downpunxx@fedia.io
on 19 May 2024 16:15
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Texas under Republicans is a disaster as an ongoing concern
ladicius@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 16:30
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Pretty sure they are happy they don’t have “communism” when they pay those bills.
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
on 19 May 2024 16:40
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Some, but there are a lot of people here who recognize the hypocrisy and trash policies put into place in the state by politicians who do not wish to govern, only consolidate power.
it would take so little for Biden to rake in the votes but the Democrats in general seem to be doing everything they can to embarrass themselves even worse than 2016 …
DaBPunkt@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 18:20
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I will never get why you have to Register at all
AA5B@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 22:32
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There are actual checks and balance to ensure you’re a citizen and you vote at most once
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 08:41
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It make sense if it were like the TSA to be honest, bring everything you need to vote or preregister for a faster experience. Would also help if was voting month(s) instead of day so people could comfortably vote.
DaBPunkt@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 19:05
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Where I live you just get a letter some weeks before the election. With that letter you can vote at the place that is named in the letter (or anywhere in the same city). If you lose the letter you can still vote with your id-card, but only at the place that was named in the letter.
That‘s one of the consequences of not having citizen IDs, because they’re communist.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 01:22
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That’s really dumb. Here in Utah, you sign up online, and you can get a mail ballot online too. I have never actually voted in person, I just fill out my ballot and drop it in one of the collection bins a few days before the election. We can even track our ballot to ensure it gets processed.
Why overcomplicate it? I don’t need to take time off to vote, and I can take my time researching the candidates. Voting should be easy.
Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 19 May 2024 18:07
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Imagine all those Californians that moved to Texas.
Seriously they deserve what they get for not appreciating what they had.
Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 19 May 2024 22:00
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True.
CerineArkweaver@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 20 May 2024 00:28
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Funny, I was thinking the same of the New Yorkers who moved to Texas. I live in New York (not the City) and yah the state has problems, but you couldn’t pay me to move to a Southern state…
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 01:19
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IDK, coming from NYC to TX is probably a net upgrade in a lot of ways, especially if you’re a small business owner or work for one. The laws in NYC are just so bonkers.
Then again, I’m uninterested in moving to TX either. I’m pretty happy here in Utah, and I may move back home to Seattle, WA at some point, or maybe we’ll move to NC. But I’m not moving anywhere further south than NC.
CerineArkweaver@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 20 May 2024 01:41
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Yah the taxes in NYS (not NYC) are one of the problems I mentioned, but on the other hand I’ve seen what they paid for. As an Upstate NY resident I have a love/hate relationship with NYC. On one hand it causes a lot of funky laws to be passed at the state level. On the other hand it brings in a FUCK TON of tax revenue that Upstate benefits from
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 08:38
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Honestly Louis Rossmans experience as a small business owner living the real life Kafka novel in new Yorks legal system made me never want to live there.
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
on 19 May 2024 16:35
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We’ve learned nothing from the 2021 winter storm that killed over 200 people.
Rationality is out of the window. Ideology is the new religion. They don’t want to become “socialists” even though they don’t know what it truly means.
cerement@slrpnk.net
on 19 May 2024 17:27
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“Socialism is when capitalism.”
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 20:56
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It’s almost scary to think of how bad it would have to get in order for voters to tick the boxes for Greens or Libertarians.
Like, how badly do these fuckers have to fail before you’re willing to shed your partisan jersey and vote to your own benefit?
stankmut@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 17:38
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They did change one thing. You used to be able to get electricity at wholesale prices from certain providers. When the rates went crazy during the 2021 storm and people’s crazy bills for turning on the lamp blew up on the news, they shut down that option.
These rate surges do hurt customers, but now it’s in the form of rate increases when their contract expires.
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
on 19 May 2024 17:46
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Thank you for the clarification.
downpunxx@fedia.io
on 19 May 2024 18:31
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well we did learn that when shit hits the fan Rafael Edward Cruz likes taking vacay down south of de border way
deranger@sh.itjust.works
on 19 May 2024 19:43
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Instead of requiring weatherization, they allowed power plants to opt out.
Lawmakers on the Senate Business and Commerce Committee were frustrated that the new law allows natural gas companies to opt out of weatherization requirements if they don’t voluntarily declare themselves to be “critical infrastructure” with the state.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 20:04
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Desire for more money overrides literally every other thought for those who have the most
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 20:54
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Correct.
Didn’t the state basically re-elect everyone who oversaw that shit show?
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
on 19 May 2024 22:42
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Not only did they re-elect them, deregulating the power grid even more was an explicit part of the Republican platform
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 22:48
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Partisanship is a hell of a drug.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 19 May 2024 22:40
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they almost learned nothing. The grid almost shutdown this time, instead of shutting down…
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 02:31
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It’s absolutely wild. The last time around, people died, and a lot more were put into financial hardship due to the shitty, hypercapitalist energy infrastructure. People were rightly ripshit angry about it.
And then nothing was done about any of it.
And then people keep voting for the politicians who created and perpetuated the situation.
It’s really hard to keep giving a shit about people who actively work and vote to make their own lives worse.
baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 13:23
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Sure we have: profits are worth more than 200 lives, and counting.
DevCat@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 16:44
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WINNING! /s
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip
on 19 May 2024 16:44
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Click bait story that doesn’t paint the complete picture.
aisteru@lemmy.aisteru.ch
on 19 May 2024 17:26
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TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
on 19 May 2024 22:53
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Texans aren’t actually paying those increased prices, not directly anyway.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip
on 20 May 2024 01:08
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Even if they are, it isn’t necessarily bad thing. If the demand is going above supply you need to decrease demand or increase supply. If you increase cost you decrease demand.
However, the article above doesn’t give enough information to draw conclusions and it doesn’t even have sources.
or just get a plant of them newfangled sodium battery stacks. they’re all the rage
Entropywins@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 18:23
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Seriously, what are we missing?
ShepherdPie@midwest.social
on 19 May 2024 18:48
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They cropped the edges from the article photo.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip
on 20 May 2024 01:06
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The entire background. The article is vague and is designed to get people upset. They don’t give any more information other than some crazy sounding percentages.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 19 May 2024 22:46
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good thing you’re only possibly linux. If you were fully linux i’d be retiring from life.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 18:25
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Welcome to your deregulated “free market”, Texas. Don’t want to be tied to government regulation? Guess you get to pay more or cook…or freeze. Your choice by season.
Jerry Jones, yeah same one that owns the Cowboys, made almost $1B off the price hikes durning the big freeze that almost crippled the grid.
Thrashy@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 19:56
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It’s not a coincidence that Texas is a hotbed of development for “microgrid” systems to cover for when ERCOT shits the bed – and of course all those systems are made up of diesel and natural gas generator farms, because Texans don’t want any of that communist solar power!
I’ve got family in Texas who love it there for some reason, but there’s almost no amount of money you could pay me to move there. Bad enough when I have to work on projects in the state – contrary to the popular narrative, in my personal opinion it’s a worse place than California to try and build something, and that’s entirely to do with the personalities that seem to gravitate to positions of power there. I’d much rather slog through the bureaucracy in Cali than tiptoe around a tinpot dictator in the planning department.
Etterra@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 20:10
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Not to mention their Governor, who seems to be in a race with FL’s Governor for the “evil monster of the century award.”
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
on 19 May 2024 22:41
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Governor hot wheels!
Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
on 20 May 2024 01:33
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I am a power grid engineer and we are quoting multiple solar systems with BESS capabilities a month for Texas. It’s not all diesel.
I exaggerate – but Magic Rock is doing booming business installing strings of natural gas generators at Buc-ee’s across the state, and I’m currently dealing with an institutional client who wanted to provide backup power for a satellite campus, and didn’t even stop to consider battery-backed PV on the way to asking for a natural gas generator farm.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 05:11
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At least we’re trying to make reforms to our bureaucracy here in California, the problems mostly originate on the county and city levels. As for why the state is/was rather decentralized relatively speaking, well its cause we roughly the size of Great Britain (the island not the empire) and half the state is mountainous to some degree.
I live in Texas and have already received 2 notices this spring to conserve electricity. It has barely hit 90, and they aren’t able to keep up with demand.
They get the same weather reports we have access to, up to 14-21 days, yet they can’t/won’t anticipate demand?
chiliedogg@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 22:39
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It’s almost like they have a financial incentive to pull this shit.
In 2000/2001 this same shit was being done in California, leading to rolling blackouts and record-high energy prices. One company was buying all the plants and shutting them down for “maintenance” specifically to increase energy prices.
There were going to be congressional hearings over it in early 2022, but that company was Enron, and at the end of 2001 they collapsed due to other bullshit they were pulling.
randon31415@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 23:49
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|early 2022
Bit late, if you ask me.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 20 May 2024 05:32
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worse in CA was PG&e causing devastating forest fires because they refused to shut of the power and had insufficient line maintenance
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 02:32
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Fun fact, in case you weren’t aware; Texas pays bitcoin mining companies to shut off their rigs during peak demand.
Miners love this; in effect they can just threaten to mine bitcoin and get paid as much as they would have made actually mining bitcoin, but without the wear and tear on their expensive hardware. It’s a legalized extortion racket being enacted on the public purse.
Apologies if I just gave you even more reason to be angry.
I actually meant grid level expansion. But that too.
All they have done is free market supply and demanded the grid. That’s why Texas has more solar than any other state, the market is working. Though it does have some downsides.
Snapz@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 22:42
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So I assume that ted cruz flees to ski somewhere this time? And does he still blame his daughters, or does that change as well?
Maybe he’s not fleeing the states crumbling infrastructure, maybe he’s taking his wife and/or daughter(s) for out of state abortions.
Better Sue him to be on the safe side.
masquenox@lemmy.world
on 19 May 2024 23:47
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Bookmarking this for the next time white supremacists here in good ole’ South Africa peddles the “privatisation is the only thing that will fix our electricity problems!” bullcrap.
Privatisation can only work if the end consumers have genuine choice.
In the UK electricity is privatised and I can pick from dozens of companies. This honestly works pretty well, and you can pick the cheapest depending on when you use electricity and how much. It’s the same infrastructure no matter who you pick, but that seems handled fairly well. Same with internet providers.
We also privatised water, and we just get given a company to rule over each area of the country. Unsurprisingly, given the consumer has no recourse other than “have no water” this is an absolute fucking shit-show. They’ve not invested in enough reservoirs, nor sewage handling, and instead lobby the government to make it legal to just put it in the rivers instead. It’s the same story with trains.
exanime@lemmy.today
on 20 May 2024 01:40
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Enjoy the freedom!
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 02:21
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Lol so how’s that “deregulated freedom” working out for you, Texans?
“Last year, Texas overtook California in large-scale solar power capacity. When huge amounts of solar power rush onto the grid, batteries tend to follow. Now, Texas is building more grid batteries than California, the longtime undisputed leader in clean energy storage.”
bluewing@lemm.ee
on 20 May 2024 14:01
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While I don’t think the way Texas has the regulations setup is a good idea, one has to look more at the ‘whole picture’ and do the math. Is the low cost periods low enough that when you get ‘gouged’ by the spikes, what was the total average cost? If the spikes are taken as a average over time, then maybe it works out in the consumer’s favor or at worst break even, then it might be worth it. Or maybe it doesn’t But I honestly don’t know. I don’t have the numbers in front of me to do the math, I’m a 1000+ miles away from Texas.
Edit to add: I don’t know just how much extra electricity Texas will need to buy, but I would assume they will be buying a noticeable amount. And the cost of electricity is VERY expensive in the spot market. It’s why my co-op is doing major upgrades to the hydro-electric dam. To increase the efficiency and reduce the need to buy expensive spot market power.
And without a good way to store the excess power generated, solar and wind aren’t very good for peak loads. You can’t merely flip a switch and spool up more power than a solar panel or wind generator can produce. Clouds reduce efficiency, insufficient or too much winds shut down wind generators. And despite having more alternative generation than everyone’s hero - California, it still not enough to carry the whole load. Consumers are raising demand far faster than enough infrastructure can be built out to supply that demand. So for peak loads, natural gas generators are used because they can be turned on and off quickly as needed. This adds excess cost.
The installation of storage batteries farms is fantastic. But it will take time and it will add cost to consumers electric bill.
And despite some tankie’s beliefs, nothing is free - it all costs something. I’m a member of a tiny rural electric co-op. The co-op needs to make a profit to afford maintenance and upgrades to our tiny grid. Our power is generated by a hydro-electric dam and my rates have gone up this year to to cover the costs of some major maintenance on the dam and the addition of 3 new linemen to keep the electricity flowing to my heat pump that the co-op incentivizes and highly encourages.
Its wholesale prices, it’s what they do. Same in Europe same in Australia.
Texas looks fairly middle of the pack with decreasing prices. Compare it to another state with high levels of renewable and California is second highest after some islands and has increasing prices.
why? what mechanism forces them to lower prices? the same that keep corporate profits at record highs year after year? we recently saw just how silly the idea of competition making anything cheaper is when every, even tho, there was no reason for doing so, started upping the prices of groceries, because they could.
The higher the percentage, the greater the incentive.
Ibaudia@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 13:02
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Seems good for industry and bad for the actual populous, considering things like this can still happen lol.
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 15:59
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This does bring up kind of an interesting question for me at least.
I would expect that a significant contributor to the surge prices is from HVAC units and similar needing to work harder/etc. My brain also feels like solar panels are likely to work better when it’s warmer, but I realize that I don’t have any proof of that or know how that would work beyond ‘when hot, feels like more sun rays, more sun rays good for solar?’.
On to the question, do solar panels work better in warmer temperatures and does output of solar panels scale anywhere close to comparatively with ambient temperature and/or need for HVAC and similar systems?
thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 16:08
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UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 19:29
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I would expect that a significant contributor to the surge prices is from HVAC units and similar needing to work harder/etc.
That’s one end of the equation. But the other end is in how we’re replacing coal plants with natural gas plants.
Coal plants are significantly slower to respond to market demand (on the scale of hours to increase/decrease supply), so they need to be run at a higher output on a longer time frame as electricity demands rise. Because ERCOT auctions electricity demand in 15 minute intervals, coal plants can’t meet a short spike in demand before its come and gone. Natural gas plants don’t have this problem. They can sit on their reserve fuel until the prices peak and then flood the grid with electricity on short notice.
As coal plant profitability sinks relative to gas plant cartels, the volume of electricity we produce becomes more and more easy to rig within the ERCOT auction markets. HVACs going into overdrive in the evening (typically between 3-7pm) signal a potential spike in demand. But gas plant operators get to wait until the electricity auction realizes those high prices, rather than producing electricity in advance and hoping you get to ride a wave through sunset.
do solar panels work better in warmer temperatures and does output of solar panels scale anywhere close to comparatively with ambient temperature and/or need for HVAC and similar systems?
A lot of the heat in cities like Houston comes from the humidity combined with the sun, so a bit of breeze can drastically impact the gross demand for electricity. Meanwhile, electric components of all sorts (photovoltaics included) perform worse in the heat. Breeze can also impact electricity available from wind turbines, which further shift prices.
Batteries can help renewable energy companies hedge against peak production relative to peak consumption. But, again, a private market maker still wants to chase the highest returns. So putting a bunch of quick-to-discharge batteries on a grid alongside quick-to-ramp-up natural gas turbines means… more cartel price fixing.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 16:18
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what kind of woke liberal socialism is this?
don’t they know those solar power panels will use up all the sun! What will happen when we run out of sun?! /s
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
on 20 May 2024 16:34
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Probably the same thing that will happen to all the athletes once they run out of their finite lifetime supply of energy :(
But this website has the lowest economic literacy I have ever seen. It’s really dangerous that people might think the majority know what they are talking about.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 19:19
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So, this is definitely good from an infrastructure perspective. But because the infrastructure is all privately owned and operated in pursuit of profit, the cost problem isn’t solved by the new capital.
Much like with all the new natural gas electric plants, these battery centers simply exist to exploit the short periods of time in which Texas electricity prices jump from $25 Mwh to $3000 Mwh. As the cartels sink their claws deeper into the retail market, the possibility of enormous price spikes increase, with base loads falling and surge pricing becoming much more common.
It’s not a cartel risk. It’s a supply and demand equation. More supply means lower prices.
It’s just market prices.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 19:32
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It’s not a cartel risk. It’s a supply and demand equation.
Cartels love industries with inelastic demand.
It’s just market prices.
Markets aren’t magic. Prices are a consequence of human decisions. And if you can withhold electricity from the grid to maximize returns (by forming a cartel with other producers) you can drive those prices up when people can least afford to reduce consumption.
Isn’t it tonnes of different people, farmers and such. Too many for a cartel to form. Reducing supply is just going to mean to make less money.
Batteries are making the grid a lot more elastic.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 20:06
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Isn’t it tonnes of different people, farmers and such.
Farmers and such are not selling power on the Texas wholesale electric grid, no.
Reducing supply is just going to mean to make less money.
Because fossil fuel supplies are limited, you can often make more money selling a small amount onto the market at a high price than a large amount onto the market at a low price.
snooggums@midwest.social
on 20 May 2024 20:33
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So weird that other states are able to avoid such ridiculous price swings and are able to mitigate most of the downtime caused by extreme weather disruptions than Texas is unable to handle.
hperrin@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 02:44
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I bet those businesses who relocated from Cali to Texas are loving those power prices.
Besides that one time power goes out more often in California. In Texas you just have a temporary price surge you could treat like a blackout if you wanted to. The difference is it’s less often and you have a choice.
hperrin@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 03:08
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I haven’t had a power outage in about ten years, between SDG&E, PG&E, and SoCal Edison. Meanwhile, Texas has regular power outages. So just what are you on about?
altima_neo@lemmy.zip
on 20 May 2024 04:52
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Texans being Texans
GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
on 20 May 2024 03:11
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Maybe power is more reliable in central Texas, my family still has no electricity from the derecho that hit Houston. And they lose power frequently from all the heavy storms or hurricanes that pummel the gulf coast.
andros_rex@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 20:22
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Yeah, if you want a governor abandoning his people, look to Kevin Stitt (Oklahoma) last year when Tulsa was without power for about a week. Lieutenant Governor was out too, literally no one had any idea who was in charge of the state.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip
on 20 May 2024 04:52
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Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the power bill.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 13:13
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Everything is bigger in Texas
* Except the paycheck
wafflez@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 05:41
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so what’s the reason they’re the only state independent from the national grid?
they just know better?
guess that’s why they call it the lone star state
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 21:04
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so what’s the reason they’re the only state independent from the national grid?
There’s a whole article on it in Wikipedia, but the TL;DR; boils down to “If we’re not connected nationally then we don’t have to abide by national regulations”.
That’s ostensibly a cost-saving, assuming you don’t think too hard about what’s being regulated. But its also a great opportunity to price gouge consumers.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl
on 20 May 2024 21:07
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sounds about right
ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk
on 21 May 2024 13:23
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We’re free to do all the great, innovative things we could want! But mostly the sneakiest, underhanded, previously illegal shit we want…
guacupado@lemmy.world
on 21 May 2024 16:37
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Everything’s bigger in Texas.
Especially the incompetence.
guacupado@lemmy.world
on 21 May 2024 16:37
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The reason Texans hate government so much is because they have no idea what it looks like when it’s run correctly.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 19:18
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The weather has absolutely nothing to do with that
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 20 May 2024 19:39
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spoiler
sdfsaf
Crikeste@lemm.ee
on 20 May 2024 19:20
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Gotta love capitalism.
DMBFFF@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 20:15
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particularly if you have lots of PVC cells to sell.
atrielienz@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 20:17
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Gotta love unregulated capitalism.
unreasonabro@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 19:23
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shitty cruel systems texas likes to inflict on its citizens, the gun-totingest murican motherfuckers there are. kinda surprised they just bend over and take it. guess gun toting losers really are just losers
DMBFFF@lemmy.world
on 20 May 2024 20:14
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Texas indeed has been blessed with much sunlight to make solar energy quite viable. This includes solar hot water heaters, and many trees to grow with vigour and bio-filtrate.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl
on 20 May 2024 20:51
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I love me some bio-filtrate
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world
on 21 May 2024 13:29
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and many trees to grow with vigour
Not so vigorous when climate change causes a massive drought.
Presumably it’s toxic mostly because of the concentration of salt.
If it can’t be used—and up north salt is used in winter for roads—it can be cleaned a bit, diluted with more seawater and discharged back into the ocean.
((the brine of 1 mass unit of seawater that’s been desalinated) + 20 units of regular seawater) ÷ 20 = 20 units of 5% saltier seawater discharged
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world
on 21 May 2024 23:43
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What is their ratios-of-brine to seawater do they use?
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world
on 22 May 2024 10:43
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It’s nice that you think you, without any experience in the matter, can solve problems with desalination that engineers in the field can’t, but I doubt you are actually able to.
Texas has also become a hotbed for bitcoin mining, adding to electricity demand, as the state’s deregulated power market and abundance of cheap natural gas became attractive to the energy-intensive sector.
Hmm.
That actually might make a lot of sense.
So, if Texas has inexpensive electricity most of the time, but also has occasional high price spikes…bitcoin mining is something where you do not need power now. Sure, you’re losing money on your hardware and space if it’s not running, but my guess is that bitcoin miners probably can do just fine shutting their systems down when prices rise above a certain point. That would tend to smooth out electricity prices.
I’d been trying to think of electricity users that could defer usage and use a lot of electricity, which are something that you want if you have wildly-varying demand and want to smooth it out, and I suppose that coin mining is actually probably a pretty good example.
There is a lot of work happening in thermal mass storage for industrial heat demand (currently most industrial processes use Natural Gas to supply heat) .
Almost all Data Centre activity could be priced relative to electricity price allowing dynamic scaling.
edboythinks@lemmy.world
on 21 May 2024 13:11
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threaded - newest
Texas under Republicans is a disaster as an ongoing concern
Pretty sure they are happy they don’t have “communism” when they pay those bills.
Some, but there are a lot of people here who recognize the hypocrisy and trash policies put into place in the state by politicians who do not wish to govern, only consolidate power.
Do this lot of people vote?
Texas is really good at gerrymandeirng
I wish it was possible to vote strongly enough for gerrymandering to be irrelevant.
Another 51% win for Biden will certainly trigger another violent inssurection attempt and another 4 years of inaction.
The best outcome would be a landslide victory if only to show the republican voters that their ideas are not supported by the general public.
51% win for Biden seems insanely optimistic right now.
it would take so little for Biden to rake in the votes but the Democrats in general seem to be doing everything they can to embarrass themselves even worse than 2016 …
That’s a cop out. There are plenty of terrible people in that state.
.
They do, but Texas is one of the most difficult states to register to vote. Voter suppression is real and by design.
This explains it well: Texas’s Voter-Registration Laws Are Straight Out of the Jim Crow Playbook
and Analysis: It’s harder to vote in Texas than in any other state
I will never get why you have to Register at all
There are actual checks and balance to ensure you’re a citizen and you vote at most once
It make sense if it were like the TSA to be honest, bring everything you need to vote or preregister for a faster experience. Would also help if was voting month(s) instead of day so people could comfortably vote.
Where I live you just get a letter some weeks before the election. With that letter you can vote at the place that is named in the letter (or anywhere in the same city). If you lose the letter you can still vote with your id-card, but only at the place that was named in the letter.
Easy, isn’t it?
That‘s one of the consequences of not having citizen IDs, because they’re communist.
That’s really dumb. Here in Utah, you sign up online, and you can get a mail ballot online too. I have never actually voted in person, I just fill out my ballot and drop it in one of the collection bins a few days before the election. We can even track our ballot to ensure it gets processed.
Why overcomplicate it? I don’t need to take time off to vote, and I can take my time researching the candidates. Voting should be easy.
Imagine all those Californians that moved to Texas.
Seriously they deserve what they get for not appreciating what they had.
True.
Funny, I was thinking the same of the New Yorkers who moved to Texas. I live in New York (not the City) and yah the state has problems, but you couldn’t pay me to move to a Southern state…
IDK, coming from NYC to TX is probably a net upgrade in a lot of ways, especially if you’re a small business owner or work for one. The laws in NYC are just so bonkers.
Then again, I’m uninterested in moving to TX either. I’m pretty happy here in Utah, and I may move back home to Seattle, WA at some point, or maybe we’ll move to NC. But I’m not moving anywhere further south than NC.
Yah the taxes in NYS (not NYC) are one of the problems I mentioned, but on the other hand I’ve seen what they paid for. As an Upstate NY resident I have a love/hate relationship with NYC. On one hand it causes a lot of funky laws to be passed at the state level. On the other hand it brings in a FUCK TON of tax revenue that Upstate benefits from
Honestly Louis Rossmans experience as a small business owner living the real life Kafka novel in new Yorks legal system made me never want to live there.
We’ve learned nothing from the 2021 winter storm that killed over 200 people.
Rationality is out of the window. Ideology is the new religion. They don’t want to become “socialists” even though they don’t know what it truly means.
It’s almost scary to think of how bad it would have to get in order for voters to tick the boxes for Greens or Libertarians.
Like, how badly do these fuckers have to fail before you’re willing to shed your partisan jersey and vote to your own benefit?
They did change one thing. You used to be able to get electricity at wholesale prices from certain providers. When the rates went crazy during the 2021 storm and people’s crazy bills for turning on the lamp blew up on the news, they shut down that option.
These rate surges do hurt customers, but now it’s in the form of rate increases when their contract expires.
Thank you for the clarification.
well we did learn that when shit hits the fan Rafael Edward Cruz likes taking vacay down south of de border way
Instead of requiring weatherization, they allowed power plants to opt out.
texastribune.org/…/texas-power-grid-loophole/
Desire for more money overrides literally every other thought for those who have the most
Correct.
Didn’t the state basically re-elect everyone who oversaw that shit show?
Not only did they re-elect them, deregulating the power grid even more was an explicit part of the Republican platform
Partisanship is a hell of a drug.
they almost learned nothing. The grid almost shutdown this time, instead of shutting down…
It’s absolutely wild. The last time around, people died, and a lot more were put into financial hardship due to the shitty, hypercapitalist energy infrastructure. People were rightly ripshit angry about it.
And then nothing was done about any of it.
And then people keep voting for the politicians who created and perpetuated the situation.
It’s really hard to keep giving a shit about people who actively work and vote to make their own lives worse.
Sure we have: profits are worth more than 200 lives, and counting.
WINNING! /s
Click bait story that doesn’t paint the complete picture.
What is the complete picture?
What are you, some kind of communist?
/S in case
Texans aren’t actually paying those increased prices, not directly anyway.
Even if they are, it isn’t necessarily bad thing. If the demand is going above supply you need to decrease demand or increase supply. If you increase cost you decrease demand.
However, the article above doesn’t give enough information to draw conclusions and it doesn’t even have sources.
or just get a plant of them newfangled sodium battery stacks. they’re all the rage
Seriously, what are we missing?
They cropped the edges from the article photo.
The entire background. The article is vague and is designed to get people upset. They don’t give any more information other than some crazy sounding percentages.
good thing you’re only possibly linux. If you were fully linux i’d be retiring from life.
Welcome to your deregulated “free market”, Texas. Don’t want to be tied to government regulation? Guess you get to pay more or cook…or freeze. Your choice by season.
This is Enron-scale manipulation. Someone’s ripping off the public and making a mint with the help of the regulators.
The vast majority of Texans are on contracted plans and pay a consistent price per kilowatt.
That doesn’t mean prices won’t skyrocket when that contract renews though
Jerry Jones, yeah same one that owns the Cowboys, made almost $1B off the price hikes durning the big freeze that almost crippled the grid.
It’s not a coincidence that Texas is a hotbed of development for “microgrid” systems to cover for when ERCOT shits the bed – and of course all those systems are made up of diesel and natural gas generator farms, because Texans don’t want any of that communist solar power!
I’ve got family in Texas who love it there for some reason, but there’s almost no amount of money you could pay me to move there. Bad enough when I have to work on projects in the state – contrary to the popular narrative, in my personal opinion it’s a worse place than California to try and build something, and that’s entirely to do with the personalities that seem to gravitate to positions of power there. I’d much rather slog through the bureaucracy in Cali than tiptoe around a tinpot dictator in the planning department.
Not to mention their Governor, who seems to be in a race with FL’s Governor for the “evil monster of the century award.”
Governor hot wheels!
I am a power grid engineer and we are quoting multiple solar systems with BESS capabilities a month for Texas. It’s not all diesel.
I exaggerate – but Magic Rock is doing booming business installing strings of natural gas generators at Buc-ee’s across the state, and I’m currently dealing with an institutional client who wanted to provide backup power for a satellite campus, and didn’t even stop to consider battery-backed PV on the way to asking for a natural gas generator farm.
At least we’re trying to make reforms to our bureaucracy here in California, the problems mostly originate on the county and city levels. As for why the state is/was rather decentralized relatively speaking, well its cause we roughly the size of Great Britain (the island not the empire) and half the state is mountainous to some degree.
I live in Texas and have already received 2 notices this spring to conserve electricity. It has barely hit 90, and they aren’t able to keep up with demand. They get the same weather reports we have access to, up to 14-21 days, yet they can’t/won’t anticipate demand?
It’s almost like they have a financial incentive to pull this shit.
In 2000/2001 this same shit was being done in California, leading to rolling blackouts and record-high energy prices. One company was buying all the plants and shutting them down for “maintenance” specifically to increase energy prices.
There were going to be congressional hearings over it in early 2022, but that company was Enron, and at the end of 2001 they collapsed due to other bullshit they were pulling.
|early 2022
Bit late, if you ask me.
Whoopsie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2002
worse in CA was PG&e causing devastating forest fires because they refused to shut of the power and had insufficient line maintenance
Fun fact, in case you weren’t aware; Texas pays bitcoin mining companies to shut off their rigs during peak demand.
Miners love this; in effect they can just threaten to mine bitcoin and get paid as much as they would have made actually mining bitcoin, but without the wear and tear on their expensive hardware. It’s a legalized extortion racket being enacted on the public purse.
Apologies if I just gave you even more reason to be angry.
didn’t mining costs just double? gl with that
Effectively, yes. But that just makes extorting the government even more effective in comparison. Better to just get paid not to mine.
I guess they’ll have to shut down their bootstrap-pulling engines for awhile.
shouldn’t there be an abundance of energy if its hotter?
it’s texas, their power grid doesn’t work.
The Texan power grid works fine. It only has problems when it’s hot or cold.
The system works great all year round but what it delivers is not electricity…
which is probably why i think it doesn’t work.
Because yknow, texas, never gets hot… Or cold…
How is that supposed to work?
Temperature is the measure of average thermal kinetic energy of particles…
Good way to cause expansion renewables and batteries.
Yup. Central Texas here. Have a 14kW solar system and 28kWh of battery backup. I haven’t touched the grid in months. Fuck these assholes.
I actually meant grid level expansion. But that too.
All they have done is free market supply and demanded the grid. That’s why Texas has more solar than any other state, the market is working. Though it does have some downsides.
So I assume that ted cruz flees to ski somewhere this time? And does he still blame his daughters, or does that change as well?
Maybe he’s not fleeing the states crumbling infrastructure, maybe he’s taking his wife and/or daughter(s) for out of state abortions.
Better Sue him to be on the safe side.
Bookmarking this for the next time white supremacists here in good ole’ South Africa peddles the “privatisation is the only thing that will fix our electricity problems!” bullcrap.
Thanks, Texas!
No no no, that’s not true privatization. True privatization would fix all the problems
Satire on point.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/bfe5a91c-be26-49e8-8248-511b79433623.gif">
Privatisation can only work if the end consumers have genuine choice.
In the UK electricity is privatised and I can pick from dozens of companies. This honestly works pretty well, and you can pick the cheapest depending on when you use electricity and how much. It’s the same infrastructure no matter who you pick, but that seems handled fairly well. Same with internet providers.
We also privatised water, and we just get given a company to rule over each area of the country. Unsurprisingly, given the consumer has no recourse other than “have no water” this is an absolute fucking shit-show. They’ve not invested in enough reservoirs, nor sewage handling, and instead lobby the government to make it legal to just put it in the rivers instead. It’s the same story with trains.
Enjoy the freedom!
Lol so how’s that “deregulated freedom” working out for you, Texans?
“Last year, Texas overtook California in large-scale solar power capacity. When huge amounts of solar power rush onto the grid, batteries tend to follow. Now, Texas is building more grid batteries than California, the longtime undisputed leader in clean energy storage.”
canarymedia.com/…/texas-will-add-more-grid-batter…
You didn’t answer their question though. You gave an example of how power companies are doing, not how texans are doing.
Also, if Texas is having record solar installations, why is power so expensive?
@puppy @Wanderer Greed?
While I don’t think the way Texas has the regulations setup is a good idea, one has to look more at the ‘whole picture’ and do the math. Is the low cost periods low enough that when you get ‘gouged’ by the spikes, what was the total average cost? If the spikes are taken as a average over time, then maybe it works out in the consumer’s favor or at worst break even, then it might be worth it. Or maybe it doesn’t But I honestly don’t know. I don’t have the numbers in front of me to do the math, I’m a 1000+ miles away from Texas.
Edit to add: I don’t know just how much extra electricity Texas will need to buy, but I would assume they will be buying a noticeable amount. And the cost of electricity is VERY expensive in the spot market. It’s why my co-op is doing major upgrades to the hydro-electric dam. To increase the efficiency and reduce the need to buy expensive spot market power.
And without a good way to store the excess power generated, solar and wind aren’t very good for peak loads. You can’t merely flip a switch and spool up more power than a solar panel or wind generator can produce. Clouds reduce efficiency, insufficient or too much winds shut down wind generators. And despite having more alternative generation than everyone’s hero - California, it still not enough to carry the whole load. Consumers are raising demand far faster than enough infrastructure can be built out to supply that demand. So for peak loads, natural gas generators are used because they can be turned on and off quickly as needed. This adds excess cost.
The installation of storage batteries farms is fantastic. But it will take time and it will add cost to consumers electric bill.
And despite some tankie’s beliefs, nothing is free - it all costs something. I’m a member of a tiny rural electric co-op. The co-op needs to make a profit to afford maintenance and upgrades to our tiny grid. Our power is generated by a hydro-electric dam and my rates have gone up this year to to cover the costs of some major maintenance on the dam and the addition of 3 new linemen to keep the electricity flowing to my heat pump that the co-op incentivizes and highly encourages.
Its wholesale prices, it’s what they do. Same in Europe same in Australia.
Texas looks fairly middle of the pack with decreasing prices. Compare it to another state with high levels of renewable and California is second highest after some islands and has increasing prices.
www.cnet.com/home/…/electricity-rates-by-state/
And yet prices still surged 1600%
why would you think that any of this effects prices?
It should reduce the costs, but Texas is so fucked…
You are free… to pay as much as you possibly can for electricity.
why? what mechanism forces them to lower prices? the same that keep corporate profits at record highs year after year? we recently saw just how silly the idea of competition making anything cheaper is when every, even tho, there was no reason for doing so, started upping the prices of groceries, because they could.
The higher the percentage, the greater the incentive.
Seems good for industry and bad for the actual populous, considering things like this can still happen lol.
This does bring up kind of an interesting question for me at least.
I would expect that a significant contributor to the surge prices is from HVAC units and similar needing to work harder/etc. My brain also feels like solar panels are likely to work better when it’s warmer, but I realize that I don’t have any proof of that or know how that would work beyond ‘when hot, feels like more sun rays, more sun rays good for solar?’.
On to the question, do solar panels work better in warmer temperatures and does output of solar panels scale anywhere close to comparatively with ambient temperature and/or need for HVAC and similar systems?
Solar works worse in higher temps
Is this all solar or just PVCs?
That’s one end of the equation. But the other end is in how we’re replacing coal plants with natural gas plants.
Coal plants are significantly slower to respond to market demand (on the scale of hours to increase/decrease supply), so they need to be run at a higher output on a longer time frame as electricity demands rise. Because ERCOT auctions electricity demand in 15 minute intervals, coal plants can’t meet a short spike in demand before its come and gone. Natural gas plants don’t have this problem. They can sit on their reserve fuel until the prices peak and then flood the grid with electricity on short notice.
As coal plant profitability sinks relative to gas plant cartels, the volume of electricity we produce becomes more and more easy to rig within the ERCOT auction markets. HVACs going into overdrive in the evening (typically between 3-7pm) signal a potential spike in demand. But gas plant operators get to wait until the electricity auction realizes those high prices, rather than producing electricity in advance and hoping you get to ride a wave through sunset.
A lot of the heat in cities like Houston comes from the humidity combined with the sun, so a bit of breeze can drastically impact the gross demand for electricity. Meanwhile, electric components of all sorts (photovoltaics included) perform worse in the heat. Breeze can also impact electricity available from wind turbines, which further shift prices.
Batteries can help renewable energy companies hedge against peak production relative to peak consumption. But, again, a private market maker still wants to chase the highest returns. So putting a bunch of quick-to-discharge batteries on a grid alongside quick-to-ramp-up natural gas turbines means… more cartel price fixing.
what kind of woke liberal socialism is this?
don’t they know those solar power panels will use up all the sun! What will happen when we run out of sun?! /s
Probably the same thing that will happen to all the athletes once they run out of their finite lifetime supply of energy :(
Its just free market capitalism.
They also have more than double the wind power of any other state.
Thats not capitalism. Capitalism doesnt involve that evil demonrat satan technology like wind and solar! /s
Just because people in Texas are wrong about what capitalism is doesn’t mean people on this website can’t also be wrong, quite often even more so.
You must be a blast at parties.
Only when it’s really well organised fun.
But this website has the lowest economic literacy I have ever seen. It’s really dangerous that people might think the majority know what they are talking about.
So, this is definitely good from an infrastructure perspective. But because the infrastructure is all privately owned and operated in pursuit of profit, the cost problem isn’t solved by the new capital.
Much like with all the new natural gas electric plants, these battery centers simply exist to exploit the short periods of time in which Texas electricity prices jump from $25 Mwh to $3000 Mwh. As the cartels sink their claws deeper into the retail market, the possibility of enormous price spikes increase, with base loads falling and surge pricing becoming much more common.
It’s not a cartel risk. It’s a supply and demand equation. More supply means lower prices.
It’s just market prices.
Cartels love industries with inelastic demand.
Markets aren’t magic. Prices are a consequence of human decisions. And if you can withhold electricity from the grid to maximize returns (by forming a cartel with other producers) you can drive those prices up when people can least afford to reduce consumption.
Isn’t it tonnes of different people, farmers and such. Too many for a cartel to form. Reducing supply is just going to mean to make less money.
Batteries are making the grid a lot more elastic.
Farmers and such are not selling power on the Texas wholesale electric grid, no.
Because fossil fuel supplies are limited, you can often make more money selling a small amount onto the market at a high price than a large amount onto the market at a low price.
Some people ideas of capitalism are so warped.
If there is an energy cartel report them.
I’ll notify Ken Paxton right away. I’m sure he’ll get right on it.
Well done. Don’t forgot to attach your evidence.
So weird that other states are able to avoid such ridiculous price swings and are able to mitigate most of the downtime caused by extreme weather disruptions than Texas is unable to handle.
I bet those businesses who relocated from Cali to Texas are loving those power prices.
Oh yeah, they already left Texas.
Besides that one time power goes out more often in California. In Texas you just have a temporary price surge you could treat like a blackout if you wanted to. The difference is it’s less often and you have a choice.
I haven’t had a power outage in about ten years, between SDG&E, PG&E, and SoCal Edison. Meanwhile, Texas has regular power outages. So just what are you on about?
Texans being Texans
Maybe power is more reliable in central Texas, my family still has no electricity from the derecho that hit Houston. And they lose power frequently from all the heavy storms or hurricanes that pummel the gulf coast.
Like the time people were freezing to death during a power outage while the governor took a vacation to Cancún?
Exactly, they were too poor to heat their homes and that was their choice.
The biggest mistake a lot of people make is being born poor.
*Senator
Yeah, if you want a governor abandoning his people, look to Kevin Stitt (Oklahoma) last year when Tulsa was without power for about a week. Lieutenant Governor was out too, literally no one had any idea who was in charge of the state.
Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the power bill.
Everything is bigger in Texas
* Except the paycheck
What year in a row ia this?
I don’t know but it started making international news during the pandemic, so at least 5th.
Buttma taxes
Greed and incompetience. No wonder Texas has been resistant to federal regulation and interconnect its power network with the rest of the country.
The Enrons are Enroning the faces.
Oh, Texas. Your power grid is an endless source of amusement (for people who don’t have to rely on it, of course).
Losing power for three days, but knowing my energy bill will be twice as high as last months is always a cool feeling.
Smartass remarks aside, you have my sympathies.
I mean, I work in the O&G industry. Y’all have every right to be as smartass as you please.
so what’s the reason they’re the only state independent from the national grid?
they just know better?
guess that’s why they call it the lone star state
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection
There’s a whole article on it in Wikipedia, but the TL;DR; boils down to “If we’re not connected nationally then we don’t have to abide by national regulations”.
That’s ostensibly a cost-saving, assuming you don’t think too hard about what’s being regulated. But its also a great opportunity to price gouge consumers.
sounds about right
We’re free to do all the great, innovative things we could want! But mostly the sneakiest, underhanded, previously illegal shit we want…
Everything’s bigger in Texas.
Especially the incompetence.
The reason Texans hate government so much is because they have no idea what it looks like when it’s run correctly.
The weather has absolutely nothing to do with that
spoiler
sdfsaf
Gotta love capitalism.
particularly if you have lots of PVC cells to sell.
Gotta love unregulated capitalism.
shitty cruel systems texas likes to inflict on its citizens, the gun-totingest murican motherfuckers there are. kinda surprised they just bend over and take it. guess gun toting losers really are just losers
nothing but steers and queers in texas
my favourite scene of that movie is when that drill instructor got shot.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOZg8arCICU
youtu.be/nT8Q6j1amz8?t=1150 (cued)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=qOZg8arCICU&t=6s
https://piped.video/nT8Q6j1amz8?t=1150
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Texas indeed has been blessed with much sunlight to make solar energy quite viable. This includes solar hot water heaters, and many trees to grow with vigour and bio-filtrate.
I love me some bio-filtrate
Not so vigorous when climate change causes a massive drought.
They have 591 km of coastline.
lots of salt water + lots of solar energy = lots of desalinated water
What do you do with all the leftover toxic brine?
Presumably it’s toxic mostly because of the concentration of salt.
If it can’t be used—and up north salt is used in winter for roads—it can be cleaned a bit, diluted with more seawater and discharged back into the ocean.
((the brine of 1 mass unit of seawater that’s been desalinated) + 20 units of regular seawater) ÷ 20 = 20 units of 5% saltier seawater discharged
You make it sound so safe and easy. It isn’t.
archive.ph/V64Cq
sciencenews.org/…/desalination-pours-more-toxic-b…
What is their ratios-of-brine to seawater do they use?
It’s nice that you think you, without any experience in the matter, can solve problems with desalination that engineers in the field can’t, but I doubt you are actually able to.
My question isn’t totally rhetorical: I’m but an pseudonymous person on the internet.
Also, I don’t think it’s an engineering problem as much as a political one.
Hmm.
That actually might make a lot of sense.
So, if Texas has inexpensive electricity most of the time, but also has occasional high price spikes…bitcoin mining is something where you do not need power now. Sure, you’re losing money on your hardware and space if it’s not running, but my guess is that bitcoin miners probably can do just fine shutting their systems down when prices rise above a certain point. That would tend to smooth out electricity prices.
I’d been trying to think of electricity users that could defer usage and use a lot of electricity, which are something that you want if you have wildly-varying demand and want to smooth it out, and I suppose that coin mining is actually probably a pretty good example.
There is a lot of work happening in thermal mass storage for industrial heat demand (currently most industrial processes use Natural Gas to supply heat) .
Almost all Data Centre activity could be priced relative to electricity price allowing dynamic scaling.
uh oh, somebody did a capitalism