Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts

Tue Feb 16 12:32:17 UTC 2021

On 2/16/21 4:22 AM, John Sage wrote:
> On 2/15/21 10:02 PM, Mark Tinka wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 2/16/21 07:49, Matthew Petach wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Isn't that a result of ERCOT stubbornly refusing to interconnect with 
>>> the rest of the national grid, out of an irrational fear of coming 
>>> under federal regulation?
> 
> Yes. This has been widely documented in numerous articles, both very 
> recently and previously.
> 

As one example only, of many:

"What went wrong with the Texas power grid?"

Marcy de Luna, Amanda Drane, Houston Chronicle

Feb. 15, 2021
Updated: Feb. 15, 2021 9:23 p.m.

"Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, said the 
rolling blackouts are taking more power offline for longer periods than 
ever before. An estimated 34,000 megawatts of power generation — more 
than a third of the system’s total generating capacity — had been 
knocked offline by the extreme winter weather amid soaring demand as 
residents crank up heating systems."

. . .

"Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the 
University of Houston, blamed the failures on the state’s deregulated 
power system, which doesn’t provide power generators with the returns 
needed to invest in maintaining and improving power plants.

“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old 
Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on underinvestment and 
neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Wholesale-power-prices-spiking-across-Texas-15951684.php 

- John
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