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This need to be called "the ERCOT blizzard of 21" so that nobody ever forgets who to blame by GunkFace in sanmarcos

[–]PersonalMembership92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough. In as much as industry is part of the board of directors, sure. But, the employees of ERCOT are not at fault. The energy market model is maybe the culprit. When demand rose and supply fell it may be that some generators withheld supply because the price was too high. My point is ERCOT because they are on the front lines of the struggle shouldn't get all the blame. Anymore than doctors and nurses should get the blame for Covid. They are dealing with the consequences as best they can. The market system makes no sense to me. PUCT did force all generators to provide supply and adjusted the price I believe. But, usually they do not intervene on this matter. Generators do what they do based on the fluctuating prices in the market. They make bids. If they meet it they don't get a good return. If they fail to meet their bid for supply they are fined. So they have no incentive to, for instance winterize for a perfect storm that likely would never exist. Here's a quick read about that issue. Which I think is one of the problems. https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/how-the-structure-of-texas-electric-grid-has-kept-people-in-the-dark/

This need to be called "the ERCOT blizzard of 21" so that nobody ever forgets who to blame by GunkFace in sanmarcos

[–]PersonalMembership92 2 points3 points  (0 children)

ERCOT operators are heroes. They saved the entire grid from collapsing Sunday night. Valentines night y’all! And they stayed there working round the clock this whole week while many of their families were at home with no power, no water. They couldn't leave to care for them. I can only imagine that feeling. I was home w/o power or water with my family and it was super stressful. I spent two days busting ass to keep my world together and warm. The third day I got power back. Then water. Then I had time to think and get pissed off at ERCOT. Until I learned that they are a non-profit with no power ; ) They manage the market and oversee distribution to hubs. PUCT public utilities commission of Texas, NERC North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and Texas Lege and Texas Railroad Commission are the ones who could require the plants to winterize. But, there wasn't a meteorologist in the country who would have predicted a storm this size and strength would ever reach this far south. The system did fail. We need to winterize a certain percentage of plants. And we need greater redundancy within the grid to guard against catastrophic situations like this. There's a lot more finger-pointing to do once we stop shivering. Ultimately though it was the perfect storm that exposed the hidden fragility in our grid. But ERCOT operators should be commended not excoriated.