Abbott, ERCOT, Energy Texas and Texas Power Grid Issues

[China]

400,000 Texas homes and businesses could lose power over financial dispute between energy companies

 

With freezing weather sweeping into Texas late this week, subsidiaries for a major pipeline company are threatening to cut off natural gas to the state’s largest power generator — which could impact the electricity supply for hundreds of thousands of customers — over a financial dispute stemming from last February’s deadly winter storm.

 

Vistra Corp. subsidiary Luminant on Wednesday asked the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, to prevent Energy Transfer LP from cutting off fuel to five Vistra power plants, which produce enough electricity to power 400,000 Texas homes, businesses and critical infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.

 

Railroad Commission officials have not responded to questions about whether the agency will act.

 

The companies under Energy Transfer, the pipeline company, have told Vistra that gas will stop flowing to five Vistra power plants on Monday unless Vistra pays Energy Transfer $21.6 million, according to the filing.

 

The “threat to terminate service in the middle of winter is illegal and grossly irresponsible and should be prohibited by this Commission,” Vistra said in the complaint to the Railroad Commission.

 

Vistra called the move by Energy Transfer, run by billionaire Kelcy Warren, “a form of commercial extortion.”

 

Railroad Commission Chair Wayne Christian expressed his concern Thursday on Twitter: "I am paying close attention to this. @EnergyTransfer and @VistraCorp must come together to resolve this issue so that no Texans lose gas or electric service during cold weather. Do what's right for Texans."

 

During last year’s winter storm — which caused the near-total collapse of the state’s power grid, left millions without power for days and caused hundreds of deaths — Vistra spent approximately $1.5 billion for natural gas, “twice its planned natural gas cost to fuel its entire Texas fleet for a full year,” the filing said. Vistra paid Energy Transfer more than $600 million during the storm, “which is more than 96% of all amounts invoiced by [Energy Transfer].”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Simmsy]

8 hours ago, China said:

The “threat to terminate service in the middle of winter is illegal and grossly irresponsible and should be prohibited by this Commission,” Vistra said in the complaint to the Railroad Commission.

 

Vistra called the move by Energy Transfer, run by billionaire Kelcy Warren, “a form of commercial extortion.”

Haha! I love it! Too bad you dumbos in Texas decided on a free market for a utility service...terrible idea.

[Bang]

Freedom!
Say it with me conservatives!

I deserve to ****ing freeze in my own ****ing home because this rich guy is SMART enough to be in control of my life!
And I deserve my children to ****ing freeze in their own ****ing home because these smart rich guys recognize an opportunity to extort..  uh,, i mean free marketize money, and threaten us with freezing to capitalize!!

F-f-ff- Free M-m-m-market rules! Rrrregulation s-s-s-sucks!
Lets Go B-b-b-Brandon!

~B-b-b-Bang

[LadySkinsFan]

All I can say is that my power company is a cooperative. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

70,000 without power in Texas due to massive storm

 

Severe winter weather has left nearly 70,000 Texans without power as of Thursday morning, as freezing temperatures continue to move eastward across the U.S.

 

According to poweroutage.us, another 24,000 customers in Arkansas have also lost power. These outages comes roughly one year after massive power outages swept across the Lone Star State, resulting in over 200 deaths and prompting criticisms of the state's preparedness against colder temperatures.

 

The National Weather Service said on Thursday that "an ongoing significant winter storm is expected to impact much of the central and Northeastern U.S. through Friday night."

Additionally, the agency forecast that a "corridor of heavy ice accumulation is likely from Texas through the Ohio River Valley."

 

NWS Fort Worth said on Twitter that Hunt, Fannin and Collin County in northwestern Texas received the highest amount of freezing rain and ice overnight. Winds are expected to increase on Thursday and tree breakage will continue to occur.

 

Several roads in North Texas are covered in ice and sleet, and the NWS warned that conditions would not improve despite the precipitation letting up, due to continued cold temperatures and cloudy skies.

 

"Wintry precipitation will come to and end from west to east during the day today, but NO MELTING will occur due to temperatures staying well below freezing and skies remaining cloudy," NWS Fort Worth said.

 

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid, on Wednesday issued a winter weather watch set to end on Tuesday.

 

“ERCOT is using all the tools available to manage the grid effectively during this winter weather," ERCOT interim CEO Brad Jones said in a statement. "ERCOT will deploy all the resources and aggressively implement the tools available to us to manage the grid reliably during this winter weather."

 

Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) warned that power outages could be a possibility this week, but said he did not expect the rolling blackouts of last year. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So much for Abbott's promises:

 

Texas Gov. Abbott promises power will stay on this winter

[LadySkinsFan]

My power is on, thankfully. We had freezing rain and a bit of snow. Unfortunately, the rain came in my end of the breezeway and it's icy right in front of my door. So I am very careful taking Dancer out, and we go to the other end of the breezeway. Dancer doesn't like walking around on the frozen grass. 

[China]

You can't make this stuff up:

 

 

 

[China]

Ex-ERCOT chief says he was following Abbott's direction to halt blackouts when they ran up billions in bills during freeze

 

The former head of the Texas power grid testified in court Wednesday that when he ordered power prices to stay at the maximum price cap for days on end during last year’s frigid winter storm and blackout, running up billions of dollars in bills for power companies, he was following the direction of Governor Greg Abbott.

 

Bill Magness, the former CEO of the Electric Reliabilty Council of Texas, said even as power plants were starting come back online former Public Utility Commission Chairman DeAnn Walker had told him that Abbott wanted them to do whatever necessary to prevent further rotating blackouts that left millions of Texans without power.

 

“She told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages it was imperative they not resume,” Magness testified. “We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen.”

 

Last year the governor's spokesman, Mark Miner said the governor was not “involved in any way” in the decision to keep prices at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour – more than 150 times normal prices. He described a decision to send an aide to ERCOT's operations center in the middle of the crisis as based on the feeling the grid operator was spewing “disinformation." 

 

"As Texans would expect, Governor Abbott instructed everyone involved that they must do what was needed to keep the power on and to prevent the loss of life.  This is the same instruction Governor Abbott gave to the PUC and ERCOT earlier this year: do what needs to be done to keep the power on," Miner said in an email Wednesday afternoon.

 

The decision to keep power prices at the maximum cap is now at the center of a bankruptcy trial waged by the Waco-based electric co-op Brazos Electric. 

 

Brazos contends that decision was made recklessly, adding up to a $1.9 billion power bill from ERCOT that forced them into bankruptcy.

 

“This decision resulted in $16 billion in additional costs to ERCOT's market,” wrote Carrie Bivens, director of ERCOT’s Independent Market Monitor.

 

Now Abbott is facing questions about his own culpability in the handling of last year's blackout. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

That doesn't sound like he said "jack up the prices to the maximum".  It sounds like he said "Keep the power on, no matter the cost".  Which I can understand.  

[China]

Texas stumbles in its effort to punish green financial firms

 

For years, fossil fuel producing states have watched investors shy away from companies causing the climate crisis. Last year, one state decided to push back.

 

Texas passed a law treating financial companies shunning fossil fuels the same way it treated companies that did business with Iran, or Sudan: boycott them.

 

"This bill sent a strong message to both Washington and Wall Street that if you boycott Texas energy, then Texas will boycott you," Texas Representative Phil King said from the floor of the Texas legislature during deliberations on the bill, SB 13, last year.

 

But the Lone Star state is straining to implement the law. Loopholes and exceptions written into the law could sap its impact on financial firms that have aggressive climate policies.

 

This March, the Texas State Comptroller began sending letters out to financial institutions, probing their climate policies. Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century Capital Management, a fossil fuel-free mutual fund, says her firm recently received its letter.

 

"It felt very politically motivated," she says. Samuelrich says she plans to ignore the one she got.

 

Even so, Samuelrich says the law could have a "chilling effect" on some investment firms.

 

Despite Texas's emerging problems in implementing the first law penalizing companies for fossil fuel divestment, the concept of boycotting green finance is spreading. At least seven other states are now considering or have passed similar legislation, raising the prospect of a coalition of fossil fuel producing states putting pressure on Wall Street.

 

"The state of Texas is a large state with a lot of money," says Rob Greer, associate professor in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. "They can certainly sort of make a difference. But when you're talking about the largest financial institutions...the global trends are going to be those that dictate a lot of this - and the state of Texas may maybe be out of sync with some of those global trends."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Rising temperatures this weekend could put strain on Texas power grid

 

Energy are warning of a strain on the power grid this weekend weekend across the state of Texas.

 

There are concerns of near all-time high demand for the month of May. Experts are worried some of the state's thermal plants may be offline due to maintenance. But ERCOT says they're asking plants to postpone scheduled maintenance so that they'll be ready for the demand.

 

KHOU 11 reached out to ERCOT about their readiness and they sent us the following statement.

 

Quote

“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is anticipating extreme hot weather in the region Friday, May 6 through Monday, May 9 and may experience larger than normal demand for power.

 

ERCOT will deploy all the tools available to us to manage the grid reliably. ERCOT is coordinating closely with the Public Utility Commission, generation resource owners and transmission utilities to ensure they are prepared for the extreme heat. ERCOT has asked power plants across the region to postpone planned outages and to return from outages already in progress in order to serve Texans this weekend. At this time, ERCOT projects there will be sufficient generation to meet this high demand for electricity.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

8 hours ago, China said:

Rising temperatures this weekend could put strain on Texas power grid

 

Energy are warning of a strain on the power grid this weekend weekend across the state of Texas.

 

There are concerns of near all-time high demand for the month of May. Experts are worried some of the state's thermal plants may be offline due to maintenance. But ERCOT says they're asking plants to postpone scheduled maintenance so that they'll be ready for the demand.

 

KHOU 11 reached out to ERCOT about their readiness and they sent us the following statement.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

Nothing says "reliable power infrastructure" like asking utilities to not perform maintenance on their power plants. 

[Burgold]

Pretty bad if they are worried about the grid not being able to support the system in early spring. What happens in high summer when the demand really goes up and stays up?

[LD0506]

9 minutes ago, Burgold said:

Pretty bad if they are worried about the grid not being able to support the system in early spring. What happens in high summer when the demand really goes up and stays up?

 

Easy, they crash the system and charge customers 10X as much, the same plan as winter

[Bang]

It's amazing how a state run by a party that prides itself on it's ownership of guns, populated by people who obsessively keep their guns to protect themselves from thieves, home invaders and others trying to harm them or their families ( and if pressed hard enough to defend themselves from a tyrannical government)..    live under a government that is removing their rights, freezing and melting them in their homes, and bleeding their pockets for one of the more basic services that they have in fact dismantled specifically to maximize how much they can steal. 

 They haven't the slightest idea that using those guns to protect themselves from these thieves would be exactly what the 2nd was intended to allow.

 

Idiots deserve what they get. Here's hoping for a hot summer.

 

~Bang

Edited May 5, 2022 by Bang

[Simmsy]

5 minutes ago, Bang said:

It's amazing how a state run by a party that prides itself on it's ownership of guns, populated by people who obsessively keep their guns to protect themselves from thieves, home invaders and others trying to harm them or their families ( and if pressed hard enough to defend themselves from a tyrannical government)..    live under a government that is removing their rights, freezing and melting them in their homes, and bleeding their pockets for one of the more basic services that they have in fact dismantled specifically to maximize how much they can steal. 

 They haven't the slightest idea that using those guns to protect themselves from these thieves would be exactly what the 2nd was intended to allow.

 

Idiots deserve what they get. Here's hoping for a hot summer.

 

~Bang

 

This is how I feel about it, you can only feel so bad for these people. They need constant reminders,  they have short memories. 

[China]

Wind and solar power are 'bailing out' Texas amid record heat and energy demand

 

Texans are cranking on the air conditioning this week amid an unusually early heat wave, setting new records for electricity demand in the state, which surpassed 75 gigawatts on Sunday and smashed the 2019 record. Texas grid operator ERCOT projects it could approach that peak again on Tuesday.

 

But unlike previous extreme weather events in Texas which led to deadly blackouts, the grid is holding up remarkably well this week. Several experts told CNN that it's owed in large part to strong performances from wind and solar, which generated 27 gigawatts of electricity during Sunday's peak demand -- close to 40% of the total needed.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

My energy cooperative is encouraging reduced use between 2-7 every day, which doesn't really affect me. I do laundry and cooking in the morning. It's been really hot here, I have my thermostat set at 77° and often turn it off at night. Plus I signed up for budget billing last month. My electric bill goes up more in the winter than the summer.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

Texas sure seems like a functional state.

[Fan since a Fetus]

I wonder if someone is pregnant, loses power and gets put into the hospital for heat exhaustion, and loses their unborn; can they sue Ercot and Abbott for a forced, preventable abortion?

 

 

[China]

Bitcoin Miners Shut Off Rigs as Texas Power Grid Nears Brink

 

Nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin miners in Texas have shut off their machines as the companies brace for a heat wave that is expected to push the state’s power grid near its breaking point.

 

Miners such as Riot Blockchain Inc., Argo Blockchain Plc and Core Scientific Inc., who operate millions of energy-intensive computers to secure the Bitcoin blockchain network and earn rewards in the token, flocked to the Lone Star State thanks to its low energy costs and liberal regulations on crypto mining. The state has become one of the largest crypto-mining hubs by computing power in the world.

 

“There are over 1,000 megawatts worth of Bitcoin mining load that responded to ERCOTs conservation request by turning off their machines to conserve energy for the grid.” Lee Bratcher, president of Texas Blockchain Association told Bloomberg in an email response. “This represents nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin mining load in Texas and allows for over 1% of total grid capacity to be pushed back onto the grid for retail and commercial use.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

1 hour ago, China said:

Bitcoin Miners Shut Off Rigs as Texas Power Grid Nears Brink

 

Nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin miners in Texas have shut off their machines as the companies brace for a heat wave that is expected to push the state’s power grid near its breaking point.

 

Miners such as Riot Blockchain Inc., Argo Blockchain Plc and Core Scientific Inc., who operate millions of energy-intensive computers to secure the Bitcoin blockchain network and earn rewards in the token, flocked to the Lone Star State thanks to its low energy costs and liberal regulations on crypto mining. The state has become one of the largest crypto-mining hubs by computing power in the world.

 

“There are over 1,000 megawatts worth of Bitcoin mining load that responded to ERCOTs conservation request by turning off their machines to conserve energy for the grid.” Lee Bratcher, president of Texas Blockchain Association told Bloomberg in an email response. “This represents nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin mining load in Texas and allows for over 1% of total grid capacity to be pushed back onto the grid for retail and commercial use.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

  China was right to ban bitcoin mining, and if this huge waste of energy is profitable, energy prices in Texas are too low.

Edited July 11, 2022 by CousinsCowgirl84

[China]

LIVE: Track Texas power grid conditions as ERCOT asks for conservation

 

 

[Fan since a Fetus]

4:40 here. I still have power. I’m seriously thinking of spending money on a whole house generator here. I would have only used one a few times in my life. I want to move, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. But putting 10k+ into it is difficult.