Off Topic Winter storm talk

yrwei52

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT AWD w/Tech Pkg
Contributor
:
Plano, Texas, USA
Now what this record-breaking winter weather have been doing to Texas is unbelievable. We had 2nd coldest temperature in Dallas area at -2°F on Tuesday but apparently ERCOT didn’t prepared even though the forecast has been there with warning for more than 2 weeks. Millions of homes been out of power since Sunday due to freezing power generators and wing turbines and ⅓ of the normal electrical power is offline! Rolling blackouts are going on since Sunday night and our house is getting 1~3 hours of electricity then off for at least 6 hours even right now! Luckily the water pipes haven’t been bursted like many families with no heater running most of day. I guess what I don’t understand is why there’re many houses, some are friends I know in the same area, get preferential treatment and are having electricity without any interruptions during this fiasco?
 
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... I guess what I don’t understand is why there’re many houses, some are friends I know in the same area, get preferential treatment and are having electricity without any interruptions during this fiasco?
We have 2 daughters living in Austin. Neither one has had any blackouts, though many have. They say it depends on what grid you're on. If you are on one that also supports a hospital, you don't lose it. Same goes for 911 emergency centers.
 
Glad you did the right thing and drove back home (not sure where, North Carolina? Florida?) just before the winter storm hit. Been in Knoxville, TN once before which is nearby to Gatlinburg. With all the recent maintenance done to your 2014 CX-5 with 113,000 miles, the feeling of the confidence to your vehicle during the long road trip must be good.

Now what this record-breaking winter weather have been doing to Texas is unbelievable. We had 2nd coldest temperature in Dallas area at -2°F on Tuesday but apparently ERCOT didn’t prepared even though the forecast has been there with warning for more than 2 weeks. Millions of homes been out of power since Sunday due to freezing power generators and wing turbines and ⅓ of the normal electrical power is offline! Rolling blackouts are going on since Sunday night and our house is getting 1~3 hours of electricity then off for at least 6 hours even right now! Luckily the water pipes haven’t been bursted like many families with no heater running most of day. I guess what I don’t understand is why there’re many houses, some are friends I know in the same area, get preferential treatment and are having electricity without any interruptions during this fiasco?
Yeah my uncle/aunt down in San Antonio has no had water for days, power going on and off. What the hell is going on down there?
 
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Yeah my uncle/aunt down in San Antonio has no had water for days, power going on and off. What the hell is going on down there?
Texas has its own independent power grid runs by ERCOT. ERCOT didn’t prepare it properly for the super cold weather coming even though the forecast had been there many days ago. Many power plants including coal、natural gas、nuclear、solar、wind all were frozen up and offline. The severe shortage on power generated during these days since Sunday caused rolling blackouts which affected more than 2 million households across the state. With no heater for a long period of time and water pipes bursted because of it, the water supply now is a major problem. All of these happening state-wide, and it’s a mess right now!

In December 1983 Dallas had more hours (295 hours/13 days vs. 139 hours/7 days) below freezing and more daily record cold temperature than February 2021. The 1983 the cold weather below freezing was twice as long with no power outages, but the 2021 is having more than 4 million people without power!
 
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...Much larger demand now than back then, maybe?
My local paper's Business Section ran a story on the 2/17/21 calling it a failure by design

Perhaps larger demand played a role, but one of the leads was

"What has sent Texas reeling is not an engineering problem, nor is it the frozen wind turbines blamed by prominent Republicans. It is a financial structure for power generation that offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. In the name of deregulation and free markets, critics say, Texas has created an electric grid that puts an emphasis on cheap prices over reliable service."

I know most people excoriate my local paper, but that is a discussion for another time...

We had two inches plus of solid ice on our north facing driveway. I had to use a digging bar and pick axe to break up some of the ice on Saturday. That is the last time I don't do intermittent shoveling. Snow, sleet, ice, rain, and temps well below freezing transformed the driveway into solid ice hell. Yesterday the driveway was reading a cool 22F degrees, even though the air temp was closer to 30...

Once I chopped a path from the garage, the CX5 AWD with the Toyo A36s (less than 1000 miles) handled it all quite well, even though it snowed and sleeted again today.
 
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My local paper's Business Section ran a story on the 2/17/21 calling it a failure by design

Perhaps larger demand played a role, but one of the leads was

"What has sent Texas reeling is not an engineering problem, nor is it the frozen wind turbines blamed by prominent Republicans. It is a financial structure for power generation that offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. In the name of deregulation and free markets, critics say, Texas has created an electric grid that puts an emphasis on cheap prices over reliable service."

I know most people excoriate my local paper, but that is a discussion for another time...

We had two inches plus of solid ice on our north facing driveway. I had to use a digging bar and pick axe to break up some of the ice on Saturday. That is the last time I don't do intermittent shoveling. Snow, sleet, ice, rain, and temps well below freezing transformed the driveway into solid ice hell. Yesterday the driveway was reading a cool 22F degrees, even though the air temp was closer to 30...

Once I chopped a path from the garage, the CX5 AWD with the Toyo A36s (less than 1000 miles) handled it all quite well, even though it snowed and sleeted again today.
Yes, I totally agree with the point by your local newspaper. In fact many Texas state legislators said exactly the same thing and are trying to do something about it. This winter storm has projected to be the largest insured loss in Texas history. And many believe the failed power generation this time is caused by the deregulation in 1999. That’s why the power plants held up fine in 1983 which had been having an even worse winter, but not in 2021.
 
This winter storm has projected to be the largest insured loss in Texas history.
Get ready for higher insurance premiums. Happened after our hailstorms here in Colorado a I guess a few years back now. My car insurance for my CX-5 jumped up something like $50/month.
 
Get ready for higher insurance premiums. Happened after our hailstorms here in Colorado a I guess a few years back now. My car insurance for my CX-5 jumped up something like $50/month.
Yes, I’m fully aware of that. After 3 hail storms in 5 years in last 10-year period, car insurance premium has jumped from ~$1,200 to ~$2,300 yearly for 3 vehicles mostly liability only on old cars with 2 major hail damages on our CX-5; homeowner insurance premium has gone up from ~$1,200 to ~$2,300 yearly too with roof replacement 3 times!
 
Yes, I’m fully aware of that. After 3 hail storms in 5 years in last 10-year period, car insurance premium has jumped from ~$1,200 to ~$2,300 yearly for 3 vehicles mostly liability only on old cars with 2 major hail damages on our CX-5; homeowner insurance premium has gone up from ~$1,200 to ~$2,300 yearly too with roof replacement 3 times!
Now that I turned 30, supposedly I am no longer in the highest-risk demographic so will need to call my insurance to see if it goes lower. Not holding my breath though.
 
Now that I turned 30, supposedly I am no longer in the highest-risk demographic so will need to call my insurance to see if it goes lower. Not holding my breath though.
Unless something has changed over the years, 25 for a male and 21 for a female were where the premiums dropped.
 
Unless something has changed over the years, 25 for a male and 21 for a female were where the premiums dropped.

I worked in the industry until two months ago - unfortunately it hasn’t been that way for years. It’s a factor, but not a massive one, and it can be canceled out by other potential negative factors.
 
It's interesting reading, as well as interesting watching U.S. TV and seeing what's going on down there.
As much as I hate winter, I'm blessed to live in a country, province, and city where we are used to this sort of stuff, and where we are always 100% prepared for the worst.
The last time we had a major problem was in 1998 during an ice storm.
We learned from that experience, and have never had an issue since.
We just had a 12 inch snow storm a few days ago, and all it did was add 5 minutes to my drive to Wal-Mart. lol. Streets were cleared as soon as the flakes hit the ground.
My snowblower made short work of my driveway as well.
What's happening in Texas would never happen here, and for that I am grateful.
My heart goes out to all you Texans affected by this catastrophe. Hope things get better soon.
(you can always go to Cancun for a few days :cool:)
 
It's interesting reading, as well as interesting watching U.S. TV and seeing what's going on down there.
As much as I hate winter, I'm blessed to live in a country, province, and city where we are used to this sort of stuff, and where we are always 100% prepared for the worst.
The last time we had a major problem was in 1998 during an ice storm.
We learned from that experience, and have never had an issue since.
We just had a 12 inch snow storm a few days ago, and all it did was add 5 minutes to my drive to Wal-Mart. lol. Streets were cleared as soon as the flakes hit the ground.
My snowblower made short work of my driveway as well.
What's happening in Texas would never happen here, and for that I am grateful.
My heart goes out to all you Texans affected by this catastrophe. Hope things get better soon.
(you can always go to Cancun for a few days :cool:)

you can always go to Cancun for a few days

Just don't text your neighbors that you're going to Cancun! :unsure:
 
⋯ (you can always go to Cancun for a few days :cool:)
:cool::p:D

Voted for him once, but not again ⋯

Our Governor Greg Abbott said ERCOT CEO assured him the power plants are prepared for the winter storm coming. He’s glad 5 ERCOT board members, including the chairwoman and vice chairman, submitted their resignation Tuesday in the wake of the winter storm that left millions of Texas residents without electricity for days. Funny thing is most of ERCOT top executives do not live in Texas!

ERCOT is overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC), whose three members are appointed by Governor Abbott. While ERCOT manages most of Texas' power grid, the commission and the Texas Legislature made key policy decisions that have factored into the ongoing crisis. Should the governor share the blame too? :unsure:
 
:cool::p:D

Voted for him once, but not again ⋯

Our Governor Greg Abbott said ERCOT CEO assured him the power plants are prepared for the winter storm coming. He’s glad 5 ERCOT board members, including the chairwoman and vice chairman, submitted their resignation Tuesday in the wake of the winter storm that left millions of Texas residents without electricity for days. Funny thing is most of ERCOT top executives do not live in Texas!

ERCOT is overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC), whose three members are appointed by Governor Abbott. While ERCOT manages most of Texas' power grid, the commission and the Texas Legislature made key policy decisions that have factored into the ongoing crisis. Should the governor share the blame too? :unsure:

Should the governor share the blame too?

The buck stops at the top right?

Did you see the news story where Cruz was handing out water bottles after he was chewed up by the media for his little tropical trip? Like that will make up for him turning his back on his constituents?

Hypocrite!
 
Should the governor share the blame too?

The buck stops at the top right?

Did you see the news story where Cruz was handing out water bottles after he was chewed up by the media for his little tropical trip? Like that will make up for him turning his back on his constituents?

Hypocrite!
Yes I did see it! Sad to say, I share some blame too as I voted for him and many Republicans in recent years. The power deregulation in 1999 simply let some big donors have opportunities making big money for short term, they’ve never considered spending more money for reliable power generation under inclement weather. The loss this time including many lives would be much higher than the cost of investment to proper winterize those power plants built after the deregulation!
 
Unless something has changed over the years, 25 for a male and 21 for a female were where the premiums dropped.
That may be a general rule, but its very area dependent. For where I am its 30 or so they kept telling me the last couple of years..

I'm in probably the worst zip code/city for rates for under 30 male for Denver area.
 
I read that they blacked out the auxiliaries needed to restart the main generators.. They didn't have a good technical explanation about how it happened.
 
Yes I did see it! Sad to say, I share some blame too as I voted for him and many Republicans in recent years. The power deregulation in 1999 simply let some big donors have opportunities making big money for short term, they’ve never considered spending more money for reliable power generation under inclement weather. The loss this time including many lives would be much higher than the cost of investment to proper winterize those power plants built after the deregulation!

I hope that after all of this mess that you've decided to remove yourself from the "dark side" of the Force?
 
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