Houston will have extreme cold and temperatures could drop below 20 (MERGED) (Center: taxes, safe)

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by Ghost Town

Back to the serious topic:

When is the power coming back on? CenterPoint VP says it may vary

HOUSTON — There are still more than a million people without power in the Houston area. Everyone wants to know when it will be back on.

Even though some of the ice and snow is melting, Kenneth Mercado, VP for CenterPoint Electric Utilities says it just won’t be enough to get everyone their power back today, tonight or possibly even tomorrow.

The good news -- CenterPoint got power back on for a lot of people at around 4 a.m. Tuesday. We’re told they focused on neighborhoods that lost power first. The bad news is – CenterPoint has to shut other people’s power off to balance the grid.

Those rotating outages will continue tonight.

“How are you determining which neighborhoods are going to lose power next?” we asked him.

“It’s tricky because it is manual,” he said. “We’re looking at areas that haven’t been exposed. It’s a lot of driving and it’s a lot of work. It will be spread out all over. We’ll balance it across the entire area.”

https://www.khou.com/article/weather...0-2a45c43dd2d6

Why is their rolling blackout plan treated like a classified secret? Make it public. It should be online. We shouldn't be having to ask how they determine who gets power in the first place. Part of the power outage issues is people not knowing when or how long it will be. If I know my power was going to go out in an hour and be out for 24 hours, I would make arrangements to stay with a friend (who knew their power would be on for next 24 hours).

The lies and deception from officials remind me of covid last year. 14 days to flatten the curve. And now we're on day 300+. They were saying Monday morning that power could be out rest of the day and perhaps until late Tuesday morning. What happened to that forecast? Then it was maybe lasting til Wednesday. Now they are saying this weekend. I think, like the initial covid lockdowns, they knew good and well it would be longer but didn't want to create an uproar. I told my partner Monday morning it was a lie and we will be dealing with outages into the weekend. Soon they will start talking about deeper damage and long-term repairs.


Just to document what they were saying Monday, because the historical revisionism will soon begin by officials.

"Some utility companies that deliver electricity to Texans are telling customers to expect power outages through Monday night and potentially into Tuesday." Potentially.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...ackouts-texas/


"AEP Texas begins controlled power outages, to continue over next 24 hours"
https://www.krgv.com/news/aep-texas-...next-24-hours/


"CenterPoint Energy is now telling customers who have not had their power restored yet to expect outages to last throughout the day."
http://emcgazette.com/centerpoint-en...-p4768-214.htm

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

That's not the sense of an outlier that I meant. Ghost grouped COVID and an arctic blast with those. Which no one with any sense would do. The 15-17 floods aren't outliers from one another, those were a series of problems that with a lingering cause that's still being worked out. I agree with you, this isn't what the list Ghost made consisted of.

In fact, outlier isn't even the word. Entirely unrelated is more like it.

I was joking, there was just something funny about listing three consecutive years and calling them outliers.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

Why is their rolling blackout plan treated like a classified secret? Make it public. It should be online. We shouldn't be having to ask how they determine who gets power in the first place. Part of the power outage issues is people not knowing when or how long it will be. If I know my power was going to go out in an hour and be out for 24 hours, I would make arrangements to stay with a friend (who knew their power would be on for next 24 hours).



The lies and deception from officials remind me of covid last year. 14 days to flatten the curve. And now we're on day 300+. They were saying Monday morning that power could be out rest of the day and perhaps until late Tuesday morning. What happened to that forecast? Then it was maybe lasting til Wednesday. Now they are saying this weekend. I think, like the initial covid lockdowns, they knew good and well it would be longer but didn't want to create an uproar. I told my partner Monday morning it was a lie and we will be dealing with outages into the weekend. Soon they will start talking about deeper damage and long-term repairs.

This is pretty much what I said on the Texas forum:
https://www.city-data.com/forum/60424800-post167.html

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

I was joking, there was just something funny about listing three consecutive years and calling them outliers.

Sowwyyyyy

[Ghost Town]

Hard-hit Cypress neighborhoods facing another cold night without water and power, finding supplies nearly impossible
A man and his pregnant wife drove more than 20 miles to try and find bottled water but had to settle for 2 bottles of Gatorade.

CYPRESS, Texas — Across Cypress, frustrations in this historic winter storm reaching a fever pitch.

"It's bulls**t," said Paul Nguyen. "I feel like we shouldn't be going through this. It's been, like, three days."

Three days and counting, and things only getting worse for many families. The power grid has been anything but reliable.

"For awhile, it was hectic," said Coby McGee. "We didn't know if we were going to have fuel or the generator would be working."

For some, not having power comes with deadly consequences.

"It's life or death," McGee said. "It's not a luxury for him. He has to have it to breathe."

https://www.khou.com/article/news/lo...8-e9e9ccf27a42

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by elnina

This is pretty much what I said on the Texas forum:
https://www.city-data.com/forum/60424800-post167.html

Yep. They knew this was coming for ten days in advance yet the first I heard that energy might be an issue and we needed to cut back was Sunday, the last day above freezing.



But I share in the lack of preparedness. I have thought many times since Ike that I need to get a generator and install a transfer switch. Will I do it now or will I blow it off once this is over?



I also wish a week ago I had turned off the water mains, drained the pipes, and flew to Cozumel for a week of diving. After 36 hours of no power, I was looking at flight options Tuesday afternoon and almost booked a flight out that evening. I always thought a last minute flight would be outrageous but at 1pm, Southwest was showing a 6pm flight to Cancun for $111. In the end, I was too afraid to leave, knowing that pipe leaks often don't show up til things warm up, and I couldn't risk a pipe gushing water in a vacant house for a week!

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

Why is their rolling blackout plan treated like a classified secret? Make it public. It should be online. We shouldn't be having to ask how they determine who gets power in the first place. Part of the power outage issues is people not knowing when or how long it will be. If I know my power was going to go out in an hour and be out for 24 hours, I would make arrangements to stay with a friend (who knew their power would be on for next 24 hours).

The lies and deception from officials remind me of covid last year. 14 days to flatten the curve. And now we're on day 300+. They were saying Monday morning that power could be out rest of the day and perhaps until late Tuesday morning. What happened to that forecast? Then it was maybe lasting til Wednesday. Now they are saying this weekend. I think, like the initial covid lockdowns, they knew good and well it would be longer but didn't want to create an uproar. I told my partner Monday morning it was a lie and we will be dealing with outages into the weekend. Soon they will start talking about deeper damage and long-term repairs.


Just to document what they were saying Monday, because the historical revisionism will soon begin by officials.

"Some utility companies that deliver electricity to Texans are telling customers to expect power outages through Monday night and potentially into Tuesday." Potentially.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...ackouts-texas/


"AEP Texas begins controlled power outages, to continue over next 24 hours"
https://www.krgv.com/news/aep-texas-...next-24-hours/


"CenterPoint Energy is now telling customers who have not had their power restored yet to expect outages to last throughout the day."
CenterPoint Energy Warns Customers To Expect Power Outages To Last Monday - MC Gazette

I doubt ERCOT knew much about the possibility of half of the Permian gas output freezing up and going offline, along with other gas producing areas, reducing gas deliverability by something like 50%. Nor did the power generators expect that gas would be in short supply.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by WRM20

I doubt ERCOT knew much about the possibility of half of the Permian gas output freezing up and going offline, along with other gas producing areas, reducing gas deliverability by something like 50%. Nor did the power generators expect that gas would be in short supply.

That in itself is enough of a reason for heads to roll and the organization to be reformed. The very essence of their existence is to know such things.

[NoHyping]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

That in itself is enough of a reason for heads to roll and the organization to be reformed. The very essence of their existence is to know such things.

Basically, it seems it is the state of Texas also to blame. It wanted to keep itself separate from the rest of the US and Canada to AVOID FEDERAL REGULATION and CREATED ITS OWN STATE GRID by itself that had it go-it-alone.....

Heads rolling is about NOT WANTING REGULATIONS that is as if a state motto and gains relocation of Companies who then do not have to abide by those in other states. Tax incentives and lower-requirements in general also. NBC news seemed to show in the below News segment this and claim in a large part.... why Texas wanted to do it on its own and maybe it would have been handy if the state ever went to break-away from the USA? (that I add) Never say never when messin' with Texas right....

What NBC News said.

- clearly Texas wanted to create its own grid TO AVOID FEDERAL REGULATIONS.
- Federal Regulations ALSO FORCE Electric producers in this country TO FURTHER WINTERIZE for situations like this.
- that means Power Plants in Texas have not necessarily taken the precautions that Maine or Minnesota or
even Arizona take so they can keep operating in frigid temps.
- also while OTHER STATES WITH INTERCONNECTED GRIDS .... CAN ESSENTIALLY BORROW POWER FROM
EACH OTHER when demand spikes.
- TEXAS GO-ALONE APPROACH LEFT IT NOWHERE TO BORROW FROM.
- now it is exposing the VULNERABILITIES OF THAT UNDER-REGULATED SYSTEM.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvredgJPgi8


Many have heard of past US Power-grid failures of past decades like NYC and black-out. That showed flaws and what can be-done-better and steps taken. Still our National Grid is far from not vulnerable. Just one thing Texas cannot say at this stage.... it did and does better.

I am waiting to see if yet a Emergency opens up more Federal aid AGAIN to have to head to Texas that already booms at some expense to other states who then lost some industries and of course people for cheaper, warmer winters in general and cheaper cost in the short-run that may not last as nothing ever gets cheaper really in cost, but for maybe something made like TV's that could get cheaper over time etc. We certainly know how commodities cost can rise and fall.... making Power is not really one of them over time. Infrastructure never gets cheaper .... the more we need to build then maintain.

[Dopo]

FYI,
it's "unregulated" not "under-regulated"