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Texas power use hits record high as heatwave lingers (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Texas power use hits record high as heatwave lingers::Demand for power in Texas hit a record high on Monday as homes and businesses kept air conditioners cranked up to escape a heatwave.

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[-] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 112 points 1 year ago

If only the power companies had been repeatedly warned that this would happen, and given millions of dollars of taxpayer money to increase power generation potential.

Oh wait… They were warned of this? And they were given taxpayer money? And they illegally used it for stock buybacks instead? And nothing was ever done to prosecute the illegal spending? Yeah, that sounds about on par for Texas.

[-] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

Texas: The One Star State

[-] Veraticus@lib.lgbt 32 points 1 year ago

Whaat? But THAT would mean Republican lawmakers are pushing a dangerous and dishonest anti-government agenda that is, in fact, just a cover for greedy anti-consumerism! That can't be true!!

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 3 points 1 year ago

I mean, even if everyone did everything right, the demand would still be record high, right? It's not like heeding the warnings would lower demand.

[-] sensiblepuffin@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, but if they had invested it like they were supposed to, the grid capacity would be higher, so there would be less chance of failures...

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 5 points 1 year ago

Well, they did invest in it. After the mass failure in February 2021, they passed a bunch of new regulations, and within one year, the entire grid was pretty much up to the new regulations. IIRC, like 98% of the grid was up to the new regulations within a year after that freeze. There hasn't been mass failure since then. There was a local failure this past winter in Austin due to the trees not being trimmed properly, then freezing rain caused branches to break and fall on power lines (called Arborgeddon by the locals). But there have been no state-wide failures since the new regulations have been put in place.

[-] madcaesar@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Interesting.... 🤔 So regulations and not the free market fixed the problem.

[-] Cranakis@lemmy.one 29 points 1 year ago

I came to Texas this week for a vacation. Power has already been out here for 6 hours so far and was blinking on and off last night. Getting strong 3rd world vibes down here...

[-] XTornado@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Lucky you, you get the true Texas experience.

[-] rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago

Here we go with the Texas grid again. No matter what they get hit with they insist on remaining independent. Well actually it's the cold that gets them, but they have a problem they're not dealing with none the less.

[-] golamas1999@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Can the grid handle it?

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 17 points 1 year ago

It seems fine as of this moment. Check back in a couple of hours. It's currently 105°F where I am.

[-] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 7 points 1 year ago

Still doing ok there, cowboy?

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 3 points 1 year ago

We survived with no outages! Today was supposed to be the hottest day of the week, so hopefully we're past the worst of it.

[-] atx_aquarian@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The question of "can the grid handle it" is a complex question. ERCOT has some fun gauges on a dashboard view. I think those gauges only answer some things but not other important ones. E.g., there could be transmission bottlenecks within the grid that aren't represented on those charts. And such bottlenecks might only become a problem if generation were to fail in the right place(s). If we were to rely on importing from outside the grid, what are the limits of the DC ties--bot just their current flows, but their remaining capacity? There are also factors that aren't "the grid" but which will get lumped in with the same concept, too, like each independent plant supplying energy to the grid. (Those were the precipitating problem during Icepocalypse.)

[-] Simplesyrup@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

If only they lived in a place where their was trees and water :/

[-] crashez@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 year ago

We've invented a machine that removes heat by producing more heat! Yay technology!

[-] GingeyBook@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

If we get enough air conditioners and put them outside it'll fix everything.

[+] Talignoram6571@lemmy.sdf.org -10 points 1 year ago

Why is this still news? Something like this gets posted every week on Lemmy or Reddit and gets a ton of upvotes. The article even says that there is more than enough power. I have friends that live in Texas that haven’t had a single outage since the winter storms years ago. But still, there are comments that they’ve been warned that this would happen. Yes, they were warned and it seems to have worked, they’re doing just fine it looks like.

If this was an article on corruption or the lack of connection with the rest of the nation, that would be another thing. This is simply an article saying there is record power usage and they’re doing just fine.

[-] venorathebarbarian@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

Texans are worried because of the previous track record: The winter storm that froze people to death because the supply couldn't keep up with demand. Our grid was incredibly close to a whole shit down, which would have killed even more people. All of which happened because the people in charge of such things didn't prepare for a winter storm like that despite being warned that it was necessary like a decade ago.

And heat is no joke. So yeah, we worry. We have kids, elderly family and friends, pets, and healthy adults are also not immune. When demand skyrockets we get worried because people have already died and we don't want to see that happen again. We're also very aware of how often we're told things are "fixed" when nothing has actually been done. So we cross our fingers, and we sweat, and we hope the grid doesn't shut down and kill us. Sorry our worrying and upvoting of the topic bothers you.

[-] evatronic@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Legit question: it's obvious that there aren't going to be any changes until Abbott and friends are gone.

Why do y'all keep electing him?

[-] venorathebarbarian@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

🤷🏼‍♀️ He hurts the right people, I guess.

And too many people who would vote against the current leadership don't vote at all. It's been really frustrating trying to convince some of my friends to vote. Even some LGBTQ+ friends of mine don't vote. I guess they think it doesn't matter, that better candidates won't win anyway. Voter apathy is a bitch, man.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It's really hard to vote in cities because they severely restrict polling sites, while every church in a 1 gas-station town is a polling place.

This is for historical reasons in the south, much easier to keep political control if you're the only ones who can effectively vote.

[-] kroy@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

While I wholly support this bit of righteous outage… most of the comments here are going to be about the grid and the Republicans.

[-] venorathebarbarian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

... right. Because republicans control Texas and the grid. A grid that already killed people a couple years ago. A grid that people aren't convinced the republican leadership has fixed. A grid that's being heavily used under this heatwave. That just makes sense to me.

What else would you expect in the comments? I expect talk about climate change, the grid, and how republicans have fucked up both of those things. I don't expect people to be saying, "Sure is a scorcher today!", Or casual chats about lemonade recipes. Those days are gone.

[-] mook71@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Tell that to my 92 YO aunt in Austin, she'll give you an ear full.

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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023

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