Szdfan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:13 am
We joke, but 5 million Texans lost power thanks to Hurricane Beryl.
Frustrations are mounting across southeast Texas as residents enter a fourth day of crippling power outages and heat, a combination that has proven dangerous – and at times deadly – as some struggle to access food, gas and medical care.
More than 1.3 million homes and businesses across the region are still without power after Beryl slammed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, leaving at least 11 people dead across Texas and Louisiana.
Many residents are sheltering with friends or family who still have power, but some can’t afford to leave their homes, Houston City Councilman Julian Ramirez told [He Who Shall Not Be Named]. And while countless families have lost food in their warming fridges, many stores are still closed, leaving government offices, food banks, and other public services scrambling to distribute food to underserved areas, he said.
As residents desperately try to cool their homes with generators, carbon monoxide poisoning has become a serious concern. At least two people have died in Harris County from carbon monoxide poisoning and fire departments have received more than 200 carbon monoxide poisoning calls in 24 hours, local officials said.
I'm...not impressed with the Texas power grid. It's my understanding that most of the grid is seperate from the rest of the country and that the state's independent streak has led to resistance from federal oversight. Yet as both Beryl and the winter storm in 2021 show, the power grid is more vulnerable to devasting outages than other grids in the country.
It is not so much that the state of Texas wanted to maintain independence. It was the power companies in Texas that wanted to avoid any Federal regulation (and thus things like price controls) and so they deliberately maintained and built out a separate grid. Power companies in other states wanted to do the same thing back in the 1930s when the Federal regulatory process started but they weren't big enough. Only the Texas power companies managed to pull it off. So the history has much more to do with the Texas power companies desire to avoid regulation rather than any sort of deliberate state government policy.
It isn't precisely along state lines though. There are some border counties within Texas that are attached to the grid in Louisiana or Oklahoma just because it makes geographic sense.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
RZehr wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:26 am
We had a power outage in liberal, regulated Oregon on Monday with 100+ degree weather. And yesterday they intentionally cut power as a safety measure due to fires. And they are asking for a 20% increase in power rates next year in order to pay for green energy.
So I’m not sure we are all that much better off than independent, unregulated Texas.
A number of years ago, a power consortium made up of several local municipalities in SE Colorado decided that instead of just buying power together, they should generate power together. So they built a coal power plant. However, in their wisdom, this consortium refused to hire consultants to make sure the plant adhered to state and federal regulations. Therefore, the power plant has never been used because it's not compliant. After a series of law suits from the other towns in this consortium, the city of La Junta (who was the ringleader in this dubious enterprise) got stuck with paying for this montrosity and therefore has the highest utility rates in the area. Of course, nobody in city leadership was fired or held accountable for this boondoggle.
RZehr wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:26 am
We had a power outage in liberal, regulated Oregon on Monday with 100+ degree weather. And yesterday they intentionally cut power as a safety measure due to fires. And they are asking for a 20% increase in power rates next year in order to pay for green energy.
So I’m not sure we are all that much better off than independent, unregulated Texas.
According to this site, the average price of electricity in Oregon in 2024 is 13.43 cents per kWh whereas the average price in Texas is currently 14.37 cents per kWh. So Oregon is currently about 7% cheaper. You should be more envious of Washington. Our current state average rate is 11.29 cents per kWh and I'm not aware of any proposed rate increases for green power. The WA grid is already pretty green.
This year, Pacific Power is trying to raise rates by 21.6% for Oregon households. A typical household could see an average increase of $29.47 each month. This amount would be much higher during the winter months and summer months when heaters or air conditioners are turned on.
Pacific Power’s proposed increase is largely from wildfire-related costs. After the court ruled the company was grossly negligent in the 2020 Labor Day fires, Pacific Power has consistently made moves to pass liability costs onto customers. CUB will be closely analyzing this request to ensure the company is held financially responsible for wildfire liability.
It's also not the whole state. Just the parts of it served by Pacific Power. Some cities like Eugene have their own municipal power company. And most of Portland is covered by PG&E. https://www.pacificpower.net/community/ ... -area.html
Last edited by Ken on Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Ken wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 10:31 am
It isn't precisely along state lines though. There are some border counties within Texas that are attached to the grid in Louisiana or Oklahoma just because it makes geographic sense.
I think I read that San Antonio is seperate from the Texas grid and connected to the rest of the country.