Yearning for Cozumel weather

[lionfish-eater]

As someone who flew from TX to Coz today , maybe I should take offense at this remark (I don’t, my trip was planned days ago ).

Btw, Gasoline generators probably would not have done that much good because If many people used them you would have run out of gasoline as I gather many gas stations did. Try thinking about the logistics for keeping 4 days of gasoline on hand for a whole house generator. Gasoline storage is tricky without blowing your house up , and difficult to store well even with stabilizer.

Pretty much doesn’t matter where you live in the US, someone who knows gas and power can imagine a scenario where you are out of power for days unless you have a a diesel generator and a 500 gallon storage tank (which is probably illegal in 95 percent of homes in the US).

EDIT, btw I am truly not trying to criticize you individually. This stuff is complicated. 15+ years ago , First Energy Ohio was doing a lousy job of tree trimming and knocked out a huge chunk of the Eastern Interconnect. Think people were blaming Canada for days until they realized problem originated in Ohio. Has nothing to do with anything, but in slightly related matter the last great pandemic “Spanish Influenza” probably started in Kansas.

I am really not trying to start an argument. I am talking about all this from the standpoint of an electricity and gas markets expert who has given this some thought because he has an elderly mother who is difficult to evacuate for various logistics purposes.

Sorry, I didn't explain that I have an LP genny with a quick connect that I can hook up to my 500 gal tank that I always keep at least half full.
But my friend has a gas one and he bought a 55 gal drum of aviation gas that lasts for years without degrading.
It gets really cold up here so we need to be prepared.

 

[cozcharlie]

Sorry, I didn't explain that I have an LP genny with a quick connect that I can hook up to my 500 gal tank that I always keep at least half full.
But my friend has a gas one and he bought a 55 gal drum of aviation gas that lasts for years without degrading.
It gets really cold up here so we need to be prepared.

Lucky you have access to propane. i have a friend who sells propane for the local electric coop (why an electric coop sells propane I don’t know , but whatever works ). They have installed a bunch of generac backup generators for homes outside of our small towns that run off propane. Propane not an option for those of us that live in town. They actually installed a whole house generator for us in town, but it is set up for natural gas. I am pretty comfortable they can keep gas running after a hurricane (knock on wood), but with this cold event I was glad I didn’t have to lean on our local utility. Was always concerned local pressure might drop too low for our generator. I had friends who ran theirs hard in the next town and were OK, but I have a feeling they cut it pretty close.

Texas actually caused large scale electricity outages in northern Mexico because our natural gas exports to them dropped off hard. That was even before TX Governor tried to restrict gas exports out of the state. Really obvious why he tried this dubious legal move given we were desperate for gas (other politicians would have likely tried same thing) , but I have real concerns that it could really hurt us (TX and US) in medium and long run. President of Mexico was already unhappy that despite being a historically large oil and gas producer MX now gets something like half their natural gas from the US. This just gives him another excuse to try to favor Pemex, which is horribly inefficient and the most indebted oil company in the world ($100 billion ). Flows from TX to MX had already dropped a lot during the crisis so I am not sure how much the order accomplished other than pissing off MX (I really don’t know—On paper it has potential to help TX, but a lot of times massive changes in gas flows just aren’t possible , especially given you already had massive price signals trying to reroute what you could. ).

 

[ggunn]

Like the one I bought years ago and haven't had to use yet, because my state invests in decent infrastructure.

FWIW, here in Austin before last week's events my power had been out for a total of two or three hours in the past 25 years. Infrastructure that is "decent" and that which is built to withstand a once in 50 to 100 years event are two different things.

 

[gopbroek]

FWIW, here in Austin before last week's events my power had been out for a total of two or three hours in the past 25 years. Infrastructure that is "decent" and that which is built to withstand a once in 50 to 100 years event are two different things.

I have had a similar experience here over the last 25 years. Yesterday it was 70 degrees.

 

[cozcharlie]

I have had a similar experience here over the last 25 years. Yesterday it was 70 degrees.

Sadly those of us closer to the coast haven’t had as good of luck. During Harvey I think my condo in Houston was without power for ~10 days (mostly just due to building flooding, grid was out less ). House in hometown was out for 5 days I think due to issues on the grid.

 

[ggunn]

Sadly those of us closer to the coast haven’t had as good of luck. During Harvey I think my condo in Houston was without power for ~10 days (mostly just due to building flooding, grid was out less ). House in hometown was out for 5 days I think due to issues on the grid.

A close friend of mine who lives in Houston was dark for 5 weeks after Hurricane (I'm pretty sure) Ike, but that was due to overhead medium voltage distribution lines blowing down and/or being taken out by fallen trees. There's no easy or cheap remedy for that.

 

[gopbroek]

While everyone seems to be slamming the Texas power providers, my provider sent this out today which overall seemed pretty decent of them. The section on roll over to a variable rate would only have occurred if customers contract had expired and they had failed to renew the contract or switched providers. My contract was due for renewal next month and I got a renewal notice from them last week in the middle of this, I renewed at my old rate of 10.1 cents a KW, which was nice of them. Current fixed rate contracts are running 8% higher this week .

Good Afternoon,

We are aware that there is an issue with the accuracy of the usage data during the blackout period. Those issues are being corrected with your local utility and we will be reviewing bills to make sure they are correct. If there are issues that have already occurred we will work with you to make sure you are only charged for usage actually consumed. Please note that the graphs in your myaccount portal are currently inaccurate and should be ignored until the data issue is corrected. We are also suspending the weekly usage email until this data issue is resolved. Moreover, please be aware that we will be honoring the terms in your agreement when it comes to billing. This means, everyone who is on a fixed rate plan will not get any unexpected surge in their upcoming bills related to a higher energy rate. Those who have rolled over onto the variable month to month plan will pay the fixed rate we set back in January for February usage periods. We encourage you to view your contract documents which can be found in past emails you have received or in your myaccount portal for further details. Lastly, please keep in mind removing autopay will add an additional $3 a month charge to your bill as outlined in your service agreements. Thank you for your continued patience.

Sincerely,

Patrick Woodson
President

 

[ggunn]

While everyone seems to be slamming the Texas power providers, my provider sent this out today which overall seemed pretty decent of them.

ERCOT found themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place that fateful Monday morning around 2AM. If they hadn't cut the load when they did or within an alarmingly very few minutes thereafter, the Texas grid would have gone into cascading blackout that would have taken the entire network down for weeks or months and the cost of recovery would have been orders of magnitude higher. Lots of people have been slamming them for what happened, but under the circumstances they had very few options, none of them good. They picked what was the lesser by far of two evils.

In hindsight, of course it would have been far less of a catastrophe had the grid support resources all been protected better against the cold, but ERCOT has no appropriations authority, nor can they demand resources from the legislature. I think a lot of people are going to lose their jobs, but that won't fix the problem, and it may be in a month, a year, or a decade, or longer, but a reoccurrence is inevitable.

 

[DandyDon]

Britain has a daily power surge when a popular soap opera finishes and 1½ to 1¾ million teapots are started, complicated by the BBC not sticking to schedule.

​

 

[ggunn]

Britain has a daily power surge when a popular soap opera finishes and 1½ to 1¾ million teapots are started, complicated by the BBC not sticking to schedule.

And water pressure drops during Super Bowl commercials.