Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

houstonchronicle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 1001 posts

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#631

Post by zamadatix »

turtlebits wrote: post #625

Maybe its time for people to stop treating electricity like essentially an unlimited cheap resource and instead something they consciously try not to waste. I've been working in an off-grid office where I am limited by solar and battery capacity and it really puts into perspective what really needs to be plugged in all the time and how much running a large appliance affects capacity. Maybe electricity should be sold…

I think most would rather pay an e.g. +10% premium for the plants to handle more extreme conditions once a decade than think about what has to be plugged in all day every day.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#633

Post by tjr225 »

lurquer wrote: post #214
cvhashim wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, what are people with children, elderly, or pets doing.

Are you people for real? What did people with children, elderly, and pets do 150 years ago? If your house is 25f, put on a couple sweaters and a coat and have a beer. It’s not the end of the world. As far as the kids go, they’re outside building snowforts. In short, you make do. It astounds me that the typical HN poster can whip up a C++ compiler, pontificate about solutions to every social-ill, purport to speak inte…

I dug through this dudes post history out of pure morbid curiosity and 9 months ago he claimed that COVID-19 was blown out of proportion because, and I quote, “there haven’t been millions of deaths.”

9 months later and there have been millions of deaths. So, take that how you will.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#634

Post by dalacv »

HNfriend234 wrote: post #612
svnpenn wrote: post #20

Dallas suburb here (Las Colinas). No power since Monday 6am. I had to get room at holiday inn. I actually got the room yesterday, but the hotel lost power after an hour, so I had to go back home and sleep in 5 degree apartment. Don't believe anything you read about "rolling outages". It's only rolling, if you define that as "out until it's not freezing anymore".

I'm in Dallas too. What we did was pull out our generator that runs on propane then run an extension cord from the garage to inside the house connected to an electric heater. Close the bedroom door. We were about 75 degrees. You are crazy to not have a backup generator! It is an essential item to have!

I'm 46. I've never owned a backup generator. Even here with rolling outages, I'm not sure I will every buy one. I don't think I am crazy.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#635

Post by fishingisfun »

Animats wrote: post #546
gregw2 wrote: post #117

What went wrong is that the Texas legislature which owns Texas-specific grid process to avoid interference from the Feds didn't figure out how to also ensure Texas generator companies got compensated for weatherizing (and ensuring it was done). How many of the 24+6 recommendations from the NERC/FERC review of last time this happened in Texas (hint:2011) were taken up by the legislature or those at ERCOT they delegate…

Would customers be willing to pay 20% more for electric power to prevent a once a decade event?

willing or not, they had AMI sold to them in some cases for a 25% increase. This 20% for a winterized solution is a no brainer

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#636

Post by byecomputer »

texasbigdata wrote: post #557
lurquer wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you people for real? What did people with children, elderly, and pets do 150 years ago? If your house is 25f, put on a couple sweaters and a coat and have a beer. It’s not the end of the world. As far as the kids go, they’re outside building snowforts. In short, you make do. It astounds me that the typical HN poster can whip up a C++ compiler, pontificate about solutions to every social-ill, purport to speak inte…

Hate to be an insensitive jerk because people are suffering, but kinda agree. There was a 3 hour long line at trader Joe's in downtown Austin today. Uber eats has been down maybe 24 hours. Like....the human body can absorb a 3 to 5 day water only fast reasonably well in most cases and its even becoming trendy in certain longevity circles. On one hand it points to society getting soft. On the other hand who knows mayb…

> As long as no one dies it will all be fine.

the latest is 10 deaths in the Houston area from some combination of the storm, the cold, and the loss of electricity

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#637

Post by StillBored »

s0rce wrote: post #344
rconti wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yeah, the populated areas of Texas happen to be insanely cold right now at this moment we've cherry-picked, and the populated areas of California happen to be.. checks thermometer between 55-65f right now. (Bay Area, Sacramento, LA, San Diego). Also, Texas heating is HEAVILY reliant on electricity (heat pumps), since they're used as air conditioners in the summer. Presumably this means CA has a lot more forced…

I didn't think about heat pumps that makes sense. I had electric heat pump for heat when I lived in WA state. Worked well with cheap hydro power.

Yas, there are heat pump systems designed to work at fairly low temps. Those aren't the ones they install in TX, where its just a cheap reversing valve on a stock R410 system. AFAIK they don't even necessarily have aux heat (my mother's in FL didn't) and even if they do, after a decade or two it might not even work and no one would know.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#638

Post by dathinab »

nrmitchi wrote: post #408
s0rce wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different choice of lubricants? I have no idea really, I also read they have wind power generation in Antarctica so its not a fundamental problem just a result of certain design/engineering choices.

> just a result of certain design/engineering choices I think this is the point. Things are engineered for the environment which they are expected to operate, and to be optimized for those environments[0]. I would not expect a wind turbine that operates (and is designed to operate) in Antartica to not fail (potentially catestrophically) when operating in 100 degree Texas heat, [0] One could (and should) argue that th…

> [0] One could [...] climate change [...]

As far as I can tell weather like this happens once in a while even without climate change, something like once in ~25 years or so (just guessing the number).

Given the serve effects it can have infrastructure should always be build to still be operational.

But if you are a company and there are no regulations you might be very tempted to ignore something which normally happens "just" around 4 times in hundred years. (Again guessed values could be a bit more or a bit less, with climate change likely more then just a bit more in the future).

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#639

Post by 8note »

snowwindwaves wrote: post #559
s0rce wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like CA might has 15-20GW of spare NatGas generation capacity. Looking back at the summer peak (9/6/20) I see 25GW generated at the peak, while we are currently only needing to generate about 8-9GW from NatGas (looking over night when solar drops off).

The parent said there is not enough transmission capacity not generation capacity. Generation needs to be near loads. If not then transmission lines are required to bring current from generators to loads. Transmission lines have fixed capacities, like your internet connection can only transmit so much data/s, they can only transmit so much power.

It's likely that the transmission lines are less of a bottle neck than the frequency conversion. Power lines are pretty darned efficient, and given the cold weather, theyd be more efficient than usual too
Post reply on HN