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Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
- mouse_ 2y agofrustrated seems like an understatement
- gigatexal 2y agoNot angry enough to get their elected officials to make the power grid changes needed to make it more robust to such things. I mean how can they when reps like Ted Cruz fly off to Cancun when the weather gets really bad.
- 39896880 2y agoNotice the deflection by the Lt Governor: “People have a right to be extremely frustrated with CenterPoint. People are suffering through terribly oppressive heat, a lack of food and gasoline availability, debris everywhere, and much more,” Patrick said. “The poor and most vulnerable are suffering the most.” Not, “People have a right to be frustrated with the government,”
- ta125865421 2y agoWhat is going on over there? Seems like crazy town. With the geriatrics and corruption, good god it looks dystopian from a rando aussie pov.
- FredPret 2y agoAny country looks dystopian from the news. From the outside, your own country seems to have a dystopian liking for government control of speech and the internet. If your daily experience does not align with this perception, consider that Texans might be in exactly the same boat as you, perception-vs-reality-wise.
- sonotathrowaway 2y agoThe attorney general of Texas is openly corrupt and is in the middle of a criminal trial. Acting like Texas isn’t uniquely shitty requires intentionally forgetting reality.
- FredPret 2y agoThe government of many places, like the EU and Australia, openly and regularly make moves to crack down on individual freedoms in favour of state power - and they aren’t even in criminal trials.
- wannacboatmovie 2y ago> Not angry enough to get their elected officials to make the power grid changes needed Do you have the magic solution that makes them resilient to natural disasters short of burying every single power line underground? Which is not only impractical but insanely expensive. The infrastructure has been physically damaged or destroyed. You fired off a politically charged comment and offered no specifics.
- harimau777 2y agoIncreased trimming of trees near power lines. Apparently CenterPoint spent significantly less than some of the other power suppliers on maintenance. I don't know that it would help in this specific instance, but connecting Texas to the rest of the power grid would likely make the system overall more resilient.
- blantonl 2y agoIt wouldn't have helped. Trimming trees is preventative maintenance so that simple wind gusts don't trip lines when branches encroach on power lines. The only way you can prevent damage from falling trees is to completely remove them.
- harimau777 2y agoThen it might be necessary to remove or relocate the trees since Houston is so vulnerable to hurricanes.
- wannacboatmovie 2y ago> I don't know that it would help in this specific instance, but connecting Texas to the rest of the power grid would likely make the system overall more resilient. Irrelevant wishful thinking. The outages are caused by localized physical damage. There is no shortage of grid power. Inter-ties to every grid in the world wouldn't help when the wires on the last mile have been physically destroyed.
- 2y ago
- Mindless2112 2y agoTL;DR: > “The grid is a whole different issue which we’re addressing, have been addressing, and will continue to address,” Patrick said. “The power is down because the lines are down, and the transmission lines are down primarily because trees fell on them.”
- 39896880 2y agoIs the grid not composed of power lines?
- FireBeyond 2y agoTexas famously wanted to be "independent" from the energy market and has steadfastly refused attempts from the federal government to have it join regional grids for the purposes of redundancy and resiliency, saying it can handle its own needs just fine. Until every power grid failure, when they ask the Feds for relief money (this is notwithstanding that in cases like this, they are not just asking for money for the grid failures but the general aftermath of Beryl, but it is a component).
- wongarsu 2y agoWhat he means (but can't say directly) is that this isn't like the last couple highly public Texas blackouts. This time the power is available, there is enough generating capacity online and connected, they just can't get it delivered.
- SoftTalker 2y agoYes, building the infrastructure in the cheapest way possible has consequences. Underground lines would not be vulnerable to falling trees. But they are a lot more expensive to install, and when they require maintenence for any other reasons.
- wongarsu 2y agoAs European I find it strange how few power and telecom wires seem to be buried in the US. What's up with that? I get that in rural regions digging a ditch isn't worth it, but the Houston area has pretty high population density and still has wires on poles.
- epolanski 2y agoTo me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's summer. The worst offenders though are the many shops that blast AC 24/7 and have their doors open! Put some goddamn sensors and sliding doors!? I just can't look at it. Even worse, electricity comes and goes all time during summer and it's hard to work at times (I'm full remote). I'm fully convinced nobody gives two damns about global warming and our own impact. It's better to just ignore our actions and focus on evil corporations so we keep avoiding doing anything, maybe buy and change our EVs every 3/4 years as it didn't make it worse.
- ramesh31 2y ago>To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. Tell me you've never been to Texas in July without telling me.
- sojournerc 2y agoAC isn't a problem if the energy feeding it is carbon neutral. With a strong mix of renewables and nuclear this is achievable, but instead we continue to burn coal and natural gas to provide base load.
- KingOfCoders 2y agoVisited NYC several times. Metro was unbearable in summer because trains heated up outside and blasted the warm air into tunnels and stations through AC.
- sojournerc 2y agoAC doesn't really create heat though, aside from minor amounts from the compressor/fan motors, it merely moves it from inside to outside, or into the metro stations as you mention.
- RheingoldRiver 2y agoI was there last weekend & for the day of the hurricane. This was just a cat 1 hurricane at the time it passed through Houston, and there was SO much damage. I can't imagine the city is remotely prepared for (god forbid, and idk how likely it is that far inland anyway) a cat 4 or 5. We were staying in a hotel that had a backup generator, but every single other building that was visible from our hotel had lost power during the storm. Everyone I talked to in the area lost power at home for at least a day, and many people said they expected to lose power for a full week. I'm interested if anyone familiar with the local state of the grid knows whose "fault" the enormous turnaround time in restoring power is: * Not enough employees at the electrical companies * Infrastructure regulation (e.g. requiring buried lines in critical areas) is insufficient in Houston specifically * Infrastructure regulation is insufficient in Texas specifically * (or nationally? are there national guidelines for the power grid in various weather-prone areas?) * The Texas grid being separate from the rest of the country's * Other??
- blantonl 2y agoThis wasn't a "grid issue." It is a last-mile issue. It's specifically an issue with the sheer amount of above ground power lines and population density. There is no easy fix, preparation, or practically anything else that can be done to prevent something like this. Plus, what causes the same amount of power outages (wind damage) isn't going to be different between 90mph winds and 150 mph winds. The effects are going to be the same on the power infrastructure. The hurricane, while even a Cat 1, still brought what would effectively be a localized extremely severe thunderstorm over vast swaths of, and a direct hit upon, major population areas over the 4rd largest city in the country. New Orleans was in the same boat with Ida in 2021. There were areas of the city that didn't get power back for over a month. Everyone was furious with Entergy there, but there's just a simple reality with this stuff.
- FrustratedMonky 2y ago"no easy fix, preparation, or practically anything else that can be done to prevent something like this" Regulations on the initial construction? In other words, plan ahead. But no, I must have my 'Freeeeedooooommmmm'. You can't force me to prepare.
- jqpabc123 2y agohttps://www.utilitydive.com/news/the-real-problem-in-texas-deregulation/595564/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/the-real-problem-in-texas-d...
- namesbc 2y ago[flagged]
- wolfendin 2y agoIn a hurricane, 90% of the damage is in distribution, the only thing that fixes it are boots on the ground
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 2y agoI'm struggling to come up with a Democrat run city that demonstrates they govern better than anyone else. Chicago? New York? San Fransisco? Baltimore?
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoI’m struggling to come up with republican run cities in general. Mesa, Jacksonville, Colorado Springs, Fairbanks? Any other ones?
- freen 2y agoTake any metric you like: child mortality, educational outcomes, hunger, per capita income, media income, purchasing power parity, you name it. Compare those cities to traditionally Republican run states. Try it. There is a very very good reason why the best and brightest leave rural republican areas and move to the big cities: it is better in almost every way we measure human wellbeing.
- anonfordays 2y agoYou cannot compare states to cities. >Compare those cities to traditionally Republican run states The South was traditionally ran by the Democratic Party.
- slater- 2y ago[flagged]
- KingOfCoders 2y agoGermany has overengineered and expensive utilities, but I'm happy sometimes that all power and telephone lines are underground.
- k8sToGo 2y agoUtilities are much cheaper in Germany than for example California. At least it was when I lived there.
- galdosdi 2y agoAnother poster pointed out that the cost of moving lines underground is really only a one time fee of about $5 per person per month for about 10 years. This does not seem too expensive for a permanent increase in reliability. One thing I will miss about living in Manhattan is the power never ever went out, at least not due to the distribution grid. And, it's a minor, minor thing, but as a bonus, having lines out of sight is very nice.
- jncfhnb 2y agoPer person per month for 10 years is a ridiculous unit to choose. Europe benefits from being very dense. The US grid is way more spread out. Undergrounding costs are around $1M per mile. The US has millions of miles of lines.
- xboxnolifes 2y agoLook at the numbers and it's not so crazy. This is a last mile issue, not a full grid issue.
- ndr42 2y agoI‘m curious, Texas seems to get a lot of sun - how common are private solar installations on the roofs? Combined with a battery you could lower your electricity bill and would be safe from this kind of problem. In my neighbourhood in northern germany about 5% of the houses have them. They pay for themself in about 5-10 years. edit: spelling
- blantonl 2y agoSolar installations in suburb cities in Texas are extremely common.
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoAre you suggesting that the vast ghettoes and low-income areas in Houston all install solar panels and Tesla Powerwalls? Many people in hardest-hit areas struggle paycheck to paycheck- if they're working at all.
- ndr42 2y agoNo I do not. I was not aware of the vast ghettoes. But some kind of middle class has to exist as the article headline talks about air conditioning - in Germany air conditioning is not common even in the upper middle class - this may be different in the US - idk.
- laweijfmvo 2y agoin the US many people expect their houses to always be between 68 and 72 degrees fahrenheit (or some other ridiculous numbers), year round.
- nemomarx 2y agoAir conditioning is very common and very cheap here - you get little window units for a few hundred and such.
- chasd00 2y ago“Vast ghetto” is a bit extreme but a lot of the gulf coast is very poor indeed. Texas has plenty of very poor neighborhoods as does Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida right in prime hurricane paths.
- bob1029 2y agoMy power was out until ~4am today. Incredibly, my fiber internet never went down the entire time. That part of my infrastructure is buried and they back it all up with proper generators.
- matt_heimer 2y agoI'm in the affected area. The contractors that they used to install the last mile fiber didn't do a great job. They not only damaged other cables like the coax but "buried" isn't how I'd describe the fiber. In the easements the fiber is only a couple inches below ground at most, in some places it was above ground and I had to bury it myself. I do wish Comcast (and Tmobile) would use generators instead of battery backups. We get about 4 hours of internet when the power is out and I run the home router off of a generator.
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoRelated: Houston Is on a Path to an All-Out Power Crisis https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40951647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40951647
- dang 2y agoRecent and related: Houston Is on a Path to an All-Out Power Crisis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40951647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40951647 - July 2024 (68 comments)
- spamizbad 2y agoWhy is Texas infrastructure so brittle? It’s a wealthy, prosperous state unencumbered by regulation or legacy stuff that tends to cause issues in other states.
- genocidicbunny 2y agoSeems like this was a problem with last mile delivery, which isn't a uniquely Texas problem. Oregon and California have had plenty of major outages due to wind and cold snaps in the last few years as well.
- while_true_ 2y agoNot true about California. Outages in storms are highly localized. Some rural areas get power turned off but only when fire risk is extreme. There have been no large cities without power for a week like Houston.
- genocidicbunny 2y agoNot a week, but just earlier this year there was a storm in the SF Bay Area where there were many people without power for 3-5 days. Most of the damage was due to last mile transmission failures from debris. And I'm sure that had the storm been in the hurricane strengths, the damage would have been even worse. Portland too had that major cold snap where power was out due to last mile transmission problems. I know at least one city in the metro area that sped up their plans to bury their power transmission because during that storm large parts of that city were without power for days.
- msie 2y agoWe all know...
- krapp 2y agoYou've answered your own question. The incentives of capitalism "unencumbered by regulation" and the necessities of investing in and maintaining infrastructure are often at odds.
- gunapologist99 2y agoIn spite of (or perhaps because of) the constant repairs after a major storm every 10 to 15 years, Houston actually has one of the lowest energy costs in the United States: https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/data/averageenergyprices_selectedareas_table.htm https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/data/averageenergyprices... For some real numbers for Houston specifically in the middle of the hot summer months, input 77002 (a Houston metro zip code) into Texas govt's electricity provider search engine https://powertochoose.org/ https://powertochoose.org/ ; it will show most plans are around 12-14 cents per kwh, down to 10.9 c/kwh on a variable 12 month 500kWh plan.
- laweijfmvo 2y agodoes it matter how cheap it is if it’s not available?
- gunapologist99 2y agoThat's something you could decide for yourself and vote by moving there or away. Many residents of Houston would gladly tolerate an occasional outage to not see prices go up, and critical services like emergency services, hospitals, and datacenters all have generators, so it seems to be something that can be worked around with a bit of effort and expense.
- arp242 2y ago> Many residents of Houston would gladly tolerate an occasional outage to not see prices go up Source on that? Also, when did people vote for this issue specifically? Was there a referendum about this?
- protastus 2y agoIt seems that it's cheap because they're cutting corners on infrastructure.
- kibwen 2y agoAnd then go begging for disaster relief and emergency funds from the federal government, so the rest of the country gets to cover the costs. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
- slater- 2y ago[flagged]
- slater 2y agoInteresting username.
- kkfx 2y agoMy two takes: - due to climate change alone AND business predatory practice alone infrastructure are very vulnerable and there is no easy fix at infra level; - p.v. and batteries for large slices of the inhabited planet where they are meaningful AT CHINESE PRICES are an expensive backup that can pay back itself even without emergencies. Corollary: doing our best to annihilate companies who makes absurdly high margins on p.v. and batteries and do individually our best to be covered. Personally I eat my fingers a bit when 4 years ago I decide for a small (8kWh LFP) backup with only 5kWp p.v. instead of 10kWp/30kWh witch would give me enough also in winter in case of a blackouts. In summer I can be autonomous since local climate is hot only during the day, no need of A/C from early evening to mid-morning. Corollary of the corollary: built modern well insulated homes is needed, not only to consume less as a whole society but also to live well individually.
- adolph 2y agoSomething that did go well is water movement. It was neat to see the bayous rise to just below the flood point then stay right there as the weirs of flood mitigation ponds take off the excess. I’m looking forward to checking out the data to compare the rain/flood gauges compared to past events. [0] Thank you federal tax payers for contributing to this effort! WRT the local utility, I can appreciate that they have some hard choices ahead. There are two branches of possible futures: one where many more people are charging cars etc and require more power to domiciles; two where battery deployment at the edge bears the brunt of peak loads and requires a lower constant trickle or even nearly nothing as PV is more broadly deployed. 0. https://www.harriscountyfws.org/ https://www.harriscountyfws.org/
- more_corn 2y agoGet rooftop solar and a battery.
- jmyeet 2y agoNote: this isn't a power grid issue. Texas is famously not connected to the national grid [1]. This is an issue of downed power lines. An obvious question is: why doesn't Houston have underground power? It turns out that Houston really shouldn't exist. It's built on a swamp. It's also hot so heat dissipation is an issue. So it's expensive [2]. Houston is also famous for its lack of zoning [3]. Combine this with a lot of really old neighbourhoods that don't, for example, have sufficient setbacks to bury cabling and you have a hot mess. It's also worth pointing out that Houston is one of the worst urban sprawls on the planet. It's almost as large as LA with slightly more than half the population. It's accurate to describe Houston as a low-lying car-dependent hellscape built on a swarmp with no urban planning in a hurricane zone. [1]: https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2021-07-22/texas-electric-grid-february-blackouts-the-disconnect https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2021-07-22/texas-elec... [2]: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/05/24/burying-power-lines-are-costly-difficult-process-in-houston-heres-why/ https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/05/24/burying-... [3]: https://therealdeal.com/texas/2023/03/16/dont-say-the-z-word/ https://therealdeal.com/texas/2023/03/16/dont-say-the-z-word...
- AlexandrB 2y ago> It's almost as large as LA with slightly more than half the population. Geez. I thought LA was quite bad already.
- jmyeet 2y agoHere are some comparisons I like to use that really put things in perspective, particlarly for Europeans: 1. The Greater Houston Metro Area is larger than Wales; 2. Greater Houston has fewer people than London but is almost twenty times the area; 3. IIRC if liad out the Greater Houston area over England it would stretch from London to Birmingham; 4. Greater Houston is, in fact, larger than several states including New Jersey; 5. Greater Houston is more than half the size of Switzerland.
- mock-possum 2y agoOne of humanity’s greatest accomplishments is putting huge cities in spots where we really have no business living - I mean just look at Vegas. The world itself is actively discouraging us from setting up shop there, but humans are like naaaahhhhh just slap some concrete over it, it’ll be fine. Nobody really likes to think about the consequences of building in spaces where it’s not well-suited to human habitation at that scale - or about who too-commonly pays the price.
- Scoutmaster 2y agoYesterday I spoke with a Generac (home standby generator) dealership owner in the Houston area, and they are getting swamped with calls (80 a minute at times) and they have 20 people manning the phones. One of the problems I see is that people aren't prepared. I live my life by the motto "Be Prepared" (see username). One of the Merit Badges I teach is Emergency Preparedness, and with camping, my Scouts are okay going without electricity and electronics. Even if you're not interested or able to participate in Scouting, swing by your local Scout Shop and pick up an Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge booklet and learn what you can do to Be Prepared. It doesn't extend to just hurricanes.
- AlbertCory 2y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEb9cL3-kf0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEb9cL3-kf0
- jmward01 2y agoWe live in a society and preparing as a group means that we can efficiently use resources and focus our energy on things that are interesting instead of everyone being overly prepared. Everyone going out and buying a generator is expensive, wasteful and incredibly inefficient. Why isn't it reasonable to just expect reliable infrastructure and quick responses to issues?
- BenjiWiebe 2y agoMaybe it's unreasonable to expect reliable infrastructure after getting many examples of how the infrastructure is not reliable. You and I are highly unlikely to be able to fix the infrastructure; we can, however, be prepared for doing without it.
- fellowniusmonk 2y agoDue to occasional failures we should now throw our hands up and label systemic undercutting, and poor governance as unfixable. Because things are bad sometimes let's excuse unlimited incompetence when expected situations are ignored and cause inevitable catastrophic failure. Sometimes plans fail so let's excuse failure to plan. When a huge storm blows through with minimal fuss because preparation and regulation was taken seriously let's downplay the risk and deregulate and dismantle safety apperatus as they are clearly unneeded.... It goes on and on... why did we hire these security guys we never have breaches, why did we hire these sys and network admins everything always works, why do we have all these pesky earthquake codes no buildings have fallen recently... After nearly 40 years I still can't understand the mental gymnastics required to be so obdurate. It's just nihilistic slash and burn thinking isn't it.
- wnevets 2y agotexas and not having power go together like a horse and carriage
- iftheshoefitss 2y ago[flagged]
- Molitor5901 2y agoDeregulation is a terrible idea for life supporting and necessary utilities, power specifically. By deregulating the market, everyone is forced to compete for a finite amount of transmission ability for low profits, each one trying to undercut the other IMO. It completely destabilized the Texas power market. At this point, it may be worth considering putting the Texas power grid into some type of federal receivership.
- AtlasBarfed 2y agoTexans basically should view grid independent home solar as a minimum requirement. Between this and the ice storm s couple years ago Texas has shown itself incapable of utility grade service. In general I think the disaster resilience afforded by home solar is simply not valued enough by subsidies and incentives policies.
- standardUser 2y agoTexas is a highly urbanized state and a significant number of families don't have the ability to install home solar, so it cannot be viewed as 'minimum requirement' and some other solution is neccesary.
- chgs 2y agoMaybe people could club together and form some form of group which provides that minimum requirement for the whole area. You could perhaps have an equal say in the group, and have a meeting every few years where you elect some people to run the thing on your behalf.
- quitit 2y agoMy guess is it'll meet the same fate as municipal broadband. (i.e. It is explicitly outlawed in Texas.¹) 1. https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/2005/ut/002.00.000054.00.html https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/2005/ut/002.00.000054.00....
- 2y ago
- S_A_P 2y agoI was directly hit by Beryl, and just got power back today. For us, the issue was trees taking out the power lines. We live on acreage with a lot of pecan trees, and lost 4 of them in the storm. 2 of them toppled over on the power line. I personally don't think that Centerpoint has done a bad job here, Houston is a large land mass and there is no way that you can get everyone back online with as much wind damage as we sustained much quicker than what happened. This storm was so much different than Harvey, which was a flood event. We did have some flooding but nowhere near that level with Beryl. Really, its just one of those situations that just sucks, and there isnt a whole lot you can really do about it.
- londons_explore 2y agoOne option is multiple feeds to most streets. Ie. If power lines at one end of the street get felled by a tree, power just comes from the other end of the street instead. High voltage distribution lines can be done the same - every transformer getting fed from at least 2 places. Obviously with many lines down, such a system might leave everyone with power, but total power deliverable is still lower. For that, you need smart metering that integrates with consumers distribution boards such that at times of stress on the power network, less important loads are turned off by default (ie. Pool heaters), whilst lighting and fridges stay on. Nowhere in the US does that for consumers yet I don't think.
- ars 2y ago> Ie. If power lines at one end of the street get felled by a tree, power just comes from the other end of the street instead. That would imply a live wire under a tree. Not a good idea. > Nowhere in the US does that for consumers yet I don't think. Tons of places do that, in exchange for a lower rate you install a box that lets the utility shut off your AC when demand is very high. It's available in almost all states last time I checked.
- kjkjadksj 2y agoWhy don’t they keep up with the trees? Other places with trees they will use chainsaws from helicopters and regular mowing to maintain the transmission lines. In neighborhoods they cut very generous Vs in trees that are close to wires.
- xyst 2y agoI’m surprised people still live in that area. The aftermath of Harvey in 2017 would have been the eye opener. Yet the area sees a massive influx of residents every year [1] Any area near coast line is going to disappear over the next couple of decades due to climate change. [1] https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2024/03/19/texas-population-increase-htx https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2024/03/19/texas-populat...
- nocoiner 2y agoHouston isn’t particularly near the coast, believe it or not. And the flood control infrastructure has been dramatically improved since Harvey. This occurrence seems to be a failure of the local transmission and distribution monopoly.
- vel0city 2y agoI grew up with a Houston mailing address and was less than 5mi from the water.
- dingosity 2y agoJust imagine how horrible this would be if climate change were real.
- ryzvonusef 2y agoAre roof top solar panels able to survive hurricanes? I think for a rich sunny region like texas, best answer is resiliant microgrids with rooftop solar and powerwalls.
- kjkjadksj 2y agoConsidering the entire roof might come off, I doubt it.
- Sam713 2y agoI just got power back late last night (6th day of outage). This comes directly on the heels of a prior power outage that also lasted nearly a week from a severe storm back in May. CNP seems to have majorly dropped the ball on this one from a logistics and disaster preparedness standpoint (especially considering they had a trial run only 2 months ago). Unlike the storm in May, a) Beryl was forecasted to impact Houston at least 24 hrs beforehand, b) its hurricane season so CNP should be ready to go. They routinely seem to lag behind on electrical grid improvements and maintenance. From my personal observations, a lot of outages could have been prevented by better tree management. (Anecdotally, I had a tree catch fire behind my house last year due to limbs contacting lines; I called CNP to report and they did nothing; said to watch it and let it burn out. They haven’t trimmed trees on the line behind my house in the 4 years i’ve lived here). With Beryl, it has become painfully apparent that CNP was simply not logistically prepared to handle the impact of hurricanes, and did not prepare in advance, a major failure for a utility provider operating on the gulf coast. These are not black swan events. Root cause seems to point towards prioritizing shareholder value over providing services, and lack of regulation enabled by Texas laissez-faire handling of utility providers. A short timeline: In 2014 CNP reported ‘excess revenue’ but were allowed to keep it https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/10/20/texas-puc-leaves-centerpoints-excess-revenue-untouched/ https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/10/20/texas-puc-leave.... In 2020 a major activist investor put a large stake in CNP https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/12/14/billionaire-activist-investor-takes-stake-in.html https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/12/14/billiona.... The owner of that private equity group also happens to be a major donor to the political party of the current Texas governor, who appoints the commissioners who regulate public utilities (https://theintercept.com/2020/10/15/paul-singer-hedge-fund-republican-governors-association-rga/ https://theintercept.com/2020/10/15/paul-singer-hedge-fund-r...). Texas electric utilities are regulated in theory, but in practice this regulation seems lax or at least not proactive. This was readily apparent in the 2021 freeze (Uri): https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2021/10/21/texas-regulators-mandate-best-efforts-avoid-power-plant-failures/6117322001/ https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2021/10/21/texas-re... And later in 2021 CNP also made direct political donations to Texas politicians: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/04/texas-energy-industry-donations-legislature/ https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/04/texas-energy-industr.... It doesn’t seem like Texas has done much to improve regulation since the 2021 failure. https://www.tpr.org/environment/2022-11-17/texas-lawmakers-are-considering-a-power-grid-fix-that-ignores-last-years-blackout https://www.tpr.org/environment/2022-11-17/texas-lawmakers-a... https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/why-texass-power-grid-still-hasnt-been-fixed https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/why... It’s hard to see how these apparent conflicts of interest (and lack of regulation or consequences) don’t create an environment where a state supported monopoly can abuse their position by putting short term profits first.
- kazinator 2y ago> “Seniors in assisted living and nursing homes should have been more of a priority for power restoration.” That shows a gaping misunderstanding of electricity. For that to be possible in this situation, the assisted living and nursing homes would have to have their own, dedicated power plant that is knocked out by a hurricane, separate from the knocked-out power plants for anything else. Then you prioritize fixing that power plant first. That would require them to be on their own dedicated circuits, separate from everything else in the same city block. And for the problem to be local to them, and not the outage of a big power station far away. Idea: maybe these homes should have their own wind, solar and generators, not to be 100% reliant on the grid.
- deepsun 2y agoIn Europe (at least some countries), all electricity consumers belong to one of 3 categories. E.g. medical facilities are 1 category higher than regular homes. Each category has their own reliability targets, although I don't think policy specifies how that target is met: separate circuits or a backup generator. My point -- it's all already known for 50+ years. And I believe it's all must be already done in Texas as well.
- neilknowsbest 2y agoI don't think there is any misunderstanding. The issues are with local distribution, not generation or transmission. So it's simply a matter of prioritizing the restoration of distribution circuits which serve hospitals, seniors, etc. They don't need to have separate circuits and separate power plants that exclusively serve those loads in order for them to be prioritized.
- assisiss 2y ago[flagged]