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Is that true? Places in America with multi-day blackouts common? That’s nuts!

otherme123 2y ago
For what I read about Texas, the root if the problem is that they opted to disconnect from the interstate grid, IIRC to avoid Federal regulations. If anything goes bad, they can't lean on neighbor states to provide, so they blackout.
- delecti 2y ago
  And additionally, things are more likely to go bad, precisely because there are fewer regulations that would otherwise lead to stability.
more_corn 2y ago
I’m not sure if Texas qualifies, but yes. When it gets too hot or too cold the Texas grid tends to fall over. Mostly because Texas aggressively deregulated their power grid allowing producers to cheap out of weatherization. If you live in Texas rooftop solar and a battery are highly recommended.
publicsavant 2y ago
It isn't. Ercot keeps records, or you can check the outages section of wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection .
- MisterBastahrd 2y ago
  There were over 500K residents effected just 2 weeks ago. Seems Wikipedia only keeps up to date if someone edits Wikipedia.
kentonv 2y ago
People are exaggerating a bit here. Texas ran out of power in 2021, and before that in 2011. These were totally unacceptable events to be sure, but I'm not sure once every 10 years qualifies as "common". People might be confused a bit because there are usually several close calls over the year where supply is projected to outstrip demand, but the problem usually resolves when they go bribe some bitcoin mines to turn off. (Ugh.) (I live in Austin, TX.)
- MisterBastahrd 2y ago
  No. I'm not. And I never said a single thing about "running out of power," because that wasn't the issue in most areas. The power infrastructure was physically damaged. The state is on its own grid, refuses to winterize, and people also carried on in their households as if it were a normal day, which overloaded local transformers. It took me a week to regain power in 2021 because the transformer blew behind my house on Valentine's Day and Oncor would keep sending trucks with technicians who didn't realize they had access to the transformer via the giant vacant lot behind it. Instead of doing the intelligent thing and calling to ask for a frame of reference, they would cancel the report. They did this for days while the temperatures were near zero. Dallas had a week-long blackout in some areas a week ago. We had an almost day's long power outage in January in some areas. This is becoming a common occurrence in the area due to severe weather.
  - kentonv 2y ago
    Everywhere has localized power outages from infrastructure damaged by weather, though. That's not really a Texas thing or realistically preventable...
    - MisterBastahrd 2y ago
      They keep on being localized in the place that I live. I never said that it was completely preventable. I said that I was considering solar to mitigate the damage to my personal property. You have a reading comprehension problem.

For what I read about Texas, the root if the problem is that they opted to disconnect from the interstate grid, IIRC to avoid Federal regulations. If anything goes bad, they can't lean on neighbor states to provide, so they blackout.

delecti 2y ago
And additionally, things are more likely to go bad, precisely because there are fewer regulations that would otherwise lead to stability.

more_corn 2y ago

I’m not sure if Texas qualifies, but yes. When it gets too hot or too cold the Texas grid tends to fall over. Mostly because Texas aggressively deregulated their power grid allowing producers to cheap out of weatherization. If you live in Texas rooftop solar and a battery are highly recommended.

publicsavant 2y ago

It isn't. Ercot keeps records, or you can check the outages section of wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection .

MisterBastahrd 2y ago
There were over 500K residents effected just 2 weeks ago. Seems Wikipedia only keeps up to date if someone edits Wikipedia.

kentonv 2y ago

People are exaggerating a bit here. Texas ran out of power in 2021, and before that in 2011. These were totally unacceptable events to be sure, but I'm not sure once every 10 years qualifies as "common". People might be confused a bit because there are usually several close calls over the year where supply is projected to outstrip demand, but the problem usually resolves when they go bribe some bitcoin mines to turn off. (Ugh.) (I live in Austin, TX.)

MisterBastahrd 2y ago
No. I'm not. And I never said a single thing about "running out of power," because that wasn't the issue in most areas. The power infrastructure was physically damaged. The state is on its own grid, refuses to winterize, and people also carried on in their households as if it were a normal day, which overloaded local transformers. It took me a week to regain power in 2021 because the transformer blew behind my house on Valentine's Day and Oncor would keep sending trucks with technicians who didn't realize they had access to the transformer via the giant vacant lot behind it. Instead of doing the intelligent thing and calling to ask for a frame of reference, they would cancel the report. They did this for days while the temperatures were near zero. Dallas had a week-long blackout in some areas a week ago. We had an almost day's long power outage in January in some areas. This is becoming a common occurrence in the area due to severe weather.
- kentonv 2y ago
  Everywhere has localized power outages from infrastructure damaged by weather, though. That's not really a Texas thing or realistically preventable...
  - MisterBastahrd 2y ago
    They keep on being localized in the place that I live. I never said that it was completely preventable. I said that I was considering solar to mitigate the damage to my personal property. You have a reading comprehension problem.