Texas’ Big Freeze: The 2021 Power Crisis and the Lessons Learned One Year Later 34

[bimr]

Link

 

[CWB1]

I'm not sure if I have ever seen a govt owned or controlled utility stateside and we have relatively cheap and reliable power, even out in rather extremely rural areas. Even in areas where govt has granted a monopoly the utility has been a separate entity IME regardless if for-profit or non.

 

[electricpete]

I stumbled over that phrase "government run providers", too.

In the US that's probably limited to TVA and BPA (they're involved in generation anyway, maybe not transmission and distribution).

But from the context, I think cranky was talking about Texas (correct?), which is of course deregulated. In spite of what the word "deregulation" conveys, it can be certainly argued that the process of deregulation as implemented did indeed move much of the important decision-making and control from the utilities onto the ERCOT and PUC . Ercot is not strictly speaking a government organization, but they're closely managed by PUC which is. So in a lot of respects, the Texas deregulated system is more government run than a typical regulated system.


=====================================
(2B)+(2B)' ?

 

[JohnRBaker]

And if it wasn't for the rural electrification initiatives during the depression, which were government funded programs, many parts of the country would still be eating their evening meals by candle light.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[1503-44]

Strangely enough, and right at the heart of Texas you will find Austin Energy Co. the City of Austin owned power generator and distributor.

https://coautilities.com/wps/wcm/co...tact-us/coa-utility-departments/austin-energy

Grand Coulee Dam, owned and operated by Breau of Reclamation


Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[Guest102023]

HydroQuebec has the cheapest rates in N America. Their stations are first class (I should know, I’ve visited a few).

There’s been a relentless drumbeat of ‘government bad, private interests good’ and demands for self-regulation (an oxymoron) for 4 decades. ‘Trickle-down economics’ really means consumers being pissed on.

Governments can be good or not, but they are there for reasons, and the most important reason is to protect citizens. State-controlled entities have been incessantly attacked as ‘monopolies’ when desire for monopoly is intrinsic to corporations.

Nobody here remember Enron, the ‘smartest guys in the room’ who gamed the system through agency capture and market manipulation, with catastrophic results?

"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"

 

[dik]

I've never heard it said better... kudos...

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[CWB1]

Interesting reading about Austin Energy, it appears their executive staff does indeed report up to the politicians on the city council. Here in the midwest and NE US we have many that appear similar with a city-electric'ish name, sometimes even a page on the city website, etc but are independently operated co-ops with ownership shares tied to each property deed. Many including myself are big fans bc their rates are usually within a penny or three of production or wholesale purchase, last I knew my parents were paying ~$0.035/kWh which makes both electric heating and A/C very cheap.

State-controlled entities have been incessantly attacked as ‘monopolies’

Stating that many utilities are monopolies isn't an attack, its simply fact. Municipalities commonly grant utility monopolies as part of long-term contracts limiting rate increases. Unfortunately those "limited" rate increases tend to outpace the market so there's no benefit, only detriment.

 

[1503-44]

I worked on a project to install several pipeline connections and a meter station into Austin's largest generation station back in the early 90s. They were a great client and knew their stuff. Did everything as fairly as they could and were eager to document that they hade made the proper decisions at every point. I hope that hasn't changed.

Monopolies do have their purposes, especially when avoiding needless duplication of vast infrastructures. When properly managed, they produce the lowest cost results and are usually far better than public utility commissions regulating profits of privatised operations. That introduces a useless layer of politicians with no knowledge of the underlying operations that blindly accept anything placed on their desks and are more likely to serve Wall Street rather than the consumers they were supposed to protect.

One northeast PUC was actually going to arrange financing of of an electric connection to Qubec's power source (actually a great idea ... but) for the privatised local distributors and then stick their consumers for all the costs involved. Fortunately the adjacent state vetoed the proposed route on environmental grounds. I'd say that they definitely overstep their reason to exist when they start financing privatised companies' dream projects.

Baker, don't get too nostalgic. Those candlelight dinners may return soon.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[cranky108]

We can point fingers at individual companies/corporations/governments that run parts or whole electric companies in the Texas grid. But the problem is not those companies. It is the PUC, the grid operator, and DOE who make the larger decisions, and there is where the problems lye.
If a company is told to be 30% renewable by 2030, and knowing renewable costs more, and is less reliable, would you buy anything but the lowest cost projects?
After all, you can't recover your costs if the PUC does not approve it.

I have worked for investor owned, and a transmission coop, and a municipal electric, and by far the worst is the COOP. And where are the COOP's money controlled from? What material specifications are controlled by?

I have no problem identifying where the Texas power grid problems come from. The news speak also tells a tale of it's own.

 

[CWB1]

Monopolies do have their purposes, especially when avoiding needless duplication of vast infrastructures. When properly managed, they produce the lowest cost results and are usually far better than public utility commissions regulating profits of privatised operations. That introduces a useless layer of politicians with no knowledge of the underlying operations that blindly accept anything placed on their desks and are more likely to serve Wall Street rather than the consumers they were supposed to protect.

You have that backwards. PUCs exist to create and manage the monopolies. In free markets they either have minimal duties or disappear entirely.

Stateside we have well proven the negative effect of utility monopolies. The past decade or so there has been a major push to deregulate further to end the monopolies, and many folks including myself have benefitted. Given the option, we switched PoCos and saved ~20%. Outages have also gotten noticeably fewer (still frequent). The local debacle ongoing currently is over cable/internet. A national provider long held the local monopoly so service was acceptable IMHO but high cost, pretty common for utilities in US cities IME. Two'ish years ago the cities here jumped onto the fiber-is-better bandwagon and are currently hanging lines so soon we will have a choice between the old monopoly's cable or whoever finally decides to lease the city-owned fiber, which has had zero interest from providers. Topping off the debacle, many are rather upset that not only did taxpayers spend millions hanging fiber which may not be used, the contractor hung it in a new third tier well below both the existing power and cable/phone lines. In my backyard its ~8' up which makes for a rather absurd eyesore.

 

[JohnRBaker]

An update on the status of the Texas power grid:

Texas grid takes emergency actions to avoid blackouts amid heatwave

https://news.yahoo.com/texas-power-breaks-record-heat-122512984.html

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Fischstabchen]

It isn't an emergency if that is just the normal state.

 

[1503-44]

It's not backwards. PUCS used to regulate monopolies, but now they exist to keep private companies in business, retain their jobs and as did TX PUC did last winter, let rates skyrocket unbounded. Its been like that since or well before Enron nearly whiped out California before they imploded themselves.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[cranky108]

Enron had a point for California, but the state did not listen.
This time Texas did not listen, and it is not Enron, who is delivering the message.
Is the rest of the nation lessioning?

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

The thing is they say renewables are expensive and unpredictable.

The unpredictable I sort of go with but solar when it's hot it's generally sunny.

It's the cost of a solar installation which is putting the handbrake on things.

They have made the regs so that it costs about 4 times as much to fit one than the hardware costs.

Want to put a generator in... No problem safety concerns over fuel not a problem.

Put 6kw of panels on the roof and a 4.5kw inverter and all hell lets loose with paper work and regulation.

They don't want individuals making electricity to use themselves or sell. So they rig things to make it economically unviable. If something new turns up that makes it viable they will just change things so it isn't.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Often the regulations which are impacting the installation of solar panels are the result of the local power companies trying to protect their monopoly of the delivering electricity to the consumer. Our #2 son lives in LA where they have a municipal power company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Shortly after buying his house back in 2014 he decided to have solar panels installed. It took him about a year to decide who to do business with and get the panels installed, but then he had to wait for the city to come out and inspect the installation of the panels before the power company would be allowed to connect them to the service panel. He had to wait nearly six months before the city sent an inspector. And then it was another three or four months before anyone from LA Power and Water came to make the actual connection. Afterwards, the contractor who installed the panels explained to him that if he had lived outside of LA or down in Orange county where Southern California Edison provided the electricity, that he would have been on the grid in a month or less, but that the city of LA had no incentive to approve hookups in a timely manner because to do so just meant that the city would be selling less electricity. Fortunately, his agreement with the solar panel company was that he didn't have to start paying for them until they were actually on-line, producing power so it didn't cost him anything out-of-pocket except for the savings in his electric bill which was delayed by almost a year.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[1503-44]

Solar is the last thing that power companies want in the hands of individuals. Its the 3D printer of electricity for the masses. Play the game, fill in the forms, wait however long it takes, just do it now while it's still legal.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[LuK13]

John,

Your post made me think of liquidated damages. If I were in that position I may have drafted up an "invoice" for LDs just to be cheeky about it and vent my frustration, but it is unfortunate that we can not provide some "motivation" for slow to act governments.

On the other end of the spectrum a town I use to live in has municipal gas and electric, and recently rolled out municipal fiber internet. Rock bottom rates and great service, I have a friend that still lives there and they love the cheap fiber internet, I am a bit jealous.

Governments are run by people, so some will be poorly run and others well run.

Meanwhile where I live the private electric company keeps claiming they need to increase rates to pay for maintenance. The long and the short of it is they basically neglected tree trimming for a decade and got lucky with it until a few storms caused major outages. The Asplundh trucks have become a more regular sight so I know they are spending the money, but there is never any talk of clawing back some of those executive bonuses from the last decade, or reducing future payouts... Its just short sighted greed that all of the rate payers are expected to finance once the problems that were put off come home to roost.

 

[1503-44]

Exactly. Pay the shareholders is always first priority.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[Guest102023]

Governments are run by people

That is certainly debatable. There’s been a takeover of government, and depending on your perspective it was either hostile or friendly.

Americans are ruled by a minority party doing everything it can to lock in that rule.

Note to senators: The Handmaids Tale was intended as a warning, not a blueprint.

"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"