security

It was all good until hell froze over in 2021.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

One would tend to think the Texas grid was being improved after the last massive outage.

Abbott's answer to the grid failure he and the previous governor were responsible for was to override cities and eliminate mask mandates in Texas.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I still can't get over the fact that their natural gas infrastructure froze. How does one even manage that. We have pipelines all over Canada and don't have any issues here lol.

 

[highland145]

I still can't get over the fact that their natural gas infrastructure froze. How does one even manage that. We have pipelines all over Canada and don't have any issues here lol.

All about the $$...imagine that.


Texas's power grid has long been separate from the two major national grids to avoid federal oversight, though it is still connected to the other national grids and Mexico's;[17] the limited number of ties made it difficult for the state to import electricity from other states during the crisis.[18] Deregulation of its electricity market beginning in the 1990s resulted in competition in wholesale electricity prices, but also cost cutting for contingency preparation.[18]


During the crisis, some energy firms made billions in profits, while others went bankrupt, due to some firms being able to pass extremely high wholesale prices ($9,000/MWh, typically $50/MWh) on to consumers, while others could not, as well as this price being held at the $9,000 cap by ERCOT for allegedly two days longer than necessary; creating $16 billion in unnecessary charges.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I still can't get over the fact that their natural gas infrastructure froze. How does one even manage that. We have pipelines all over Canada and don't have any issues here lol.

There is no winterization. In addition to the 2021 disaster, we had rolling blackouts in 2011 when we had one morning that dropped to -8C in San Antonio. That was engineered too since a bunch of plants took themselves offline 'for maintenance' right before that cold front to drive wholesale prices up. They managed to squeeze the prices up from $50 per MWhr to about $3000 per MWhr. We'll have three days of -9C to -5C mornings from the polar vortex dipping south so I'm expecting the same kind of shenanigans from our power producers and rolling blackouts again.

 

[BoomerD]

There is no winterization. In addition to the 2021 disaster, we had rolling blackouts in 2011 when we had one morning that dropped to -8C in San Antonio. That was engineered too since a bunch of plants took themselves offline 'for maintenance' right before that cold front to drive wholesale prices up. They managed to squeeze the prices up from $50 per MWhr to about $3000 per MWhr. We'll have three days of -9C to -5C mornings from the polar vortex dipping south so I'm expecting the same kind of shenanigans from our power producers and rolling blackouts again.

Pure unbridled capitalism...ain't it grand?

 

[highland145]

Pure unbridled capitalism...ain't it grand?

Capitalism without empathy.

 

[BoomerD]

Capitalism without empathy.

Empathy acted upon costs profits.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Capitalism without empathy.

That's just called capitalism

 

[highland145]

That's just called capitalism

Meh, I'm a capitalist but I do have empathy, sometimes, for my customers.


Shit, I'm an oxymoron.


Shut up, Boomer.

 

[BoomerD]

Meh, I'm a capitalist but I do have empathy, sometimes, for my customers.


Shit, I'm an oxymoron.


Shut up, Boomer.

 

[BoomerD]

 

[SKORPI0]

Chicago southwest suburbs 6"-8" of snow predicted - Jan 12, 2024.

 

[highland145]

^^^^
Screw that.

 

[Red Squirrel]

-17C feels like -24.

Calling for another 7-15cm of snow overnight.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Chicago southwest suburbs 6"-8" of snow predicted - Jan 12, 2024.

I wish we were getting snow in San Antonio. The polar vortex is likely to bring us crappy sleet on Sunday/Monday. Makes the roads icy as hell but you can't play in it. Probably still get the rolling blackouts.

 

[IronWing]

The storm blew through here yesterday. We had decent wind but only a spit of rain. We need a month long soaker.

 

[waffleironhead]

Chicago southwest suburbs 6"-8" of snow predicted - Jan 12, 2024.

Thankfully that storm mostly died out before it reached duluth. Were predicted to get 4-6" got maybe 1.