Zero-emission vehicles, their batteries & subsidies/rebates for them.- No politics regarding the subsidies!

[Doodski]

@Doodski I've been to more third world countries than I care to mention here. Grid problems in Texas are complex stemming from rapid growth in industry and population while subsidies for renewable power made investment in gas fired plants unprofitable. The PUC is working on a new plan, and this has put investment in the power sector on hold. Another $1.5B for long distance transmission has been proposed and is likely. The huge wind farms of West Texas leave an impression as you drive past them. It's hardly third world.

Why doesn't Texas tie in with other electricity distribution utility providers? Canada is tied in across the nation with the Northern USA for bi-directional electrical service dependent on conditions from day to day.

 

[Ron Texas]

Why doesn't Texas tie in with other electricity distribution utility providers? Canada is tied in across the nation with the Northern USA for bi-directional electrical service dependent on conditions from day to day.

The answer to "why" is political and somewhat of a tradition. Texas is the only state of the US which was a republic before joining the union. The independent spirit is evident. Things are worse in other states namely all of New England, the Pacific Coast and Hawaii.

 

[samsa]

The answer to "why" is political and somewhat of a tradition.

The answer is that they did not want to be subject to Federal regulation.

And the lack of regulation of the energy sector is what led to the "race to the bottom" in grid resilience. Which is why it sucks so bad.

 

[Doodski]

The answer to "why" is political and somewhat of a tradition. Texas is the only state of the US which was a republic before joining the union. The independent spirit is evident. Things are worse in other states namely all of New England, the Pacific Coast and Hawaii.

IC. Well I'm sure things will be sorted out in time. How much time is the question I suppose for Texans. Just hope another freaky cold snap does not occur for you peeps.

 

[Ron Texas]

@samsa thank God most Texans are not like you, a self-proclaimed expert of all things. You must live in Austin. Clearly, your ownership of a Tesla makes you biased. Unfortunately for you what the scientist from VW says fits the facts very well and not the fantasy being pushed by the UN.

There's nothing wrong with electric cars. There's a lot wrong with forcing them on the public before there is a charging infrastructure and enough clean electricity go around. Right now BEV's are increasing carbon emissions due to the enormous energy cost of mining lithium and building batteries and then going on the road where in the US 80% of the electricity is generated from fossil fuels. If you are worried about climate become an advocate of nuclear power because it's carbon free, uses very little land, doesn't kill birds, runs 24/7 and is commercially viable without large subsidies.

 

[Ron Texas]

The answer is that they did not want to be subject to Federal regulation.

And the lack of regulation of the energy sector is what led to the "race to the bottom" in grid resilience. Which is why it sucks so bad.

I agree with your first statement. Do you have any utility industry experience to back up your second statement or did you pull it out of who knows where. It's subsidies for renewables which rocked the boat. As I have mentioned already it's much worse in a bunch of states.

 

[Ron Texas]

IC. Well I'm sure things will be sorted out in time. How much time is the question I suppose for Texans. Just hope another freaky cold snap does not occur for you peeps.

There is an extremely hot summer going on right now. Maybe the worst since sometime in the 80's. June is usually OK in Houston for those of us acclimatized to it. This year it was miserable.

 

[Doodski]

@Ron Texas wowow it's warm and does not cool down @ night. I would go insane with those night temps and trying to snooze. We had one day at 29C this year and the rest has been 19C, 22C and recently 26C for a few days. Nothing I can't handle. Come Sept 1st things usually pretty much change overnight to cooler temps. Oct 1st we usually have some sort of snow that fell but melted. Those hot temps in Texas must require a lot of air conditioning.

 

[samsa]

Do you have any utility industry experience to back up your second statement

My son works in grid reliability in the Chicago area. As to my second statement, look (for instance) here.

It's subsidies for renewables which rocked the boat.

Does Texas subsidize renewables more than other States? If not, why does the grid here suck more?

As I have mentioned already it's much worse in a bunch of states.

Do you have any source for that statement? I've lived in New England, and had several extended (6-month) stays in California. There's no comparison between the lamentable state of the grid in Texas and in those places.

 

[Ron Texas]

My son works in grid reliability in the Chicago area. As to my second statement, look (for instance) here.



Does Texas subsidize renewables more than other States? If not, why does the grid here suck more?


Do you have any source for that statement? I've lived in New England, and had several extended (6-month) stays in California. There's no comparison between the lamentable state of the grid in Texas and in those places.

Oh, your son works someplace. Well my son works on The Cloud so that makes me an expert in cloud computing. My brother is an MD so that makes me an expert in medicine. The grid problems in California caused the bankruptcy of its largest investor-owned utility and the recall of Governor Davis. Were you living under a rock then? I have well over a decade of experience in the electric and natural gas utility industries in positions which gave me a broad overview of how things work.

Your questions show how little you know. Texas did invest $6B in a transmission system to move power from around Amarillo to Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. That shows up in a 5.5 cent per kw/hr fee on your electric bill and it goes to ERCOT. The wind farms got that for free. Texas also has more wind power than any other state because it has cheaply available land and lots of wind. There is a lot more wind generation in Texas than anywhere else in the US.

The problems in New England are because NY will not allow a natural gas pipeline to cross it's borders in order to prevent climate change. This created a shortage of natural gas in New England and some of the highest electric rates in the US. If you want citations, I charge for that kind of stuff.

 

[Ron Texas]

@Doodski thankfully I'm away from home now at a secret location, elevation 9650'. That 36C in H-Town today is cooler than it has been for a while. There have been many days of 39C and a few 40C. It's worse as one goes inland to the NW.

 

[Doodski]

thankfully I'm away from home now at a secret location, elevation 9650'.

Sounds very nice! Maybe some corn snow skiing/snowboarding is in order.
I experienced 44.4C/112F for a day while I was beach bumming it @ the Columbia River and that was very extreme. I fortunately had my legs in the water while sunbathing and I was swimming every 15-30 minutes that day so I had it pretty good. It was the people that where stuck inside with no AC that had it rough.

 

[Ron Texas]

Sounds very nice! Maybe some corn snow skiing/snowboarding is in order.
I experienced 44.4C/112F for a day while I was beach bumming it @ the Columbia River and that was very extreme. I fortunately had my legs in the water while sunbathing and I was swimming every 15-30 minutes that day so I had it pretty good. It was the people that where stuck inside with no AC that had it rough.

There is a little bit of snow left at higher altitudes but very hard to get to.

 

[dc655321]

FWIW, I’ve lived in NY, MI, and CA over the last 12 yrs. The grid has sucked in all of them equally. The US is not a third world country. But, it’s slowly meandering that way…

 

[Doodski]

There is a little bit of snow left at higher altitudes but very hard to get to.

Wowow you must be in the tropics or a hot region. I'm accustomed to Mt Baker in Washington State for mountain activities and the corn snow lasts till August there at the car accessible elevation. Gorgeous place to visit. Breathtaking actually. There was 93 feet of snowfall recorded beside Mt Baker at the ski resort in 1997. Huge amount.

 

[Doodski]

FWIW, I’ve lived in NY, MI, and CA over the last 12 yrs. The grid has sucked in all of them equally. The US is not a third world country. But, it’s slowly meandering that way…

I found the electricity grid reliability in British Columbia to be spotty but here in Alberta it has been excellent. I no longer have candles and lamps because I never used them in near 20 years here.

 

[Ron Texas]

@Doodski not the tropics, but a lot further south than Mt Baker.

 

[samsa]

The grid problems in California caused the bankruptcy of its largest investor-owned utility and the recall of Governor Davis. Were you living under a rock then?

"The grid problems" were more popularly known at the time as "Enron".

Governor Davis got recalled. Other people went to jail. The auction system that led to "the grid problems" bears an uncanny similarity to the one ERCOT runs (and which had predictably similar consequences back in Feb 2021).

our questions show how little you know. Texas did invest $6B in a transmission system to move power from around Amarillo to Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. That shows up in a 5.5 cent per kw/hr fee on your electric bill and it goes to ERCOT. The wind farms got that for free.

Aside from the price tag, how is that different from any other power plant in Texas? Since when do power plant owners pay ERCOT for the transmission system?

Texas also has more wind power than any other state because it has cheaply available land and lots of wind. There is a lot more wind generation in Texas than anywhere else in the US.

Some would consider that a good thing. I guess you're not one of them.

The problems in New England are because NY will not allow a natural gas pipeline to cross it's borders in order to prevent climate change. This created a shortage of natural gas in New England and some of the highest electric rates in the US. If you want citations, I charge for that kind of stuff.

Expensive ≠ unreliable.

Texas has cheap energy prices, to be sure. But sometimes you get what you pay for.

Oh, and one more thing:

in the US 80% of the electricity is generated from fossil fuels.

You've said that several times, but the reality is

44% Natural Gas
21% Coal & Oil
27% Renewables
8% Nuclear

So... 65% fossil fuels, not 80%.

Not a huge deal (for reasons already discussed at length, this is a red herring) but, regardless of the validity of your argument, you might as well use the correct statistic in making it.

 

[rdenney]

@Doodski thankfully I'm away from home now at a secret location, elevation 9650'. That 36C in H-Town today is cooler than it has been for a while. There have been many days of 39C and a few 40C. It's worse as one goes inland to the NW.

Traditionally, an August day will have Galveston at 90, Houston at 95 (50ish miles inland), and Dallas (275 miles inland) at 100. Five degrees warmer than that is still not a heat wave. And that’s over the last 65 years of my personal awareness. (I grew up in Houston and still have family there that I visit routinely).

I recall 1980, where Dallas saw temps above 100 for 69 days (42 consecutively). It was part of a heat wave of national dimensions. The winter of 1983-84 was one of the coldest on record in Houston. December 1983 alone is the coldest on record in Dallas—average temp just above freezing—about 12 degrees below normal. Houston had frequent single-digit cold snaps that year. I have lots of stories from that winter, and I was officiating most of the bicycle races in Texas during that heat wave.

But in the 90’s I was designing a new traffic signal system in Las Vegas and got to routinely experience temps closer to 115 or even 120. Dry heat my ass.

Texas has had one major widespread blackout not caused by hurricane damage in my knowledge. That period of knowledge recalls three or four major widespread blackouts in the northeast. An independent grid faces some risks, but a multi state interconnected grid faces other risks. People forget when power in New York City went out because of a grid maintenance problem in Ohio, as I recall. Some risk is unavoidable.

Rick “dangerous to extrapolate from individual examples” Denney

 

[Willem]

Meanwhile Texas doesn't have enough electricity to run the air conditioners.

I would have thought that this is precisely a perfect use case for PV solar panels: they produce electricity at the time of day and in the time of year when you need it most. I have no idea, but are they popular?
This seems a much more favourable situation than what we have in Northern Europe, where our solar panels produce a lot of electricity in the summer, but electricity demand is biggest in the dark and cold winter months. For us, wind power is more important, as the wind is stronger in winter, but it is not something individual households can produce, so we need a grid with high capacity.