Massive Pile Up In Fort Worth

[Torn Mind]

No - but if I recall, Texas is #1 producer of wind-power in the US.

They aren't anti-renewable in the slightest.

Red or blue, people luv making money. And if wind makes money, they'll make the deal. Given that your state got property taxes that shoot up to the moon, that in itself incentivizes "making money off the land somehow".

Wind power in Texas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Pohemi]

Except all turbines are frozen solid right now.

Right, and any existing solar panels have to be kept clear and clean for optimal efficiency (or to operate at all).

Last I checked, copper, steel, substation equipment does not discriminate.

Do you believe that substations and metal power transmission towers and lines...run and operate themselves? That the grids work on a magical automated system without human interaction?

I wish I had your imagination.

 

[Exterous]

MISO posted a Max Gen power notice for North\Central regions (MI, WI, ND along with parts of a few other states like IN and IL) so even norther states are at risk of issues

 

[darkswordsman17]

A friend living in Kansas just texted me saying they've been having rolling blackouts and that they've been without power for over two hours in -20F.

 

[ponyo]

I lost power for over 2 days in GA last fall when tropical storm came through. That royally sucked but the weather wasn't cold and the only thing I had to worry about was the food in my fridge going bad. I can't imagine the stress and how shitty it must be for people in Texas who's dealing with power outages right now when it's cold. At least they don't have to worry about the food in the fridge going bad. They can just leave it outside in the cold.

 

[IronWing]

Do you believe that substations and metal power transmission towers and lines...run and operate themselves? That the grids work on a magical automated system without human interaction?

I wish I had your imagination.

I had classmate who worked as a hydro plant/gas turbine operator. One of his jobs was to balance supply and demand and he was responsible for maintaining adequate power for his piece of the grid. He was on his phone at least once an hour executing contracts to buy/sell power to other operators on the grid depending on where the demand was. He had different cost points for his hydro plant and gas plant where it was better to buy from the grid or sell to the grid. Since the water was all spoken for by other users, he couldn't just run his hydro plant to maximize profits as he couldn't allow more water through the dam than the downstream users could use at that particular time of year. It was fascinating to watch him work.

 

[Pohemi]

At least they don't have to worry about the food in the fridge freezer going bad. They can just leave it outside in the cold.

ftfy. The inside of your fridge isn't 0-10F.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Last I checked, copper, steel, substation equipment does not discriminate.

We could call Highland park Jerruh Jones-stan

Jerry Jones' House: Where Does Cowboys Owner Live?

Where does Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones live? Learn more about Jones' house where he will be conducting the team's draft.

heavy.com

There's evil people with long mustaches at the switches saying "Wait, turn off this one? Are you aware of how many white people live here?"

Don't you know?!

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Anyhow, I finally lost power this morning though it's supposedly temporary. Someone who knows someone at the provider says we should be back up in about 10m or so.

Hopefully.

 

[Pohemi]

There's evil people with long mustaches at the switches saying "Wait, turn off this one? Are you aware of how many white people live here?"

Don't you know?!

You have a better explanation? Of course you don't, you fucking clown. Shaddup.

 

[K1052]

Still out here in south Austin. House is 45F. 2 of 3 toilet feed lines frozen up. Water still on though which is nice.

 

[local]

Power still 100% up here, so lucky to live next to this gas well. Water is kaput though there is not enough pressure moving water to keep the lines from freezing.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Power still 100% up here, so lucky to live next to this gas well. Water is kaput though there is not enough pressure moving water to keep the lines from freezing.

You can try running hot water through to thaw the cold lines out sometimes, they're generally run close enough to each other to warm the other... worth a try anyhow.

 

[K1052]

Power still 100% up here, so lucky to live next to this gas well. Water is kaput though there is not enough pressure moving water to keep the lines from freezing.

Downtown was fully lit up like there isn’t a power shortage last night. Whole town is rather pissed about it. Austin Energy even had to put out a statement that they were visiting those properties now to turn off non-essential loads.

 

[local]

You can try running hot water through to thaw the cold lines out sometimes, they're generally run close enough to each other to warm the other... worth a try anyhow.

No joy on that Sunday. Water pressure so low now I barely get a trickle from the hot water line and it never actually gets hot. Still have one cold water line active in the middle of the house and I believe it is an underground line so I just have to worry about the main coming in, everything else is already dead.

Downtown was fully lit up like there isn’t a power shortage last night. Whole town is rather pissed about it. Austin Energy even had to put out a statement that they were visiting those properties now to turn off non-essential loads.

They made a big to do about turning off all the LED lighting in downtown Dallas last night, I guess it was the most visible but not really a big energy draw.

 

[BudAshes]

I lost power for over 2 days in GA last fall when tropical storm came through. That royally sucked but the weather wasn't cold and the only thing I had to worry about was the food in my fridge going bad. I can't imagine the stress and how shitty it must be for people in Texas who's dealing with power outages right now when it's cold. At least they don't have to worry about the food in the fridge going bad. They can just leave it outside in the cold.

I've had my power shut down multiple times this year for 2+ days. First time it was our hottest week on record. I slept outside on the deck and woke up covered in ashes due to the California fires, soon after we had to evacuate.

Then we had another wind storm, and PG&E just decided to shut down the entire side of the city rather than bother trying to shut down the individual areas that were affected by the storm. We were off for 3 days then.

They have also just been randomly shutting down our power with no explanation or reason.

Feels like we are going backward into a 3rd world nation, but at least it's never cold enough here for us to freeze to death.

 

[K1052]

They made a big to do about turning off all the LED lighting in downtown Dallas last night, I guess it was the most visible but not really a big energy draw.

People understandably get a little miffed sitting in their freezing homes staring at a lit up cityscape. Utilities have to be a little more sympathetic than say ERCOT, though the latter is getting noticed now.

 

[FelixDeCat]

8 hrs no power. My nephew lost his 14 hours ago.

Its warned up from minus -2F to 10F. Almost time for shorts and ice cream.

 

[Iron Woode]

Right, and any existing solar panels have to be kept clear and clean for optimal efficiency (or to operate at all).

Do you believe that substations and metal power transmission towers and lines...run and operate themselves? That the grids work on a magical automated system without human interaction?

I wish I had your imagination.

generally speaking, that is how it works. People only get involved when there is an issue. The is a lot of automation in the electrical grid.

Remember what happened back 2003? All of it started in Ohio and no one was around to stop the catastrophe.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Power back on here, was only out for about 1.5 hour. Can't complain. Time to ramp up the heaters all around and hope that none of the pipes froze. So far so good. Counting down to the afternoon where the temperature will supposedly get above freezing for a bit.

 

[nisryus]

Everything is fine here except the kitchen faucet has no hot water. Must be a frozen pipe since all other faucets have hot water.

Been using a space heater under the sink to warm it up, but no dice. Probably it froze somewhere on the pipe leading to the faucet. =/

 

[Captante]

I agree some wheelspin can be helpful. However, if you are spinning to the point of heating up the tires, that is rarely helpful. In addition to possibly damaging tires, and even worse, the transmission, it also melts the snow under the tires, which if the weather is cold, can compact/ice-up the snow under the tires and make it even more slippery. If the temps are warm and the snow is not too deep, I suppose you could melt the snow down to the pavement and get traction, but here is MN, where it is cold and the snow is deep it can be detrimental.

Obviously this won't work if the pavement in question is buried too deeply or is covered with ice ... for example if you've chosen to live in the frozen tundra!





The key is to watch the speedo/tach and not rev the motor too much ... not only do you risk mechanical damage if you redline it for more than a few seconds, it's possible to exceed the speed-limit of your tires and shred them to pieces. I've lived in New England and been an avid skier most of my life so I've driven in heavy snow once or twice lol... TC is great for staying in control once moving forward but it's not so handy when its comes to getting started!




In addition just like AWD is inferior to ACTUAL 4WD with a locking center-diff due to all 4 wheels spinning in loose stuff, a FWD vehicle can benefit (to a far lesser degree) from the "paddle-wheel" effect of tires spinning even in deep stuff with granite-ice underneath.

 

[K1052]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1361715146176024578

not the wind power causing this problem

 

[local]

City and county are now without water due to power outages. Odd that I can see the pumphouse 1/4 mile away from my yard and they have no power while I do.

 

[KMFJD]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1361703554789031937

very conservative of them