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Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

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Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#191

Post by rayiner »

evan_ wrote: post #180
jay_kyburz wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you still have incandescent bulbs in the US? Its really hard to find them here in Australia. I thought they were banned but I just read that they are not, but have been phased out.

There was an incandescent bulb phase out over several years that was supposed to end in 2020, but Trump blocked it because he claimed that LED bulbs were too expensive and made him look orange.[0] You pretty much can’t buy them anymore at stores except for specialty bulbs like oven lamps, but that might vary state-to-state. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/trump-light-bulb-...

Typical LED bulbs have shit spectrum coverage, and have terrible flicker when used with dimmers. I’ve been stockpiling incandescents.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#192

Post by DavidPeiffer »

dehrmann wrote: post #116
nickysielicki wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Griddy literally emailed every customer yesterday and told them to switch providers asap.

I hope they get some sort of a surcharge for this. Part of what you pay for with a big utility is for them to eat weird price fluctuations. Getting grid pricing just when it's convenient is cheating the system.

It sounds like Texas has a substantially different market than most of the rest of the country, by typically utilities are heavily regulated. I would be curious how the other market players react to this (perhaps requesting more regulation).

It kinda feels like someone who could have gotten insurance but declined getting coverage until after learning they have cancer. That's certainly not the spirit of how insurance is supposed to work (spreading tail-end risk across a pool of people), and if everyone acted that way, it would be far from sustainable.

As a whole people are poor at assessing low probability risks. Low probability high cost risks pose a big threat. Letting people get spot pricing may help the market be more efficient, but considering many people would struggle to pay a $200 unexpected bill, it does feel odd to let everyone do spot pricing if they want. For many people, even having one bill that was double normal would financial headaches, much less 10x!

Giving consumers spot pricing feels like having everyday people selling naked call options. It may work fine for a really long time, but when the strategy blows up, it has unlimited liability potential.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#193

Post by tryonenow »

evan_ wrote: post #180
jay_kyburz wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you still have incandescent bulbs in the US? Its really hard to find them here in Australia. I thought they were banned but I just read that they are not, but have been phased out.

There was an incandescent bulb phase out over several years that was supposed to end in 2020, but Trump blocked it because he claimed that LED bulbs were too expensive and made him look orange.[0] You pretty much can’t buy them anymore at stores except for specialty bulbs like oven lamps, but that might vary state-to-state. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/trump-light-bulb-...

I've had terrible luck with LED lifespan. Totally ridiculous honestly. I imagine given the failure rate and the cost of manufacturing, LEDs are actually worse for the environment. Sure, the actual LED in the bulb should theoretically outlast incandescent bulbs, but the extra circuitry is apparently made of garbage, and I think it shortsighted that this mandate was forced on us.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#194

Post by pkaye »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #173
supernova87a wrote: post #83

Problem is that: 1) People's use of energy is relatively insensitive to price, or they don't know the price, or few people care about the price when it comes time to need it 2) When you need the energy, it's too late to make the equipment/house more efficient, and when you don't need it, people don't think it's important to make it more efficient 3) Mandating that people upgrade their equipment is unpopular, they vot…

Do you still have incandescent bulbs in the US? Its really hard to find them here in Australia. I thought they were banned but I just read that they are not, but have been phased out.

Its pretty much LED bulbs and fixtures in the US. I think Trump administration reversed the original law but there are a few state laws that are even stricter. The manufacturers have all moved onto LEDs so no going back.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#195

Post by 8ytecoder »

TheGrim-999 wrote: post #190
evan_ wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an incandescent bulb phase out over several years that was supposed to end in 2020, but Trump blocked it because he claimed that LED bulbs were too expensive and made him look orange.[0] You pretty much can’t buy them anymore at stores except for specialty bulbs like oven lamps, but that might vary state-to-state. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/trump-light-bulb-...

So, someone at the Department of Energy that was hired in 2012, under Obama, made a ruling, and that's translated by the NYTimes as the "Trump Administration" doing it, which then gets referenced as "Trump blocked it because they make him look orange". Fake news in action, folks.

He literally said it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_iFi1qH8Cg

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#197

Post by Daho0n »

Rapzid wrote: post #89
mimikatz wrote: post #6

Texas is shockingly green when it comes to power. The windmills have frozen and it is the winter when there isn't as much sun. Most people are on a contract with fixed pricing, but some startups like Griddy are hurting people's wallets. We will likely see some retail electric company bankrupcies. Some of the electric providers are paying customers to move to someone else on Monday. The Joke is all the Californians wh…

Just to add some numbers; we(Texas) have over 31,000MW of installed wind energy capacity. No other state comes close. Probably a lot of things people find shocking about Texas when compared to its reputation lol.

Texas is the state with the most wind energy in the US?

42,933km2 Denmark has 6GW wind energy capacity and 695,662km2 Texas has 31GW. That doesn't sound very impressive.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#198

Post by jayd16 »

TheGrim-999 wrote: post #190
evan_ wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an incandescent bulb phase out over several years that was supposed to end in 2020, but Trump blocked it because he claimed that LED bulbs were too expensive and made him look orange.[0] You pretty much can’t buy them anymore at stores except for specialty bulbs like oven lamps, but that might vary state-to-state. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/trump-light-bulb-...

So, someone at the Department of Energy that was hired in 2012, under Obama, made a ruling, and that's translated by the NYTimes as the "Trump Administration" doing it, which then gets referenced as "Trump blocked it because they make him look orange". Fake news in action, folks.

You gotta love implying the president has no power in this sort of thing while simultaneously implying Obama is at fault here. In the same sentence, no less.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#199

Post by [deleted] »

TheGrim-999 wrote: post #190
evan_ wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an incandescent bulb phase out over several years that was supposed to end in 2020, but Trump blocked it because he claimed that LED bulbs were too expensive and made him look orange.[0] You pretty much can’t buy them anymore at stores except for specialty bulbs like oven lamps, but that might vary state-to-state. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/trump-light-bulb-...

So, someone at the Department of Energy that was hired in 2012, under Obama, made a ruling, and that's translated by the NYTimes as the "Trump Administration" doing it, which then gets referenced as "Trump blocked it because they make him look orange". Fake news in action, folks.

[deleted]

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#200

Post by notatoad »

eckza wrote: post #81

It's curious that the current tide of public opinion reckons that we're all going to be in EVs in 10-15 years, when the grid nearly collapses under the weight of everybody plugging in a heater and turning on Netflix at the same time.

imagine if the grid did have the capacity to charge everybody's EV every night, and the only consequence of a sudden intense surge in demand for electricity like this was that you couldn't charge your car, rather than your house losing power completely when the power company has to institute rolling blackouts...

A higher overall demand makes the grid healthier, not weaker.

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