As a non-native Texan from the north who moved here about 23 years ago, I can tell you we did NOT laugh at the weather forecast, and made as many preparations as we could. Our "own electric grid" has failed us. Oklahoma, which has about the same weather conditions we have, is on the federal eastern grid and doesn't have the massive power outages Texas is suffering. Let's not blame the "newbies" but take a good hard long look at our state government and what we can do to alleviate future problems. And perhaps we could all go to Cancun with family . . . .
Toni is right,, we are prepared ( except for the liquor run) which will never happen again ! I just don`t like snow ! Here we use cattle guards,, not gates on the pasture ! So when this happens the cattle guard freezes solid ! We have 8 horses who can now walk right through ! So making sure they stay in is a pain ! I have two full freezers and a stocked pantry,, more food in the fridge already cooked ! So we are about as prepared as one can get ! Need I repeat,, I don`t like snow !
Texas grew its own network from the days of rural cooperative power companies. There was no excess in those days to power other states, so the grid remained isolated. Later on, growing energy demands made it a losing proposition to connect outside the state (paying for outside electricity rather than improving production) and the grid remains isolated today. The massive blackout in 1971 (I believe) that took down a major part of the eastern seaboard was caused by a single failure that cascaded into a major event because of the much touted grid. One transformer exploded and the domino effect wiped out power for tens of thousands. No thanks, we'll pass on the national grid. Sadly, the switch to "green energy" and the push to build all electric homes is the major factor in the rolling blackouts. The windmills are icing up and have to be de-iced before they can be put online. At the moment, de-icing them and putting them back online wouldn't matter, the wind has died down. Solar energy is fine, but there's no way to clear the snow off of that many panels and their output is crippled. The much touted all electric homes are often equipped with heat pumps that work fine in moderate temps, but can't keep up in this type of weather. A friend recently installed a nice high efficiency heat pump, and found that it can only heat his house to 65 degrees. Some heat pumps have an emergency mode where they use heating coils, but that drastically increases the power consumption. Couple major increases in demand with major decreases in supply and you have a crisis in the making. If you look at an outage map in Texas right now, you'll notice a void in the reports in the area around the Comanche Peak Nuclear plant. Other power plants are natural gas fired, and those supplies have their limit. As exploration is further limited, those supplies will further diminish. If wind, solar, and natural gas are all in short supply and demand increases, heating and cooling (heat's a real killer in Texas, just as much as the cold) will be, in effect, rationed. With luck, these temperatures are an anomaly, but I remember days like this from my youth. If the weather's cycling around to a few years of very cold winters, things are going to get worse. However, as we always do, we'll learn from this and prepare for next time.
I appreciate the cheap wind and hydro power that are plentiful in my neck of the woods. The only thing that has ever cause short term electrical shortages are high winds with trees falling over power lines. Short term problems happen and we have our “camping solar”, etc. to keep our electronics powered and other essentials if needed. Hope Texas gets their grid up and running soon for those poor souls not prepared for the current weather.
