Power Outage..

[juiceweezl]

Are you on the LOLC Facebook page or more importantly the all the other shitposting LOLC offshoot groups?

I don't have Facebook. My wife is on the main one I think. Not sure she has checked it though. I've been too busy trying to help friends and coworkers. Just got back from D-BAT with my boys though. Took a break to go hit some since we'll be back inside the next two days.

[GhostTX]

We only lost power for 3 hours on Sunday, and haven't had a blip since. Thank God.

Except it's not really random. There's the Texas Interconnect (grid) and within that there are tons of different different divisions. The demand has been so far above capacity that not only wasn't there enough juice to keep everyone live, there wasn't even enough for rolling blackouts, so any "small chunk" that had an emergency service was prioritized. Live near a hospital - you got electrons by default. Live near a water pumping station or wastewater treatment plant, and you're golden... live in a housing subdivision surrounded by other subdivisions? Sorry 'bout your bad luck. For quite a while yesterday and last night there was so little excess capacity that there was no "rolling" happening, it was just "keep basic services alive."

ERCOT shit the bed on this one. Remember the R stands for 'reliability'

I have 3 buddies in Plano. One has been down more than up on power. The other two have had zero incidents. One knowingly lives near a water tower. Guess my 3rd friend is near one of the golden structures, too.

I'd be REAL curious to see the grids and who's on what.

[dcs13]

Meanwhile, Electricity rates have skyrocketed from $25/mw/hr to $9,000/mw/hr. Or so I've read

I thought price gouging was illegal

Saw a story on that. Thats gonna get ugly

[black2002ls]

Im in county near Royse City, zero outages, no idea why we are holding up, Collin County.

We are on the Josephine side of Caddo Mills, close to FM 6. We have been on/off since this started. MAYBE 15 minutes on twice an hour on average. Tbis last stint was 27 minutes.

Farmer's Electric Coop

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[black2002ls]

I would think turn power back on would take a big power trip to turn on power. So, yeah rate will go up. Just like any power source it has full power at begin until it settles down. Just imagine your hard on, at first its hard then when job is done its back down to size!!!

He isn't referring to his rates and usage personally. He is referring to the Public Utility Commission of Texas identifying that supply is far exceeding demand. They interperet that is a need to temper supy by raising the wholesale electric rate to its maximum of $9000/MW. Nevermind the fact that ERCOT and their inability to insure a reliable energy grid ANY time that usage peaks in an abnormal way (read: extreme weather event).

I will have to find the link. In 2008, after requesting rolling blackouts. They paid $324,000 in fines resulting from a compliance audit launched because of the rolling blackout request.

In 2019 they were sued by a company over the request for power plants to be built, which they ultimately decided they didn't need, after construction started. Result of the lawsuit, the plaintiff discovered that ERCOT is a sovereign entity and they have no recourse. That trial, s far as I know, is still waiting a decision on their sovereignty from the Texas supreme court.

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[kobuzz]

We just got ours back on about 2 hours ago after 38 hours without. Got down to 19 degrees in the house. Man that hot shower sure was nice!!

[bird_dog0347]

Since Sunday night/Monday morning we have been on an average of 45 on / 45 off schedule... Sometimes I get 30 off and 60 on but I also had 2.5 hours off yesterday. We have gas range, water heater, and furnace and the only time it's been a problem was this morning when all the neighborhood idiots were using their gas log fireplace wasting gas and producing next to no heat.

I've gone through quite a bit of my firewood but I've got enough to last the rest of the week. No pipe issues yet other than my outdoor faucets are frozen but not sure if damaged/burst, not sure if there's a way to tell until it thaws?

Oh, and I'm in Little Elm, like 432/Eldorado area on Coserv cause it's them or nothing.

[Cobraman]

We just got ours back on about 2 hours ago after 38 hours without. Got down to 19 degrees in the house. Man that hot shower sure was nice!!

19?? Did you leave the windows open?

[Broncojohnny]

Except it's not really random. There's the Texas Interconnect (grid) and within that there are tons of different different divisions. The demand has been so far above capacity that not only wasn't there enough juice to keep everyone live, there wasn't even enough for rolling blackouts, so any "small chunk" that had an emergency service was prioritized. Live near a hospital - you got electrons by default. Live near a water pumping station or wastewater treatment plant, and you're golden... live in a housing subdivision surrounded by other subdivisions? Sorry 'bout your bad luck. For quite a while yesterday and last night there was so little excess capacity that there was no "rolling" happening, it was just "keep basic services alive."

ERCOT shit the bed on this one. Remember the R stands for 'reliability'

The whole system is made up of mini grids from what I gather.

I just find it all to be too convenient that when the price of spot electricity goes through the roof, all of a sudden there is a shortage and we need blackouts. This is due to natural gas wellheads freezing from what I have read.

If I was a "utility company" that didn't own any production and had made a bet on rates via fixed rate contracts and I realized I was going to go bankrupt, the first call I would make would be to ERCOT to see if I could convince them that there just isn't enough natural gas available. You can't lose money if the meter doesn't run.

It sounds like a conspiracy theory until you ask people who have natural gas in their home for heating if there is an actual shortage of natural gas. I have not heard of anyone having their natural gas shut off. I haven't heard of anyone having interrupted service. I guess those natural gas wells didn't freeze. I have been running my stove top and my fire place non stop.

The Highland Park thing is just another data point in all this. Those people DO call each other when things like this inconvenience them. I fully expect that some of the Ercot board members live there. None of this sort of shit happens by accident based on my time in working with those people.

[kobuzz]

19?? Did you leave the windows open?

Sadly no. Just an old ass house that desperately needs better windows. We covered them best we could but you could still feel the cold coming in. Our house is done with natural looking rock and the windows are weird shaped sizes but we will have to do something obviously

[Trip McNeely]

The whole system is made up of mini grids from what I gather.

I just find it all to be too convenient that when the price of spot electricity goes through the roof, all of a sudden there is a shortage and we need blackouts. This is due to natural gas wellheads freezing from what I have read.

If I was a "utility company" that didn't own any production and had made a bet on rates via fixed rate contracts and I realized I was going to go bankrupt, the first call I would make would be to ERCOT to see if I could convince them that there just isn't enough natural gas available. You can't lose money if the meter doesn't run.

It sounds like a conspiracy theory until you ask people who have natural gas in their home for heating if there is an actual shortage of natural gas. I have not heard of anyone having their natural gas shut off. I haven't heard of anyone having interrupted service. I guess those natural gas wells didn't freeze. I have been running my stove top and my fire place non stop.

The Highland Park thing is just another data point in all this. Those people DO call each other when things like this inconvenience them. I fully expect that some of the Ercot board members live there. None of this sort of shit happens by accident based on my time in working with those people.

Well heads don’t freeze up. Whoever wrote those articles is full of shit. I’m former o&g and that’s impossible. If that were true, the dakotas and the Marcellus shale would have half the field shut in for about 4 months out of every year. There’s so much pressure and equipment involved it’s downright impossible to freeze gas coming out of the hole. The only thing that really freezes in the field can be service equipment and water lines for fracking. Even then they run glycol heaters and heat tape. Lol

[kingjason]

Soooo, two days ago we lost power. It was out for 8 hours the day before that and then they started rolling power on for 6 minutes then tapping it off for about 10 seconds. Just enough to turn everyone's heaters off and blow up my refrigerator. My new Train was still kicking ass until the neighborhood went dead. My mom in Duncanville, the same thing, glad I had a cord of seasoned fire wood I took her last week. I have a natural gas fire place and it is big as fuck but not efficient. My faucets are dripping and and I have NG water heater which is lifesaving also. I am sitting at 48 degrees tonight so not horrible. Wife and dogs are at her parents in the nice part of town with zero issues. I whipped out my generator tonight, thought I could run my furnace on it since it is 120 and it even has a plug. My neighbor mentioned it to me tonight and I got excited. Well hell no the AC unit doesn't detect a ground. Something about the GFCI on it or who the fuck knows. Pond frozen solid, pool frozen, the anti freeze system no bueno with no power. Luckily it was sucking air from the last time it froze and blew the pipes off. Maybe when it powered down I had enough room for expansion. Just trying to keep the ole fort alive here. Currently using the genny to save my fish in the house and type this ole message.

Go to work, move the elderly around with no power, clear accidents, water mains blowing everywhere or frozen, trying to keep the station from freezing up, get home, try and save the house. Rinse wash repeat. Oh yeah I need to go order a fridge! The good news is I moved most of my good s to work so I make my coffee and breakfast there when I get in and then eat before I leave.

Oh and I did get a warning to try and save NG as much as possible and there are cities now running out of gasoline. Our Whataburger has been overrun every day also. 2020 said hey I got coronavirus, 2021 said hold my beer bitches.

[lincolnboy]

Farmers Branch - Josey/635. We've been in the roll out since day one. We would go about 7 hrs off and about 2 hrs on. Late even yesterday is when we started getting power back on about every 4 hrs off and 2 hrs on. Its a improvement. O' tha amount of tape I stuck around our window and sliding glass door keeps us alot warmer then I was going for. Now my work ipad has Verizon service and is on LTE service and power is out again.
Good thing I woke up early and finally showered after 3 days and made coffee before the power went off. Gas company going to hate oncor for taking their business for a few days.

[Broncojohnny]

Well heads don’t freeze up. Whoever wrote those articles is full of shit. I’m former o&g and that’s impossible. If that were true, the dakotas and the Marcellus shale would have half the field shut in for about 4 months out of every year. There’s so much pressure and equipment involved it’s downright impossible to freeze gas coming out of the hole. The only thing that really freezes in the field can be service equipment and water lines for fracking. Even then they run glycol heaters and heat tape. Lol

The stuff I read said that the water coming out of the hole with the gas is what froze the well head. Is that even possible? It sounded like bullshit to me too, mainly because of the pressures that are being dealt with.

[Trip McNeely]

The stuff I read said that the water coming out of the hole with the gas is what froze the well head. Is that even possible? It sounded like bullshit to me too, mainly because of the pressures that are being dealt with.

You would be correct that at those pressures it’s a non issue. Water, oil(condensate if there is any) and gas are separated down the line in a 3 phase separator unit that contains glycol to take the water out. Thats sends the water to a separate tank or many depending on how much water it has downhole. Many conditioning units at plants use pressures to heat the gas from flow to separate gasses. Even your little low pressure lines have too much pressure. Like I said the only lines that will freeze are going into the hole when you are fracking and that’s when you need heat, or if you are cementing casing Dow hole those lines and trucks can freeze, but I assure you nothing coming out of the hole that is related to gas is going to freeze.

What it is is these utility companies now are having to pay spot pricing on the market because their supply from the operators is drying up due to demand. That’s why. Guarantee it.