February 2021 Winter Storm

[thoughtful]

I am free to post on FJ right now because the online piano lessons I was supposed to teach at this time got canceled. Guess where the students live.

No power, no water, burst pipe - I feel so bad for them.

Thanks, mother nature and Texas government.

[Ozlsn]

On 2/18/2021 at 3:48 AM, clueliss said:

Mayor of Colorado City Texas Tells Resident to Fend for Themselves

"Only Strong Will Survive"


 

 

So was his position voluntary or paid? Because I'd be asking a lot of questions about what he actually did in the role either way.

9 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

In case you haven't heard yet:

 

And from the Scott Morrison School of Prominent Leadership we introduce - Ted Cruz!

(Australian PM, went on holiday to Hawaii in Jan last year while a large part of the country was on fire and in an emergency situation. Also tried to claim he was still in Australia, (having apparently forgotten that technology is a thing) and also failed to mention who was actually in charge of the country while he was gone.)

8 hours ago, OldFadedStar said:

So, the nuclear power plant in South Texas that had gone offline because it was frozen? 

It was because they didn't build a building around something. If they had done what they were supposed to and built that building it wouldn't have frozen over. My husband works at another nuclear plant and when he found out that they froze over he got real confused and looked into it.

My WTF reaction is totally a "why would you not do that?! Why wouldn't you, you know, follow the recommendations?!" Also who scammed money out of this?

7 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

  Hide contents

 

Cruz likes to use the phrase "Texas Tough" to describe himself, but when that so-called toughness is required, he hops on a plane to Mexico and then attempts to hide behind his children when he gets caught.

 

Who among us hasn't blamed their children when we've done something stupid?

6 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

To be fair I have gone for an overnight stay with that size bag - weddings require shoes and clothes, and make up and way too much stuff!

Edited February 19, 2021 by Ozlsn
Brackets.

[Jigsaw3]

So the NYT has found some absolutely delicious text messages from Heidi Cruz showing that the trip was planned Wednesday (the day they left) and they planned to return Saturday. Even if it was the kids' request (which I doubt), the parents were enthusiastic about it. And the "need to help my wife/kids" excuse doesn't hold any water: she's a managing director at a big investment firm. I'm sure she travels all the time on her own. I would not be surprised to know that she travels with the kids without Ted frequently, given his political schedule: either vacations without him or bringing the family to meet him wherever.

Cruz demanded a police escort to/in the airport. Houston police were very busy on Wednesday, but had to spare officers to escort the family.

Plus also, someone in Heidi's text message group gave those texts to the NYT. As much as that's a huge betrayal, I am enjoying the schaudenfraude.

My thoughts are with the people in Texas who still don't have heat/water, or who are looking at devastating property damage or other long term consequences of these storms.

[Howl]

Ish. The thought of doughy Ted Cruz in beach shorts/swimsuits is ick. 

The small town of Colorado City, TX, referenced in a post upthread, is between Sweetwater and Big Spring, TX, on the plains, elevation 2,000'.   It's 24 degrees right now, with a low of 12 degrees forecast. It will be above freezing tomorrow, with a 15 mph wind out of the north.  These towns are not prosperous.  Many people are probably struggling to keep their heads above water in the best circumstances. 

 

I'm putting this under a spoiler; it's by a facebook friend who posted an excellent explanation of how natural gas works, and how the supply chain is vulnerable.  Keep in mind that northern Mexico, Mexico City are heavily dependent on US natural gas supplies. Abbott stopped the sale of any natural gas to non-Texas entities, so Mexico is in desperate straights as well. 

Spoiler

"The gas system here is well fed with little to no "bulk storage" vessels. Out of the ground and into the generator.

Gas straight out of the ground is around 100f to 300f (source dependent) and contains [m]any hydrocarbons (and other compounds H2S for example) with a boiling point below that.

Pipes run from each wellhead in a gas field to a collection station where the first compressor feeds the gas to the transmission pipes that in the end feeds to the power plants.

Along the way there are compressors (aka compressor stations) that keep the gas moving (flowing) through the pipes at high pressure (and that also helps keep the gas warm enough to keep any of those lighter compounds gaseous).

Somewhere along the trunk lines, there will be a "separator" that removes most of these lighter compounds, and then recompenses the gas back into the trunk line and to the power plants (primary user of gas in the state. Propane, Butane and many of those other lighter compounds are shipped/piped from those separator plants to their end suppliers/users.

At each compressor station there are condensate sensors up-flow of the compressors as they do not work with liquids.

If the pipeline temperature drops low enough these condensates will drop out, trip the sensor and shutdown the compressor.

This is called a "Freeze out" and is what the media means with they say the gas lines are "frozen".

When the compressors shut down the line pressures (flow) and temperatures drop and more condensate occurs, tripping more compressors and so on.

There is a "fix" for this and in the industry it is called "Heat Trace". Last place I worked I made self regulating heating cable, aka Heat Trace, mostly for the pipeline industry.

Not in use in Texas for many reasons, cost (price is about $35 a foot before installation), requires all the pipeline to be above ground, needs to be completely replaced every 7 or so years (insurance mostly), and is mostly used on "trunk" lines and not the feeder lines (where most of the freeze outs apparently happened). Also Heat Trace needs electricity to operate and with the blackouts...

Side note here, these compressors are powered by electricity now days and not a portion of the gas in the line (like they did on the old days), so as the grid wobbles and blackouts happen, some compressors also shut down..."

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Howl

[Cartmann99]

The sound of the garbage truck in the alley made me a little teary-eyed just now. Welcome back!

[AnnaSofia]

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on ABC's GMA3

Skip to 6:12 to see T.J. Holmes unexpected badassery ?

 

[Howl]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

The sound of the garbage truck in the alley made me a little teary-eyed just now. Welcome back!

Amazingly, the paper was delivered this morning (Friday), with all copies from Monday onward in one plastic sleeve. 

Ice has melted off the trees for the first time since last Saturday.  One more hard freeze tonight (in the 20s) and we should be done with freezing temps for the most part, other than the usual possibility of a nippy, maybe even frosty night or two in the months ahead. 

We have all utilities, but are under a boil-water alert, and no frozen pipes that we're aware of.  Family in another part of town never lost power or water, but as of yesterday,  have no water and are boiling snow, which is rapidly melting.

Gas hoarding has begun, as people become frantic about filling up gas tanks; many gas stations are out of gas.  There is certainly a slowdown in refining on the coast, but people hoarding creates an actual shortage. 

 

[Howl]

43 minutes ago, AnnaSofia said:

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on ABC's GMA3

Skip to 6:12 to see T.J. Holmes unexpected badassery ?

Badassery indeed! 

When Dan Patrick says the natural gas gathering and distribution system was winterized 10 years ago, he's lying, just flat out lying.

If it had been winterized, nothing would have frozen and there would have been no shortage of generating capacity. 

[clueliss]

Texas was minutes away from uncontrolled blackouts and the potential that it would takes weeks/months to recover 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/texas-ercot-uncontrolled-blackout

[Howl]

The storm now has a name -- Winter Storm Uri.  

I hope all who are affected by this monster storm, in TX and other states, are safe and well. 

Most people in my area (central Texas/Travis County/Austin) have electricity now.  There are still some without water and if water is coming out of the faucet, there's a 2-minute boil-water alert.  The water purification system will  still need some days to get fully on line and caught up.  

A friend who lives not too far away never lost power but lost water yesterday, so was out in his yard gathering snow to melt so he could flush his toilet.  He referred to the melted snow as Abbott Water.  (Greg Abbott is our Gov here in Texas, and initially tried to blame the power outages on a failure of Green Energy, so Fuck That Guy.) 

Happily (if you have water coming out of your faucet) the snow is melting and the last  freeze was last night.  

There have been several monster fires in the state (1 hotel in Kileen and 1 big apartment complex somewhere) that could not be contained because of the lack of water. 

Yesterday was sunny and today as well, so streets should be mostly or all clear of snow and ice by later today.  Highways, at least this far south, are in good shape for the most part. 

Nobody knows the full death tally from fires caused by people desperate to stay warm, hypothermia, lack of access to medical care, hospitals in desperate shape, people running out of oxygen, car wrecks, lack of insulin and other meds and I don't think it's over yet. 

And by the way, the very large Texas city of El Paso shares with the New Mexico power grid, not ERCOT, and had zero problems from the storm. 

 

 

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

What is this I’m hearing about horrendous utility bills?  Some in the many thousand of dollars for 5 days of service. WTAF!

Do they really think people are going to pay this?

[FiveAcres]

4 minutes ago, Don'tlikekoolaid said:

What is this I’m hearing about horrendous utility bills?  Some in the many thousand of dollars for 5 days of service. WTAF!

Do they really think people are going to pay this?

My understanding is that Texas allows people to sign up to buy electricity on the spot market. (There are evidently providers that make this easy to do.) This allows them to pay less for their electricity than those who sign up with conventional plans. However, the downside to buying on the spot market is that if the prices spike, so do your electrical bills.  In a sane world, the only people who would be buying on the spot market would be manufacturers and others who could afford to shut down for a few days and wait out the price spike, or those with alternative methods of electrical generation. For household consumers that don't have alternative methods of generation, it is a penny wise, pound foolish approach. 

And before you feel too sorry for these people that are getting the horrendous utility bills, evidently at least one of the spot market providers were begging people to switch to a more conventional provider when the polar freeze was forecast. 

[thoughtful]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

The storm now has a name -- Winter Storm Uri. 

Everyone in Texas should check their flatware drawer to make sure the spoons aren't all bent.

 

[Cartmann99]

43 minutes ago, thoughtful said:

Everyone in Texas should check their flatware drawer to make sure the spoons aren't all bent.

I keep all my dishes and flatware in a Faraday cage to protect them from 5G.

[church_of_dog]

37 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I keep all my dishes and flatware in a Faraday cage to protect them from 5G.

You just made me realize what a fabulous name Faraday would be for a pet rat or mouse or hamster or bird...

[clueliss]

6 hours ago, Don'tlikekoolaid said:

What is this I’m hearing about horrendous utility bills?  Some in the many thousand of dollars for 5 days of service. WTAF!

Do they really think people are going to pay this?

I read a piece on that this morning.  People use a service called Griddy with variable rates for power.  The rates are based on market demand.  So this made utility prices do a massive jump.  The company was actually telling people to change temporarily.  
 

I had no idea you could get power from not your local utility.

[Cartmann99]

17 hours ago, clueliss said:

I had no idea you could get power from not your local utility.

If you go here, you can see how the process works. If you need a zip code, 77010 in Houston is a good one in terms of the number of choices you'll get back.

[Howl]

Central Texas weather this past week was all "LOL, just kidding about the ice and single digits LAST week!" 

The thermometer in the shade on the front porch showed a high of 92 on Wed. afternoon.  Overcast, cool (high 40s) and damp this AM, then damp and very warm (high of 80 tomorrow).  

A note on Central Texas winter weather -- it sucks and blows!  Incoming low pressure systems suck warm, humid air up from the Gulf of Mexico, so breezy balmy weather ahead of the front.  Cold front (can be dry or wet) arrives with low temps, north/northwest wind for a few days, rinse, repeat. 

The winter weather pattern usually weakens at this time of year (mid to late February) and we're on the way to Spring time and the very first wildflowers blooming in two weeks or so. 

. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Howl

[Cartmann99]

Texas power company seeks bankruptcy protection after storm

Quote

The largest and oldest power cooperative in Texas is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing last month’s winter storm that left millions without power.

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, which serves 16 distribution member cooperatives that cater to more than 1.5 million Texans across 68 counties from the Texas Panhandle to Houston, said Monday that it was a “financially robust, stable company” prior to the severe cold weather that hit Texas between February 13 and February 19.

Much of Texas’ power grid collapsed, followed by its water systems. Tens of millions huddled in frigid homes. Others fled for safety. The state, long suspicious of regulation and outside help, was left to seek aid from other states and humanitarian groups as many of its 29 million people grasped for survival.

Brazos said that it received excessively high invoices from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas for collateral and for purported cost of electric service. The invoices were required to be paid within days. As a cooperative, Brazos’ costs are passed through to its members and retail consumers served by its members. Brazos decided that it won’t pass on the ERCOT costs to its members or the consumers.

“Let me emphasize that this action by Brazos Electric was necessary to protect its member cooperatives and their more than 1.5 million retail members from unaffordable electric bills as we continue to provide electric service throughout the court-supervised process,” Clifton Karnei, executive vice president and general manager of Brazos, said in a prepared statement.

Brazos said that it will continue to supply power to members as it restructures the cooperative while under bankruptcy protection.

The bankruptcy filing comes the same day that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that he’s suing electricity provider Griddy for passing along massive bills to its customers during February’s winter storm. The lawsuit accuses Griddy of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks refunds for customers.

ERCOT shifted about 10,000 Griddy customers to other utilities on Friday. Griddy said that ERCOT “took our members and have effectively shut down Griddy.”

“We have always been transparent and customer-centric at every step. We wanted to continue the fight for our members to get relief and that hasn’t changed,” Griddy said.