How is Ercot to blame?

[Burnadell]

We all are upset with Ercot, but, it seems to me that Ercot simply manages the flow of energy on the grid. When there is a shortage of energy coming into the grid, what choices do they have? I am not trying to deflect criricism from them, but the problem appears to be a shortage of power due to generator plants being compromised because of the unprecidented freezing weather. The coal powered plant closings obviously contributed to the shortage of generated power.

Can someone (Smeone? ) splain what I am missing here? Does Ercot really deserve all the criticism or is it just knee jerk reactions to blame them?

[flatlander]

The narrative is to blame ERCOT to point out what an abysmal failure the Texas power gird has become (lie) to force Texas to join the rest of the nation.

JMHO

[Burnadell]

The narrative is to blame ERCOT to point out what an abysmal failure the Texas power gird has become (lie) to force Texas to join the rest of the nation.

JMHO

Well, obviously we have failed tring to go it alone.

[sqiggy]

Yes, I believe they do. Like you said, they control the electric coming on the grid. Believe they could have done a better job at dispersion of what electric they had. People that were cut off directly from ERCOT for days is unacceptable.

[wdixon]

I don't blame them for the outages, But them trying to make this political with the "green energy" vs. fossil fuel and their 2 top dogs do not live in Texas , I personally find unacceptable.

[Dusty Britches]

I don't know but I think it was a systematic failure ranging from cultural demands for unreliable weather based energy (wind and sun), to reducing coal, natural gas, and nuclear capability, to dramatic increase in population.

I also just found out that ERCOT board members don't live in Texas. Honestly, that kind of ticks me off.

[sotx]

Got this from Mark Allen our Cibolo Disrict 5 Rep.
So what is going on in Texas?
Background:
Texas has its own electricity grid managed by ERCOT. This grid was put into place to avoid federal regulations/oversight. It privatized electricity. This power grid does not link to any other grid and does not share or receive resources from other grids like every other federally regulated grid does.
ERCOT has a board of 15 people. 5 don’t even live in Texas, including the chair. ERCOT is overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC). PUC board members are appointed by our governor.
Individual utility companies basically have a monopoly in different areas (example: in Bexar county you can only use CPS Energy).
Current issues:
ERCOT, according to their 2021 winter forecast GROSSLY underestimated the worst case scenario by LEAVING OUT THE 2011 data points.
Only 94 of 600 generators were winter weatherized this year.
Wind turbines were not weatherized at all. These are being blamed, but even with the weatherization issues they are still producing more than anticipated.
ERCOT willingly deleted the 2011 data points so they could sell off excess energy (natural gas) and make a profit.
When offered the contracts back at a premium, ERCOT refused in order to keep their money. They instead announced mandatory “rolling blackouts” with no end date.
The CEO of ERCOT said on Tuesday night he had no idea when power would be restored but claimed his agency managed to avoid an even bigger catastrophe by switching it off.
More than 3million people in Texas are still without power in subzero temperatures for the fourth day in a row.
Most egregiously, the PUC and ERCOT met Monday night in the midst of millions of people having no power to vote ON A RATE HIKE. Their rationale was “there is increased demand and limited supply.” It is their fault there is limited supply.
In addition to no electricity, many of us have no water.
The outages have crippled water pressure which also threatens drinking water supply. Millions are without water completely.
People are also being told to boil water before they drink it or use it for cooking because it is no longer safe, due to the shortage in power plants. Many can't because they do not have power - and stores where they could buy bottled water are closed or empty.
The names and bios of ERCOT board members were taken down from their website because the "board members and executive team were receiving threats." This is what they made a priority, not the people freezing to death.

[Playa]

It is really hard to decipher the facts and opinions. There are acute failures and long term strategic failures that need to be considered. The following is my opinion and pea brained understanding so take it with a grain of salt.

1) ERCOT EXEC board memeber are not residents of Texas and do not have to live with their decisions

2) Long term/strategic- ERCOT was the decider on increasing green energy that ultimately lead to the demise of coal facilities. Because of artificially propping up wind/solar via subsidies (some can operate breakeven at $0/unit) they made impossible for coal to operate competitively. Consumers have seen 0 reduction in cost due to subsidies.

3) long term- ERCOT opted to invest in wind/solar rather than winterizing fossil fuel based plants

4) ERCOT factored unreliable and un scalable wind/solar as a significant portion of Texas’ base power needs

5)ERCOT elected to cut power to areas of west Texas producing nat gas causing instrument failure that reduced natural gas capacity for the entire state that not only impacted those with electrical sourced heat but also nat gas furnace individuals.

6) ERCOT knew or should have known that the grid could not support the potential demand and should have sounded the alarm bells and encouraged rationing prior to the end of the weekend when things went from bad to worse

[cap50948]

The privatized electrical grid allows us to have relatively lower prices for electricity compared to the rest of the US. However, they can adjust the price when they want as long as it is approved by state government.

There are to many hands in the cookie jar with most of them believing it could never get that cold in Texas to affect all of it at once. Not winterizing the generators and turbines is an ignorant thing to do.

It's like most things, money rules and they'll cut corners anywhere it will save a buck for them to make 2 bucks.

[bigbad243]

It is really hard to decipher the facts and opinions. There are acute failures and long term strategic failures that need to be considered. The following is my opinion and pea brained understanding so take it with a grain of salt.

1) ERCOT EXEC board memeber are not residents of Texas and do not have to live with their decisions

2) Long term/strategic- ERCOT was the decider on increasing green energy that ultimately lead to the demise of coal facilities. Because of artificially propping up wind/solar via subsidies (some can operate breakeven at $0/unit) they made impossible for coal to operate competitively. Consumers have seen 0 reduction in cost due to subsidies.

3) long term- ERCOT opted to invest in wind/solar rather than winterizing fossil fuel based plants

4) ERCOT factored unreliable and un scalable wind/solar as a significant portion of Texas’ base power needs

5)ERCOT elected to cut power to areas of west Texas producing nat gas causing instrument failure that reduced natural gas capacity for the entire state that not only impacted those with electrical sourced heat but also nat gas furnace individuals.

6) ERCOT knew or should have known that the grid could not support the potential demand and should have sounded the alarm bells and encouraged rationing prior to the end of the weekend when things went from bad to worse

Yes this right here.

[Rick]

I don't understand what it matters if the board members don't live in Texas, i have been seeing that comment a lot, not only here but a lot of places. It is not uncommon for members of a board to not live in a state where the headquarters are. I know people want someone to blame when something goes wrong, but what does where they live really have to do w the issues at hand?

[BrianL]

I think you are pot on. ERCOT did what they needed to to prevent a major outage and will be beat over the head for it. US is a becoming the biggest pot of whiners on the planet. Maybe too easy and first world living are spoiling us to the point no one wants to plan for bad times. If some foreign enemy (or a sun solar flare) sets off a well placed EMP most are all screwed!

Start planning now to be able to live for a WHOLE WEEK without power and water. Simple things like having a NG or LP fireplace and gas cook stove installed. Be able to hook up a small generator to run your fan to mix the warm air thru your house. Have a few little buddy heaters or propane heaters and several 20# bottles of propane. I had enough to supply 3 houses. Heaters are cheap in the summer or in the spring clearance sales.

[deerwatcher51]

The following was posted on Facebook by a guy I know who has been involved in the power industry for over 45 years:

We may have been closer to an ERCOT wide blackout than has been reported. I had heard that coal plants tripping off line was an issue. While I am not privy to the list of plants that tripped, I did reach out to some folks in the industry that might have some info. I had a friend tell me that their coal plant tripped off line because of low frequency (usually set around 95% of 60 hertz). This happens to protect the generator from damage and is done automatically with no human intervention. This only happens when there is a lot more load in the system (i.e. ERCOT) than available generation to meet it. If all that is true, we should be thanking ERCOT for pulling our cart out of the ditch and saving our bacon (so to speak).

Soon after the grid (a term referring to the transmission and distribution power lines that bring power from the generator to the end use customer) began to experience problems, ERCOT began to issue load interruption orders. Almost immediately, wind and solar power was identified by some as the problem. While renewables may have been a contributing factor to the problem, they do not appear to be the primary cause.

I do believe that subsidies for renewables are a real issue in our society. Subsidies artificially incent certain actions and investments to obtain an end. While renewables are beneficial and have a place in out electric system, we must fully understand and balance the detriments to the electric system reliability as well as the benefits to the environment. Contrary to the Governor's assertion that we (Texans) have made those calls, at best I would say that government in the form of the legislature, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and special interest groups have made or influenced where we are today in ERCOT with renewables.

So many water plants were tripped of line due to rolling brownouts. Many Texans were without (and are still without) water because of a supply issue and not because their pipes had busted. ERCOT does not make those calls, your local transmission provider does. ERCOT issues an order to transmission companies to reduce a certain amount of load and how to do it is the transmission company's decision, not ERCOT's. My personal opinion is that water supply is an essential service and should have some form of uninterruptible power source to keep it available at all times. I hope this becomes and issue at the forefront of the discussions from the recent events.

Another major contributor to our calamity was that numerous gas plants tripped off line due to low gas pressure which is a gas supply problem and not a gas plant or ERCOT problem. ERCOT does not regulate or control natural gas pipelines. The Texas Railroad Commission does.

While it seems ERCOT was doing what they should have been doing in these cases, the fact is that there are other issues where ERCOT is most likely culpable. I have not personally seen the list of plants that were not available because they were in outage which means they were down to do routine maintenance. I have heard there were a significant number of plants unavailable due to planned outages which ERCOT has to approve those. If this proves to be accurate, then this could have been a major contributor and ERCOT certainly had influence if not control over that.

[WItoTX]

Burandell, see Playa's response. The problem is years and years of poor decisions by ERCOT that put our grid into a position where we were "seconds from catastrophic failure and months of blackouts", using ERCOT's own words.

[Playa]

I don't understand what it matters if the board members don't live in Texas, i have been seeing that comment a lot, not only here but a lot of places. It is not uncommon for members of a board to not live in a state where the headquarters are. I know people want someone to blame when something goes wrong, but what does where they live really have to do w the issues at hand?

Because their decisions do not impact them and they have no vested interest.