ERCOT tells Texans to conserve electricity through Friday.

[Guest]

This is what grid operators do. At any given time in the year they are aiming for generation to match demand. Unseasonable temps over large swaths of the grid throw those things out of whack. Plans for maintenance are approved months in advance, so there often isn’t much to do to get more generation online quickly. Best thing to do is get people to reduce demand on the system during those times.

[Keyser_Soze]

Flex alerts aren't anything new here

 

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

21 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

This is what grid operators do. At any given time in the year they are aiming for generation to match demand. Unseasonable temps over large swaths of the grid throw those things out of whack. Plans for maintenance are approved months in advance, so there often isn’t much to do to get more generation online quickly. Best thing to do is get people to reduce demand on the system during those times.

To piggyback on this, generation automatically increases to match demand up to the point of installed and online generation capacity, this is managed 24/7 to maintain a constant voltage.

 

Power companies also know that when temperatures changes by x degrees, power consumption differs from the yearly average by y amount. As you said when unseasonably high temperatures are projected and the correlated demand gets near or above the online or potentially online generation capacity (as this is isn't a exact correlation by any means) there is a call for voluntary reduction in power use or it becomes involuntary.

 

Without a mandate to have a certain excess generation capacity and increased spending on maintenance/upkeep/upgrades (all very expensive) to ensure less time for consumers to suffer power outages we're gonna keep seeing power outages, and at a rate much worse than other developed countries

[Massdriver]

How much of the infrastructure bill that is ‘bipartisan’ would go to the grid?

[CastletonSnob]

Good news, ERCOT says the grid conditions are back to normal.

 

Electric Reliability Council of Texas

WWW.ERCOT.COM

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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75 percent of the state.

 

[brucoe]

I tend to keep my temperature in my apartment at about 80 every day, just because I hate anything cold. My girlfriend (you know, the imaginary one from Canada) literally turns my house temperature down to about 65 whenever she comes over, and I sometimes think she stays an extra night or two just because she knows how much it drives me nuts. I live in South Texas, so it gets really hot here, but what's bizarre is that I'll step outside, and it's so much hotter out there, so that keeping my place at 80 still feels like it's way cooler than the natural outdoors.

[SuperSpreader]

65 sounds great

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

@sblfilmsis it really this bad? Sounds awful

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

Electricity (and water, and natural gas) is something that should never, ever, ever be privatized. It makes no sense to have competition in life-essential utilities.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

2 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Electricity (and water, and natural gas) is something that should never, ever, ever be privatized. It makes no sense to have competition in life-essential utilities.

competition is all well and good until something comes along that could hurt their bottom line. That’s why they don’t prepare for anything and then price gouge when they fuck up. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

@sblfilmsis it really this bad? Sounds awful

 

 

It’s goofy. So the basic set up is that there are electricity providers in three distinct categories.

 

The first is power generation, so the actual plants.

 

Second is the transmission utilities, the group that takes the electricity from generation to point of service.
 

Those two groups who have the rates directly controlled by ERCOT.

 

The third group is retail providers, which is what the screen shot is showing. This is where you can choose providers based on price, contract length, and various benefits (free smart thermostats, free overnight rates, whatevs). This is why you may remember some stories about rates going crazy during the freeze. Those were customers not using retail providers, but instead going into the wholesale market which fluctuates pretty wildly depending on grid conditions.

 

I actually use a service that every three months or so switches me around from REP to REP based on the best rates.

[Kal-El814]

4 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I actually use a service that every three months or so switches me around from REP to REP based on the best rates.

Is this as terrible as it sounds?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Is this as terrible as it sounds?

I literally never think about it. Once you sign up your bill now comes from the broker, they do all the data analyzation to figure out which REP and plan saves the most. Mooooost people just sign a 1-2 year contract with an REP and rarely change, just renew at the end of their deal. Since there is lots of competition in the REP market and switching REPs is incredibly easy, the REPs usually have signing bonuses, things like $100 amazon cards and the like.

[Kal-El814]

Just now, sblfilms said:

I literally never think about it. Once you sign up your bill now comes from the broker, they do all the data analyzation to figure out which REP and plan saves the most. Mooooost people just sign a 1-2 year contract with an REP and rarely change, just renew at the end of their deal. Since there is lots of competition in the REP market and switching REPs is incredibly easy, the REPs usually have signing bonuses, things like $100 amazon cards and the like.

It’s wild to me that a vital utility can work this way. 

[Guest]

It’s kind of a choose your own adventure. If you want, you can just pick an REP and set it to auto renew at whatever the lowest rate is at the time, or you can be like the crazy couponers and bounce around a bunch and collect all the sweet giveaways.

 

It is strange, but I would say most people I know treat it like a set it and forget it thing that you would in a traditional single utility area.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Absolute insanity

[Uaarkson]

Jesus, I’d rather get my electricity straight from SA in barrels of oil than deal with any of that horse shit

[Guest]

It’s really not complicated. Don’t you normally call the electric company when you move in? The only difference here is you have a bunch of choices as far as who the company is that sells you the electricity. All the transmission of the power comes from the same place (in my region, Centerpoint).

 

When we had power turned on at the VA drive in I had to go online to the local electric co-op and fill out a form to request service. You do the same thing with whichever REP you prefer, or you can go to 

 

Power To Choose | Home

POWERTOCHOOSE.ORG

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Power to Choose is the official, unbiased, electric choice website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where all certified electric providers in the State of Texas are eligible to post their electric plans. On...

 

and put in your zip code and TDU (if you are in a zip that’s on the border of two TDUs, the vast majority aren’t), and it will list all the rates being offered by all REPs as of today.

 

I guess the way to imagine it is if there was one entity that owned all the internet infrastructure, and then ISPs buy access to those lines and then sell service to the end user. That’s basically the way internet service works in some of the wealthy Asian nations, as an example. I guess that’s also how companies like Mint Mobile work where they buy access to a network and resell that at a lower price than native access to the network.

 

I dunno, it’s not particularly difficult to navigate unless you want to always find the best deals.

[Jason]

12 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

It’s really not complicated. Don’t you normally call the electric company when you move in? The only difference here is you have a bunch of choices as far as who the company is that sells you the electricity. All the transmission of the power comes from the same place (in my region, Centerpoint).

 

When we had power turned on at the VA drive in I had to go online to the local electric co-op and fill out a form to request service. You do the same thing with whichever REP you prefer, or you can go to 

 

Power To Choose | Home

POWERTOCHOOSE.ORG

---

Power to Choose is the official, unbiased, electric choice website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where all certified electric providers in the State of Texas are eligible to post their electric plans. On...

 

and put in your zip code and TDU (if you are in a zip that’s on the border of two TDUs, the vast majority aren’t), and it will list all the rates being offered by all REPs as of today.

 

I guess the way to imagine it is if there was one entity that owned all the internet infrastructure, and then ISPs buy access to those lines and then sell service to the end user. That’s basically the way internet service works in some of the wealthy Asian nations, as an example. I guess that’s also how companies like Mint Mobile work where they buy access to a network and resell that at a lower price than native access to the network.

 

I dunno, it’s not particularly difficult to navigate unless you want to always find the best deals.

 

are you sure you never sold health insurance plans

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

are you sure you never sold health insurance plans

Imagine if all health care plans were the same service because the actual service all came from the same place, but insurers competed for customers in other ways. Like what Germany does.
 

This is what buying electricity is like here. Companies compete for customers on price, customer service, other random perks (free Zoo admissions, that sort of thing) while the actual service is identical because it comes from a separate source that consumers don’t interact with.

[johnny]

texas is insane 

[Kal-El814]

8 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Imagine if all health care plans were the same service because the actual service all came from the same place, but insurers competed for customers in other ways. Like what Germany does.
 

This is what buying electricity is like here. Companies compete for customers on price, customer service, other random perks (free Zoo admissions, that sort of thing) while the actual service is identical because it comes from a separate source that consumers don’t interact with.

I can’t adequately explain how much this comes off like a President’s Day mattress sale except someone else buys the mattress, then sells it to you, and it’s electricity. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

21 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

are you sure you never sold health insurance plans

I used to have the choice of 4 carriers at 4 metal levels (bronze, silver, good, platinum) for health insurance at my last job and I gotta tell ya, choice for the sake thereof is really fucking stupid and I hate it

[Guest]

Like, y’all go to gas stations right? Same product at each place, different prices, different services and such inside. I’m a bit baffled by how hard you guys seem to think this is 

[Jason]

Just now, sblfilms said:

Like, y’all go to gas stations right? Same product at each place, different prices, different services and such inside. I’m a bit baffled by how hard you guys seem to think this is 

 

Gas isn't a necessity doe. 

[CitizenVectron]

Just now, sblfilms said:

Like, y’all go to gas stations right? Same product at each place, different prices, different services and such inside. I’m a bit baffled by how hard you guys seem to think this is 

 

It's not the process the customer goes through, it's the very idea that life-essential utilities of massive scale are run by private companies. Utilities and anything else that works best as a monopoly should be publicly owned.

[SuperSpreader]

I just dealt with signing up for electricity in TX, it was easy. I went with a 100% solar power fixed rate plan. Having lived through the California black outs with PG&E, SDGE, and whatever LA had, I don't think liberals are free to point fingers yet. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

20 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

I don't think liberals are free to point fingers yet.

We famously love the status quo 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

It's not the process the customer goes through, it's the very idea that life-essential utilities of massive scale are run by private companies. Utilities and anything else that works best as a monopoly should be publicly owned.

Most electrical utilities in the US are privately owned, the difference is that the entire thing is typically a regional monopoly granted by the government.

[SuperSpreader]

2 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Most electrical utilities in the US are privately owned, the difference is that the entire thing is typically a regional monopoly granted by the government.

This. In CA you have zero options. Then you have PG&E causing the giant fires due to negligent maintenance. It's all a different flavors of bullshit. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

13 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Gas isn't a necessity doe. 

anybody who doesn’t live in an area with widely available public transportation systems would argue otherwise. 

[Kal-El814]

13 hours ago, sblfilms said:

Like, y’all go to gas stations right? Same product at each place, different prices, different services and such inside. I’m a bit baffled by how hard you guys seem to think this is 

 

I would feel the same way about natural gas or oil being delivered to my home.

 

I appreciate this is irrational and experience based, having grown up in NJ I don’t think it’s weird that all the gas stations are self service even though everyone else outside of NJ and Oregon thinks it’s bananas.

[PaladinSolo]

Texans asked to turn up thermostats after sweltering heat knocks six power plants offline

WWW.CNN.COM

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With an early-season heat wave searing much of Texas over the weekend, the nonprofit that manages power to more than 26 million customers wants them to turn up their thermostats.

 

[Comet]

2 hours ago, PaladinSolo said:

Texans asked to turn up thermostats after sweltering heat knocks six power plants offline

WWW.CNN.COM

---

With an early-season heat wave searing much of Texas over the weekend, the nonprofit that manages power to more than 26 million customers wants them to turn up their thermostats.

 

So far so good…