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The article didn't specify, so I checked current temperatures. It's 16 degrees celsius in Dallas right now. Many countries (and even local USA states) would lau

The article didn't specify, so I checked current temperatures. It's 16 degrees celsius in Dallas right now. Many countries (and even local USA states) would laugh at someone who even describes that as "cold." Why does this constitute a state of emergency? What is going on in Texas?

nateglims 3y ago
The Texas grid is independently managed and has very little capacity over interconnects to Mexico or the other US grids. This has previously been presented as a way to avoid federal regulation. This prevents them from drawing excess power from regions unaffected by unusual cold or other events.
onetimeuse92304 3y ago
It constitutes a state of emergency in Texas because Texas is not ready to deal with this. There is no infrastructure at all. People do not know how to deal with cold. And most importantly, buildings are not designed to deal with it. So normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal. People would just pull out space heaters they use once in a decade. Unfortunately Texas does not have that ability either because the grid has not been maintained and expanded to meet the demand. And here is the crux of the problem.
cosmic_quanta 3y ago
According to the article, blackouts are _forecasted_ for December and January. I don't get the sense that this is about the weather today
moribvndvs 3y ago
They are forecasting a 14% chance of needing to use them in December and 16% in January, not actively doing them right this second.
- vel0city 3y ago
  A 14% and 16% chance if another massive storm hits.
dustincoates 3y ago
It's not about the weather right now. It's about predicting the likelihood _if_ temperatures fall well below freezing like they did last year.
djbusby 3y ago
The emergency is when Texas gets gets to below -1c for extended periods (+2days).
chrisco255 3y ago
It's not. But ever since the freak blizzard of Feb 2021 where temps got down to as low as -13C (8F) and below 0C for a full week (which was a once in a century type of event for Texas), everyone keeps trying to dog pile on ERCOT for a week of rolling black outs during said blizzard. They were predicting black outs this last summer too and they didn't happen. Black outs happen multiple times a decade in every state I've ever lived in. And these states are all connected to other states but it doesn't stop the black outs from happening. In Florida I've gone two weeks without power after a hurricane. Texas has massive wind farms in the northern part of the state that provide as much as 40% of the power for the state. They were not winterized to handle freezing temps because Texas is a subtropical/semi-arid state that is not supposed to see these kind of temperatures for such a sustained period. Natural gas demand was more than doubled because the wind farms were down and everyone has electric heat pumps in Texas because gas or wood heaters are not needed 99 years out of 100. At any rate if Texas sees another blizzard like '21 anytime soon we're going to have to start to have a conversation about global cooling.
- greedo 3y ago
  I have never had a blackout in my midwest state since I moved here in 1995, other than a local city blackout where parts of the grid were affected by early snow that downed power lines in roughly 25% of the city. What sucks is that due to the inability of Texas to regulate its power industry, the 2021 blizzard caused spikes in natural gas for everyone in the region. I'm still paying the stupid fee for the excess charges. And sure, we'll need to have a conversation about global cooling. Nice talking point from the climate change deniers you have in your back pocket.

nateglims 3y ago

The Texas grid is independently managed and has very little capacity over interconnects to Mexico or the other US grids. This has previously been presented as a way to avoid federal regulation. This prevents them from drawing excess power from regions unaffected by unusual cold or other events.

onetimeuse92304 3y ago

It constitutes a state of emergency in Texas because Texas is not ready to deal with this. There is no infrastructure at all. People do not know how to deal with cold. And most importantly, buildings are not designed to deal with it. So normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal. People would just pull out space heaters they use once in a decade. Unfortunately Texas does not have that ability either because the grid has not been maintained and expanded to meet the demand. And here is the crux of the problem.

cosmic_quanta 3y ago

According to the article, blackouts are _forecasted_ for December and January. I don't get the sense that this is about the weather today

moribvndvs 3y ago

They are forecasting a 14% chance of needing to use them in December and 16% in January, not actively doing them right this second.

vel0city 3y ago
A 14% and 16% chance if another massive storm hits.

dustincoates 3y ago

It's not about the weather right now. It's about predicting the likelihood _if_ temperatures fall well below freezing like they did last year.

djbusby 3y ago

The emergency is when Texas gets gets to below -1c for extended periods (+2days).

chrisco255 3y ago

It's not. But ever since the freak blizzard of Feb 2021 where temps got down to as low as -13C (8F) and below 0C for a full week (which was a once in a century type of event for Texas), everyone keeps trying to dog pile on ERCOT for a week of rolling black outs during said blizzard. They were predicting black outs this last summer too and they didn't happen. Black outs happen multiple times a decade in every state I've ever lived in. And these states are all connected to other states but it doesn't stop the black outs from happening. In Florida I've gone two weeks without power after a hurricane. Texas has massive wind farms in the northern part of the state that provide as much as 40% of the power for the state. They were not winterized to handle freezing temps because Texas is a subtropical/semi-arid state that is not supposed to see these kind of temperatures for such a sustained period. Natural gas demand was more than doubled because the wind farms were down and everyone has electric heat pumps in Texas because gas or wood heaters are not needed 99 years out of 100. At any rate if Texas sees another blizzard like '21 anytime soon we're going to have to start to have a conversation about global cooling.

greedo 3y ago
I have never had a blackout in my midwest state since I moved here in 1995, other than a local city blackout where parts of the grid were affected by early snow that downed power lines in roughly 25% of the city. What sucks is that due to the inability of Texas to regulate its power industry, the 2021 blizzard caused spikes in natural gas for everyone in the region. I'm still paying the stupid fee for the excess charges. And sure, we'll need to have a conversation about global cooling. Nice talking point from the climate change deniers you have in your back pocket.