Texas power troubles persist

Looks like Texas’ independent power grid, which gets some of its power from MEXACO, is in trouble again: Winter Storm Landon Has Texas Gov. Abbott Backtracking On Power Outages https://gizmodo.com/texas-winter-storm-landon-ice-snow-freez…

OTFoolish

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A quote from your linked article. It’s almost funny, at least for people who don’t
live there. I wonder what the economic impact of last years long outage in Texas was ?
Sounds like it’s a given that Texans will experience it again at some point in time.
Must be good for sales of generators, assuming one can get fuel for them in an extended outage.

“No one can guarantee there won’t be [power outages],” Governor Greg Abbott said during a press conference held Tuesday. (It should be noted that in December, Abbott told a local news station he could “guarantee the lights will stay on” this winter. Weird discrepancy there, Greg!)"

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Looks like Texas’ independent power grid, which gets some of its power from MEXACO, is in trouble again

“Increased demand for energy during the extreme and extended cold was part of what drove the widespread grid failure, and it seems unlikely that Texas will see those conditions again.”

DB2

“Looks like Texas’ independent power grid, which gets some of its power from MEXACO, is in trouble again”

I laugh at stupid comments like that.

The TX power system - which if TX was a separate country, would be FIFTH in total electricity production in the world…

Is surrounded by states with populations not even the size of the Dallas-FT Worth Metroplex or the Houston area. You think with 4 million people and 10 below temps, those states are going to have megawatt hours to sell?

Worse, when it is really cold in TX, it is really cold in all the surrounding states, and the last ‘episode’ of power shortages also saw rolling blackouts in OK, LA, AR…meaning they had NO spare power, and even though they were ‘connected to the grid’ …couldn’t borrow any power from ‘the grid’ . Seems that KS, MO and all the states surrounding the neighboring states were equally cold and suffering power rationing and shortfall themselves…despite ‘connections to the eastern grid’.

What can you say? When it is zero in TX, it is 10 below in OK and KS…and AR…and TN…

Mexico? Heck, we ship megatons of NG to Mexico to keep their lights on…and of course, when the natural gas system took a hit in the power ‘episode’ a year ago… did Mexico have problems? yep…and as far as I can tell, we don’t get any electricity from Mexico…unless a tiny border town somewhere of 200 people …

This year, NG was down a bit…but we had some in storage…and wind power was above normal…no freezing wind turbines…

then again, it only got down to teens here…not the 2 below area for much of TX last year.

So it goes. We had 15% reserve power at all times. Lots of NG to keep the houses heated… enough to keep the lights on in Mexico…and all over the northeast…using TX natural gas.

t.

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The TX power system - which if TX was a separate country, would be FIFTH in total electricity production in the world…

Yet they can’t keep the lights on… Size does NOT equal competence.

Is surrounded by states with populations not even the size of the Dallas-FT Worth Metroplex or the Houston area.

Is there supposed to be a point being made there?

You think with 4 million people and 10 below temps, those states are going to have megawatt hours to sell?

More like terawatt hours. Megawatts are so yesterday…

What can you say? When it is zero in TX, it is 10 below in OK and KS…and AR…and TN…

We hit -30 and -40 in MN–and have few problems with power at low temps. Your attempt fails again. More proof of TX incompetence at ALL levels.

Another GOOD reason for business to NOT move to TX.

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Is there supposed to be a point being made there?

Having lived in Texas since 1989, after growing up Indiana, what you don’t realize is that Texas is the most arrogant state in the union, bar none, period end of statement. All of your points are valid of course. Size does not equal competence. There is no point to be made with respect to the size of our population. States with far lower winter temps keep their lights on when we can’t. And yes, the reasons for business to move here are exactly one: corporate taxes. But what you get is failing infrastructure, poor public education, poor health care for the populace. But it makes the JC’s more money, so…

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But what you get is failing infrastructure, poor public education, poor health care for the populace.

I’m a Ma$$hole so take this with a grain of salt, but my outside view of TX healthcare comes from personal experience. My older bro lives in Houston and was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma lung cancer about 3 years ago. This diagnosis would have been a death sentence about 10 years ago. Today, he is cancer free thanks to his oncologist and the Opdivo (https://www.opdivo.com) immunotherapy treatment that he received.

I’m happy that he had the treatment that he was able to get - even though he lives in TX.

'38Packard

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I’m happy that he had the treatment that he was able to get - even though he lives in TX.

And there are research programs…

Texas’s $3 Billion Fund Lures Scientific Heavyweights
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.332.6033.1019?url_ver=Z3…
Last September when a shift toward industrial research in their adopted Singapore persuaded mouse geneticists Neal Copeland and Nancy Jenkins to return to the United States, they soon realized it wouldn’t be easy…Then they goat an enticing offer from The Methodist Hospital Research Institue in Houston, Texas. With help from a $3 billion state cancer research fund, the institute came up with a 5-year, $29 million package…The power couple aren’t the only big fish that the state is reeling in…

Rice University in Houston has used CPRIT funds to woo physicists Jose Onuchic and Herbert Levine, who head a US National Science Foundation-funded center for integrating physics and biology at the University of California, San Diego…

Quips Levine: “People are asking ‘How can you move from San Diego to Texas?’ The answer is that science comes first at the end of the day; weather come second.”

DB2

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“We hit -30 and -40 in MN–and have few problems with power at low temps. Your attempt fails again. More proof of TX incompetence at ALL levels.”

Yeah…you hit 30 and 40 below…burning NG from Texas! and coal power plants…

No solar in MN to speak of…and not many wind farms.

25% of power in MN comes from NUKES

There are 10 coal plants

MN has zero fossil fuel resources…

For MN

Fossil fuels (total) 2,427 Billion KWH 60.6%
Natural gas 1624 Billion KWH 40.5%
Coal 773 Billion KWH 19.3%

Yeah, you pay for it too… in higher ‘winterization’ costs.

For gasoline, you burn the highest polluting stuff on the planet - from the tar sands in Alberta…

No problems this year with at least 15% reserve margin at all times in TX. Most of problems fixed from last year. .

t.

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t,

If you read the linked article you would have seen that the Mexico information came from that story.

Also you may want to read an elementary school science book to see that Natural Gas is NOT electricity.

You must have gas lamps in your Victorian Mansion and a lamplighter to light your streetlamps.

Next time I’ll make sure to link an article with pictures for you to make it easier to read and understand.

OTFoolish

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