Good morning. Our temperature bottomed out at 8ｰ this morning and now already up to 14ｰ and sunshine. It should get up to the low 30's this afternoon.
It only got to the mid 20's yesterday but .. with a full day of sunshine .. the surface of what was very fine powder .. melted and then refroze overnight creating a crust on the snow. With forecast temps I suspect the snow will be here at least a few more days. It's supposed to get to high 40's on Saturday and the 60's by Sunday.
That's certainly got to be welcome news.
Hopefully this will be the only event Texas has to endure this winter.
Those .. choosing to criticize "Texas" Power Grid management would do well to educate themselves prior to "sounding off".
But I didn't criticize Texas Power Grid management - in fact, I'm pretty sure I clearly stated that I didn't know what - if any - role Texas Power Grid management played in the situation.
However, having said that, it seems to me that at least exploring the question might be in the best interests of those who are supposed to be served by the entity that oversees it (that would be the consumers in my mind)
Apparently, there are some in Texas - including the Speaker of the Texas House - that think reviewing the matter of statewide power outages seems like a reasonable proposition. And he has called for hearings later this month.
To me, that just seems like common sense.
What went wrong with the Texas power grid?
The Texas Power Grid (yes .. we have our own) is managed by ERCOT .. not Texas State and / or local government. ERCOT is independent and in general manages our power well. Texas' decision to create our own power grid was and is intentional. For one thing .. it keeps the Federal Government from meddling with our power.
Seemingly a laudable goal ...
at least in theory.
Texplainer: Why Does Texas Have Its Own Power Grid?
Our present weather / temperature is a once in a generation event .. last time was 7ｰ in 1989 .. that event was just cold .. not icy as we're experiencing this week.
Do you build your "power system" for the absolute worse case ever? That would be costly and extremely in-efficient .. so no.
I suspect that you may see that line of thinking re-examined a little more closely in the future, in terms of the balancing of interests (
investment vs. capability) ... particularly if this type of event becomes more commonplace.
It's unfortunate .. that a bad combination of ice storms and long term, low temperatures took the majority of our wind power off line.
Unfortunate - particularly for those Texas communities that are hardest hit - but probably foreseeable.
If that's true, then where does the responsibility lie ?
But that demonstrates that .. had our state been "majority wind power" .. we'd all be freezing to death about now. Prior to yesterday most of Texas was very overcast for last 10 days or so limiting what power came from Solar farms. And a large % of them got iced as well .. further reducing output.
Well, I'm certainly not advocating that Texas (or anywhere else for that matter) be "majority wind power".
I do think, like Drew points out, that a balancing of sources/methods are needed ... and not just for Texas.
That's why I raised the issue of (cleaner ?) nuclear previously.
ERCOT elected to use short term rolling blackouts to get through this. Ours have all been 30-40 minutes in duration which is nearly un-noticeable.
My point is that a total conversion to wind / solar is unworkable. We would have significantly less reliable power .. at significantly higher cost. This week hammered that lesson home .. for me.
I wouldn't disagree (with the highlighted)
But I will say that while NG is a great resource from a number of angles, it is also my understanding that Texas does not produce enough to meet it's own needs. And that raises the issue of what happens when there is a widespread situation like this weather event, where other areas that Texas might draw from, are effected as well.
So NG certainly isn't the be-all, end-all.. in that it's a finite resource.
To me, NG seems like a stopgap, temporary solution at best ... until we can transition to more sustainable forms of power generation.
