Originally posted by I make chips
View Post
There was a host of different problems and inexplicably, several plants were not prepared for the bad weather, despite it being accurately forecast about 2 weeks ahead of time. As Matt points out, the NG facilities seem to have been the biggest problem. We have been having rolling blackouts, largely due to the absurd and extremely unusual increase in demand. The electric grid is not so overbuilt that when the temperature is at a 100 year low, and ALL those heat pumps get switched to strip heat, that it can deal with it without issues. It takes a LOT more energy to heat when it is 0° outside, as opposed to when when it is 20°, or even 10° (which is VERY unusual here), and LOTS more electricity to run the strip heat. Texas has a lot of rural areas, and it doesn't make economic sense to plumb NG everywhere here, like it does up north.
An ordinary winter here is below freezing for a couple of days in a row, with nights in the 20's. The sun usually shines on most days - all winter long. It rocks (we came from Minnesota, and I thanked my father many times for moving us south!)
Some of people are whining that overall grid capacity has to be brought up for this sort of winter storm, but my guess is that they don't actually want to pay for a bunch of infrastructure that will seldom see any use.
I, for one, am rather pleased with what my energy bills are in Texas. My last tank of gas cost me about $1.90 a gallon. My electric bill for January was $54 (all electric/heat pump - no NG out where I am).
While I DO have plenty of complaints about the power supply out here in the boonies, capacity to meet THIS need is not one of them.
Comment