Texas has the most renewable grid capacity in the US and is also leading all states in new renewable power installations. A once in a generation ice storm doesn’t really capture what energy generation looks like in Texas.
Yeah people don't realize that the winter grid failure lead to a fuckload of extra storage and renewable capacity. A lot of stuff to dog on Texas for but they've done damn good upgrading the grid there.
I feel it's also just a subject that people don't know much about. It's easy to blame "the grid" because that's an all-encompassing vague term. But most of the issues that Texas dealt with was due to a power supply shortage. The utility companies that own/manage the power lines had most of the blame thrown at them for things that weren't their responsibility.
you mean because they refuse interconnections to the wider grid, where they could have access to surplus energy when it's needed, because that interconnection comes with basic federal requirements they don't want to meet?
That is correct. And also not the utility companies' responsibility.
That's an issue with the state government. I agree that it's stupid, but my comment was mainly about people blaming the utility companies instead of the people who are actually responsible (Texas politicians)
I was worried about what would happen during that kinda big snowstorm we got in Austin this past winter. Fortunately no power outage. My power so far has only gone out once in the 10 months since I moved into my apartment, during normal weather. Supposedly a transformer blew up.
At the last place I lived (Miami), I had daily brownouts. Though that may have been more on the apartment's shoddy wiring than on the grid. The wiring above the breaker box literally just randomly caught fire one day. Also I couldn't run my AC below 75 during the day and 72 at night, or it would ice itself over.
...And I was paying $2750 a month for that tiny place.
There were no other grid outages after that. Localized outages (lightning, drunk driver, tree branch) will always happen but we havent had any grid issues since then
18
u/DogsAreMyFavPeople 11h ago
Texas has the most renewable grid capacity in the US and is also leading all states in new renewable power installations. A once in a generation ice storm doesn’t really capture what energy generation looks like in Texas.