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

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bimr

Civil/Environmental
Feb 25, 2003
9,313
 
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This is something that has been brought up that hasn't been mentioned. ERCOT issues a notice when capacity is within 3 GW of demand. When China kicked out all their cryptomines, many moved to Texas for cheap electricity and support from the Governor. Texas now has around 3-5 GW of cryptomining load. That is a huge amount of load increase on a system with a peak around 77 GW. In my opinion, the cryptomining load should have been limited. Or maybe even banned like how it is in some countries. Iran was banning mining during the summers. If you killed all the mining load, I believe there would be enough capacity for this heat wave.
 
I have never worked out what these freedoms actually are.

I certainly feel more free in an ex Soviet country than I did in the UK.

And the US people I know have alot more hoops to jump through than I did in the UK.

I am willing to accept it might be things your free to do that I wouldn't want to do anyway.

The fact that I can do my own wiring and plumbing in my own house and nobody cares is pretty high on my personal freedom likes.
 
I think USA freedom has degenerated to mostly packing, no masks, freedom to propagate disinformation and legal weed in some states.

Here it's problematic to insult the king or the Pope and attempting to hold a referendum on declaring independence of your province, and anything like sedition or insurrection is going to mean time in the dungeon, but otherwise anyone will be hard pressed to come up with naming any other "freedoms" exclusive to the USA. As long as I don't DUI, keep my shirt on in town and iI don't connect to the electric grid, pretty much anything goes. Connecting to grid does require approval by the power co.

BTW, I don't know anyone that wants to move there anymore. Those that have been deprived of freedom guard it the most.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."
 
I actually this year became the owner of a device capable of discharging a cartridge.

You can get concealed carry pistol licenses here. But not many bother.

Here is my weapon of mass mole destruction.

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Very effective at dealing with them humanly. Doesn't half scare the cat and the rest of the family when it lets loose at 3am.

No license required buy them in the local DIY shop. If I had that in the house in the UK that would be 5 years in prison.
 
Speaking of cryptomining...

Energy use from US cryptomining firms is contributing to rising utility bills

An investigation revealed that companies use enough energy to power Houston, and contribute to growing carbon emissions



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
 
IR highlighted it in the nad engines thread. I can buy a camshaft bearing tool but I have to pay an additional 50% ($50) for a sticker that says my new tool is going to give me cancer. Even worse, I have to pay taxes on that $50 (another $5). Freedumb!
 
The crap we can buy, remember that old NDT die pen cleaner which to my knowledge you needed a spacesuit on to use 20 years ago in the UK. On the shelf in the local shop. Same league as winding out a double digit Currie colbolt60 source in the workshop toilets doing overtime of a weekend in the 80's cause they were stinking.

You can also buy cyanide flares for vermin control.
 
RE method of dealing with the adj getting there knickers in a twist with mole hills involved det cord.

The now fertiliser mole in my garden was seriously pissing me off.

None of this dicking around with capture traps. Just square round the hill. And lift the clod out.run hole exposed put the gun in pointing towards the hill mass. Gingerly arm it and put a pallet over the top. 3 hours later a big 9mm blank puts a pressure pulse through the whole network.

Blew about a meter out the hole and blew gas out the other hills.

Risk assessment has been seriously upgraded with this thing.
 
Really wish I could get my hands on some px and det cord though.


We have loads of big rocks and tree stumps that need sorted which would take half a day with bang.

But even we don't have that much freedom

 
I routinely forgive Yanks their ignorance; what can I expect if their sources of information are the education system and US media?

The irony of this is that you decry the US media while puppeting their tired, false narratives and calling others ignorant. I don't fear mass (or any) shootings either bc realistically, the odds of a family member being caught in one stateside is effectively zero even here in Detroit. You might as well rant about US healthcare, college costs, millennials, or engine quality bc they're all equally non-issues today. As you said, "At least try to identify the actual problems." A good rule of thumb - if the mainstream media or Facebook claim something is an issue it generally isn't, and if they wont discuss an issue then its a big one.

Having lived on four continents and visited quite a few countries that suffered dictatorships, I'd focus your rants toward regaining basic human rights. In recent years yours has disarmed citizens en-masse, limited movement within the country, seized funds from non-violent protest groups, and outlawed "offensive" speech among other abuses. Granted, you did gain the right to buy beer from a non-govt store, but not sure I'd consider that a major victory worth waving the flag.

As to American freedoms, the first few differences between myself and friends overseas that come to mind - 1. I own all oil and mineral rights under my land unless I sell/lease/gift them. 2. Govt officialdom is not granted carte-blanche access to my land and can be arrested for trespassing. 3. My children's names dont have to come from a govt-approved list. 4. Access to public colleges and subsidies is protected for all, not limited to those govt deems likely to succeed. 5. Important - I dont have to justify my actions for anything but govt MUST justify theirs. If I want to (literally) own and shoot a functional artillery piece or buy dynamite I apply for a license with no stated purpose and govt MUST either grant it or justify the denial based on the facts and circumstances unique to me. But I digress from Texas power...
 
CWB1,

Don't feed the troll. It is pointless to get into an argument with someone whose basis is a national stereotype. If you remove poor performing schools, the U.S. educational system is on par with the rest of the world. States like Minnesota, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and North Dakota all rate extremely high on international math test and would rank high as nations. If you want to talk about the media, it isn't different and is just as spun as found elsewhere.
 
While this thread may appear toxic I think it's working. The apparent de-evolution of the thread is because this problem is not an engineering problem, it's a politics and perception problem.
 
If the problems were dealt with in an engineer ING fashion it would be dealt with in a 30 min meeting

Currently it's 6 years and everyone world wide is screwed
 

I'm pretty sure that's not the case... we are dealing with 'The Ballad of East and West' problem...

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

-Dik
 
And I say it's a perception problem because so far nothing has happened. The grid has withstood the heat wave, there have been no blackouts.
 
It's a bit like a patent is ok until the haptic vein cuts loose and they are dead 32 seconds on average later.

Engineering tech term f@cked comes to mind
 
I like the analogy, Alistair...

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

-Dik
 
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