I've worked with electric utility regulators all over North America and the UK. They all seem from the outside to be mind bogglingly incompetent. ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest. We should be asking why are these regulators in general are so bad. I'm going to blame the voters. Voters think electricity is easy. They think a KWh of energy is all the same but you can't store electricity, you have to generate the exact same amount that you use. They don't consider transportation and distribution issues. Voters are short sighted, and don't want to start investing now for something that may not come on line for 5 or 10 years. Many people don't understand why they can't sell electricity from their solar panels, which are generating electricity at the same time everyone else's panels are, for the same peak price that the utility will charge them when the sun isn't shining. We get bizarre incentives where a utility will set prices such that there will be a peak demand so that they can justify building billions worth peaker plants because they get a guaranteed return on capital expenditures (Oklahoma Gas and Electric). We get standards that are written like the telephone game. Group A wants X, group B thinks Y is the best way to do it, C thinks Z is the best implementation, Z is passed on to the engineers and it makes no sense*. I blame the voters, and the media that informs them, for not spending the time to understand the issues. Politicians can't lead when everyone thinks they know more than the experts.
*2 Actual example : Scottish home energy display devices, the subsidy was for the utility buying the devices not for actually deploying them. So they were purchased and stored in a warehouse. I was laughed at for pointing out that the devices mandated to be provided in homes where the power has been shut off require the household power to run (UK electric meter prepay top up devices). After delaying ratification of the standard I was physically threatened because some companies already had the contract to build these prepay top up devices that were never going to work.
ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest.
The Eastern and Western US grids actually supplying power demonstrate otherwise. Especially since the storm that is crippling Texas is also hitting all of the states North of Texas and not causing widespread outages.
The same grid collapse due to cold happened in 1989, and 2011. The post-mortem report on the 2011 incident listed the things ERCOT needed to require the power generators to do, and they did exactly none of them. ERCOT could have made those changes a requirement for being connected to the grid, and didn't. The Texas legislature could have passed a law requiring it, and they didn't. The executive branch in Texas could have written a regulation to require it, and they didn't.
This is absolutely not a "both sides" thing. People are dying because of one side's anti-regulatory fervor.
The Eastern and Western US grids have had other equally spectacular wide-scale failures whilst the Texas grid remained up - they just happened at different times (and from somewhat different causes, including ones tied directly to the extra complexity of running a large, heavily interconnected grid). Someone could just as easily point to those failures in isolation as proof the Texas grid is better. Also, as far as I can tell there was no grid collapse due to cold in 1989 and 2011, just rolling blackouts comparable to the ones California had last summer.
The Eastern and Western US grids have had other equally spectacular wide-scale failures whilst the Texas grid remained up - they just happened at different times (and from somewhat different causes, including ones tied directly to the extra complexity of running a large, heavily interconnected grid). Someone could just as easily point to those failures in isolation as proof the Texas grid is better. Also, as far as I can tell there was no grid collapse due to cold in 1989 and 2011, just rolling blackouts comparable to the ones California had last summer.
Two points:
1. That discounts the times the E&W grids were able to prevent major problems due to the ability to move power around, so simply saying it happens eleswhere is not a strong case for why Texas' grid design is a good one.
2. Had Texas been part of the national grid the rolling blackouts may not have been necessary.
The real mark though is: how did the grid operators learn from those incidents and take corrective action to make sure that the same cause won't have the same effects?
We know the answer to that for ERCOT - they got a nice detailed report of corrective action they could take to prevent exactly what is happening right now, and they did fuck-all with it. Now people are dying of exposure in their own homes.
Every one of those motherfuckers, as well as the governor that appointed them, deserves a spectacular pub
I've worked with electric utility regulators all over North America and the UK. They all seem from the outside to be mind bogglingly incompetent. ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest. We should be asking why are these regulators in general are so bad. I'm going to blame the voters. Voters think electricity is easy.
Somewhere is my collection of memorabilia from working in the power industry I have a sticker I got while working in Switzerland that translates to "Why build power plants? I get my electricity from a wall plug..." Pterry much sums up most peoples attitude towards the electric power industry.
You're pretty much correct, but with home PV solar? The marketing is a big part of the problem. There was such a push to "Go Green!" and for everyone to put up solar panels (with "no money down!" via solar leases or loans if you couldn't afford them otherwise) -- people just expected to see their electric bills drop or vanish after they put them in.
Reality is a little bit different. Unless you live in a really sunny part of the nation that has high kilowatt per hour rates, it's a very long term investment.
The regulation is being done by industry insiders instead of independent government bodies. The "Public Utility Commission of Texas" appears to be the regulatory body, but my guess is they have little or no power.
It's the same sort of problem that caused those Boeing planes to crash. Regulator Capture. e.g. the Fox in charge of the hen house.
ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest.
Demonstrably false. The power grid in the midwest doesn't fall over every time we get a winter storm. In fact, we have a shitload of snow blanketing everything from Wyoming to New York right now, and millions of people still have heat and light reliably. ERCOT is worse than the rest. QED.
It really is the voters - left and right (Score:4, Interesting)
*2 Actual example : Scottish home energy display devices, the subsidy was for the utility buying the devices not for actually deploying them. So they were purchased and stored in a warehouse.
I was laughed at for pointing out that the devices mandated to be provided in homes where the power has been shut off require the household power to run (UK electric meter prepay top up devices). After delaying ratification of the standard I was physically threatened because some companies already had the contract to build these prepay top up devices that were never going to work.
Re:It really is the voters - left and right (Score:5, Informative)
ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest.
The Eastern and Western US grids actually supplying power demonstrate otherwise. Especially since the storm that is crippling Texas is also hitting all of the states North of Texas and not causing widespread outages.
The same grid collapse due to cold happened in 1989, and 2011. The post-mortem report on the 2011 incident listed the things ERCOT needed to require the power generators to do, and they did exactly none of them. ERCOT could have made those changes a requirement for being connected to the grid, and didn't. The Texas legislature could have passed a law requiring it, and they didn't. The executive branch in Texas could have written a regulation to require it, and they didn't.
This is absolutely not a "both sides" thing. People are dying because of one side's anti-regulatory fervor.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:It really is the voters - left and right (Score:4, Informative)
The Eastern and Western US grids have had other equally spectacular wide-scale failures whilst the Texas grid remained up - they just happened at different times (and from somewhat different causes, including ones tied directly to the extra complexity of running a large, heavily interconnected grid). Someone could just as easily point to those failures in isolation as proof the Texas grid is better. Also, as far as I can tell there was no grid collapse due to cold in 1989 and 2011, just rolling blackouts comparable to the ones California had last summer.
Re: (Score:2)
The Eastern and Western US grids have had other equally spectacular wide-scale failures whilst the Texas grid remained up - they just happened at different times (and from somewhat different causes, including ones tied directly to the extra complexity of running a large, heavily interconnected grid). Someone could just as easily point to those failures in isolation as proof the Texas grid is better. Also, as far as I can tell there was no grid collapse due to cold in 1989 and 2011, just rolling blackouts comparable to the ones California had last summer.
Two points:
1. That discounts the times the E&W grids were able to prevent major problems due to the ability to move power around, so simply saying it happens eleswhere is not a strong case for why Texas' grid design is a good one.
2. Had Texas been part of the national grid the rolling blackouts may not have been necessary.
Re: (Score:2)
The real mark though is: how did the grid operators learn from those incidents and take corrective action to make sure that the same cause won't have the same effects?
We know the answer to that for ERCOT - they got a nice detailed report of corrective action they could take to prevent exactly what is happening right now, and they did fuck-all with it. Now people are dying of exposure in their own homes.
Every one of those motherfuckers, as well as the governor that appointed them, deserves a spectacular pub
Re: (Score:2)
I've worked with electric utility regulators all over North America and the UK. They all seem from the outside to be mind bogglingly incompetent. ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest. We should be asking why are these regulators in general are so bad. I'm going to blame the voters. Voters think electricity is easy.
Somewhere is my collection of memorabilia from working in the power industry I have a sticker I got while working in Switzerland that translates to "Why build power plants? I get my electricity from a wall plug..." Pterry much sums up most peoples attitude towards the electric power industry.
Re: (Score:2)
You're pretty much correct, but with home PV solar? The marketing is a big part of the problem. There was such a push to "Go Green!" and for everyone to put up solar panels (with "no money down!" via solar leases or loans if you couldn't afford them otherwise) -- people just expected to see their electric bills drop or vanish after they put them in.
Reality is a little bit different. Unless you live in a really sunny part of the nation that has high kilowatt per hour rates, it's a very long term investment.
ERCOT isn't a regulator (Score:2)
The regulation is being done by industry insiders instead of independent government bodies. The "Public Utility Commission of Texas" appears to be the regulatory body, but my guess is they have little or no power.
It's the same sort of problem that caused those Boeing planes to crash. Regulator Capture. e.g. the Fox in charge of the hen house.
Re: (Score:2)
ERCOT in Texas is no better and no worse than the rest.
Demonstrably false. The power grid in the midwest doesn't fall over every time we get a winter storm. In fact, we have a shitload of snow blanketing everything from Wyoming to New York right now, and millions of people still have heat and light reliably. ERCOT is worse than the rest. QED.