Folks in OK and TX

[MaximGun]

Why would it not be?

The power is being paid for. You are just choosing the lowest rate meter to pull it from. When Griddy is ultra cheap you use that.  When fixed rates are cheaper you use those.

What is the difference between this and have solar panels on your roof and switching to those when the sun is up?

Obviously if you did this for more than a month or two you would use armoured cable between the RCDs of each house.

[Heinrich]

Put that to scale and see how sustainable it would be. Units, measures and divisions for a man's castle are of nature. You can't buddy up and suck the juice in a high aggregate. This is third world savagery. Places look like Mexico.

[MaximGun]

You don't need to.

People who repair their own homes, appliances and cars don't scale either.  But those who do are 10k a year better off.

Nothing immoral about taking your electricity from the cheapest source. No reason you should not switch to your neighbours RCD.  You can bury the armoured cable with a trenching tool and there would be no sign of the cable.

[GiftOfGod]

Maxim, instead of telling Texans to "be prepared", why not tell the Texan utilities to "be prepared"?


Some Texas politicians known for kissing the asses of corporations, including Ted Cruz, are now saying that Joe and Jose need to be bailed out of their power bills and that regulations need to be put in place to prevent bills from getting that high.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-demands-regulation-after-high-energy-bills-2021-2

[james03]

How many amps can you draw out of a standard US socket without cooking it or throwing an RCD?

20 amps.

Better idea. Let power plants ignore enviro crap and spin up before the turbines fail..

[MaximGun]

Maxim, instead of telling Texans to "be prepared", why not tell the Texan utilities to "be prepared".

Because you cannot prepare for freak events.  Too expensive. Japan build 10 foot Tsunami wall and then have a freak 15 foot Tsunami.  Then they raise them to 20 foot and no Tsunani happens for 200 years. Concrete crumbles and has to be renewed.  Tsunami not remember by anyone living, build new 10 foot wall.

Huge Volcano and pyroclastic cloud happens.  Nips run to the sea to escape and the wall gets in the way.  All burnt to death.

If Texas prepared for rare polar Vortexs then Guatemala would prepare for the next iceage.

They ain't going to do that.  Profit motive and imbalance of risk reward.  Nothing can be done about that

My extension cable idea is self financing. Savings in the first year pay for the cable and then some.

[GiftOfGod]

Maxim, instead of telling Texans to "be prepared", why not tell the Texan utilities to "be prepared".

Because you cannot prepare for freak events.  Too expensive. Japan build 10 foot Tsunami wall and then have a freak 15 foot Tsunami.  Then they raise them to 20 foot and no Tsunani happens for 200 years. Concrete crumbles and has to be renewed.  Tsunami not remember by anyone living, build new 10 foot wall.

Huge Volcano and pyroclastic cloud happens.  Nips run to the sea to escape and the wall gets in the way.  All burnt to death.

If Texas prepared for rare polar Vortexs then Guatemala would prepare for the next iceage.

They ain't going to do that.  Profit motive and imbalance of risk reward.  Nothing can be done about that

My extension cable idea is self financing. Savings in the first year pay for the cable and then some.

Nothing can be done about that? First-world governments (such as 49 other states, probably a Federal regulation) require preparedness for 100-year events. Interestingly enough, Texas has experienced weather this bad and worse in recent years. The difference is that they didn't last as long and it wasn't state-wide.

Yes, it costs more money but if Texans want to be a world-wide embarrassment with children dying of cold, then that's on them. And judging by the public outcry and even Republicans promising increased regulation, they aren't OK with what happened.

[GiftOfGod]

UPDATE: The Texas power grid just denied Griddy access to the electricity market, effectively bankrupting the company.

https://www.griddy.com/


Griddy was a bad boy but ERCOT and the state of Texas were every bigger a**holes. They will try to blame Griddy, windmills, and Biden...anything to avoid admitting fault in their uber free-market utopian vision.

[MaximGun]

Bad boy how?

They were completely transparent.

It's like blaming a bitcoin exchange if it comes crashing down from $50,000 to 50c.  Not the fault of the exchange.

Griddy made zero profit from the higher prices.

Everyone is a capitalist until they run out of money. There is no way this tiny firm is to blame.

State control run amok.

[GiftOfGod]

Bad boy how?

When you charge old and working people thousands of dollars per month for a necessity, then you are a bad boy.

[MaximGun]

They simply charged them the market rate.

All those customers agreed to pay the market rate.

Most of the time they were making huge savings.

They had no hedge and did not manage the market risk.

Real simple.  Shut down your power and go 19th Century for the week.  0 times an expensive rate is zero.  Go live with a neighbour or friend.

Griddy were Absolutely transparent about the pricing model.

Protect idiots and you'll only  get more idiots.

[MaximGun]

Electricity is not a necessity.  Some Texans could not access it at ANY rate.  In North Korea they don't have it much of the time.

If you cannot survive for a few days without electric then you really need to wonder how you would survive any disaster.

[james03]

They will try to blame Griddy, windmills, and Biden

Try?  Abbott asked for the enviro exemptions and Biden's (Emhoff's) administration did not grant them.  That's a fact.

The wind mills crashed the grid and took down the natural gas compressor stations.  That's a fact.  Before Odumbo those stations ran on natural gas.  You now have to run them on electricity, which makes no sense, but that's the Fed reg.

Natural gas produced electricity DOUBLED during this time.  The story of natural gas freezing up is total BS.  Simply show us the pipeline pressure.  Guarantee it was doing fine until the windmills crashed the grid.  If natural gas "froze", the pipeline pressure graph would be all over the news.

[GiftOfGod]

Electricity is not a necessity.

Is heat a necessity?
Is water a necessity?
By your logic, no; people can cut down their trees to burn them for heat and break through ice at the local river for water.

[MaximGun]

Nobody died of thirst.

Only morons froze to death.

It was cold for a week.  Their homes were not flooded.

People need to act before and during  bad weather and learn about them.  Give it some thought.  Be aware that modern systems can fail. 

Fill your bathtub when it looks possible pipes could freeze.  Wear layers of clothing.  Wear a hat in bed.  Wear fingerless gloves during the day.  You body is constantly giving off 100 Watts.  Use that to stay warm.

It was minus 8C not minus 30 as it is in Minnesota.  Inside the flat and apartment it was not below freezing.

You can easily live for a week without electric power.  People did for hundreds of years.   How did ancestors get through long winters without it?

You can melt snow for cooking.  You only need to drink 1 litre per day


Bath holds 80 to 100 litres of water.  Buckets hold 10 litres each.

It's stupidity and panic that kill in these situations.  Wrap up, stay moving to keep warm.  If Ernest Shackleton and all of his men can survive for months in Antarctic seas in an upturned boat, then Texans can survive a week of cold weather.