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Every Texas electricity expert I know is sending me warnings about rolling blackouts in Texas on Monday/Tuesday. Be prepared for a potentially tough 2 days as the state power grid hits its capacity limits. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/12/texas-winter-weather/
2/ The Texas electric market works great when there is excess capacity, but goes nuts when there is a shortage. Currently Texas REPs are paying their customers to switch to competitors! https://twitter.com/64Wps/status/1360645890915106818?s=19
3/ In Texas power plants auction off their electricity to REPs who then sell it to consumers. Monday's price has hit the system max of $9K! Small REPs will go bankrupt: https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1360613304130011139?s=19
4/4 The Texas power grid woes shouldn't be a shock. Even our average price of $38 per mwh keeps growing while the rest of the nation drops due to chronic under-capacity issues: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Why-Texas-missed-a-nationwide-drop-in-power-prices-14966381.php
5/ TIL that a few of my friends use @GoGriddy, which allows individuals to pay wholesale prices for electricity. 360 days a year you likely save ~15% on electricity vs a traditional REP. The other five you get to pay $500 a night when the grid maxes out. https://twitter.com/GoGriddy/status/1360746203080630273?s=20
6/ Finally seeing some local coverage of the impending rolling blackouts in Texas:
Blackouts possible as frigid temps strain Houston power grid https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/Blackouts-possible-as-frigid-temps-strain-power-15950596.php
Blackouts possible as frigid temps strain Houston power grid https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/Blackouts-possible-as-frigid-temps-strain-power-15950596.php
7/ This afternoon the Texas electrical grid operator asked for voluntary electricity rationing: https://twitter.com/ERCOT_ISO/status/1360964580126699526?s=19
8/ And the power outages have begun. The multiple storm outages may lessen the need for demand based outages. 120K without power: https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas
9/ Houston is expected to be without power for the rest of the day: https://twitter.com/SylvesterTurner/status/1361288139948646405?s=19
10/ Utilities now confirming, power will not be restored in Houston today: https://twitter.com/CNPalerts/status/1361336331520081921?s=19
11/ The biggest problem in Texas at this moment is that 30 GW of electricity production went offline last night. 26GW of mostly natural gas and 4 GW of wind. So much for the resilience of fossil fuels... https://twitter.com/JesseJenkins/status/1361348544154664961?s=20
12/ Worth noting that Texas is the only place in the US that can't pull power from neighboring states because our state decided that they didn't want to deal with federal regulations and safety measures. Will @ERCOT_ISO survive this fiasco? https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/08/texplainer-why-does-texas-have-its-own-power-grid/
