Welcome to your deregulated “free market”, Texas. Don’t want to be tied to government regulation? Guess you get to pay more or cook…or freeze. Your choice by season.
Texas power prices briefly soar 1,600% as a spring heat wave is expected to drive record demand for energy
Submitted 5 months ago by pro_grammer@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 months ago
profdc9@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This is Enron-scale manipulation. Someone’s ripping off the public and making a mint with the help of the regulators.
ramble81@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Jerry Jones, yeah same one that owns the Cowboys, made almost $1B off the price hikes durning the big freeze that almost crippled the grid.
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 5 months ago
The vastly majority of Texans are on contracted plans and pay a consistent price per kilowatt.
That doesn’t mean prices won’t skyrocket when that contract renews though
Thrashy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s not a coincidence that Texas is a hotbed of development for “microgrid” systems to cover for when ERCOT shits the bed – and of course all those systems are made up of diesel and natural gas generator farms, because Texans don’t want any of that communist solar power!
I’ve got family in Texas who love it there for some reason, but there’s almost no amount of money you could pay me to want to move there. Bad enough when I have to work on projects in the state – contrary to the popular narrative, in my personal opinion it’s a worse place than California to try and build something, and that’s entirely to do with the personalities that seem to gravitate to positions of power there. I’d much rather slow through the bureaucracy in Cali than tiptoe around a tinpot dictator in the planning department.
Etterra@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Not to mention their Governor, who seems to be in a race with FL’s Governor for the “evil monster of the century award.”
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Governor hot wheels!
Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
I am a power grid engineer and we are quoting multiple solar systems with BESS capabilities a month for Texas. It’s not all diesel.
Thrashy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I exaggerate – but Magic Rock is doing booming business installing strings of natural gas generators at Buc-ee’s across the state, and I’m currently dealing with an institutional client who wanted to provide backup power for a satellite campus, and didn’t even stop to consider battery-backed PV on the way to asking for a natural gas generator farm.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
At least we’re trying to make reforms to our bureaucracy here in California, the problems mostly originate on the county and city levels. As for why the state is/was rather decentralized relatively speaking, well its cause we roughly the size of Great Britain (the island not the empire) and half the state is mountainous to some degree.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Lol so how’s that “deregulated freedom” working out for you, Texans?
Wanderer@lemm.ee 5 months ago
“Last year, Texas overtook California in large-scale solar power capacity. When huge amounts of solar power rush onto the grid, batteries tend to follow. Now, Texas is building more grid batteries than California, the longtime undisputed leader in clean energy storage.”
puppy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
You didn’t answer their question though. You gave an example of how power companies are doing, not how texans are doing.
Also, if Texas is having record solar installations, why is power so expensive?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So, this is definitely good from an infrastructure perspective. But because the infrastructure is all privately owned and operated in pursuit of profit, the cost problem isn’t solved by the new capital.
Much like with all the new natural gas electric plants, these battery centers simply exist to exploit the short periods of time in which Texas electricity prices jump from $25 Mwh to $3000 Mwh. As the cartels sink their claws deeper into the retail market, the possibility of enormous price spikes increase, with base loads falling and surge pricing becoming much more common.
n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
And yet prices still surged 1600%
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 months ago
what kind of woke liberal socialism is this?
don’t they know those solar power panels will use up all the sun! What will happen when we run out of sun?! /s
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This does bring up kind of an interesting question for me at least.
I would expect that a significant contributor to the surge prices is from HVAC units and similar needing to work harder/etc. My brain also feels like solar panels are likely to work better when it’s warmer, but I realize that I don’t have any proof of that or know how that would work beyond ‘when hot, feels like more sun rays, more sun rays good for solar?’.
On to the question, do solar panels work better in warmer temperatures and does output of solar panels scale anywhere close to comparatively with ambient temperature and/or need for HVAC and similar systems?
Ibaudia@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Seems good for industry and bad for the actual populous, considering things like this can still happen lol.
Gerudo@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I live in Texas and have already received 2 notices this spring to conserve electricity. It has barely hit 90, and they aren’t able to keep up with demand. They get the same weather reports we have access to, up to 14-21 days, yet they can’t/won’t anticipate demand?
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s almost like they have a financial incentive to pull this shit.
In 2000/2001 this same shit was being done in California, leading to rolling blackouts and record-high energy prices. One company was buying all the plants and shutting them down for “maintenance” specifically to increase energy prices.
There were going to be congressional hearings over it in early 2022, but that company was Enron, and at the end of 2001 they collapsed due to other bullshit they were pulling.
randon31415@lemmy.world 5 months ago
|early 2022
Bit late, if you ask me.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 5 months ago
worse in CA was PG&e causing devastating forest fires because they refused to shut of the power and had insufficient line maintenance
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Fun fact, in case you weren’t aware; Texas pays bitcoin mining companies to shut off their rigs during peak demand.
Miners love this; in effect they can just threaten to mine bitcoin and get paid as much as they would have made actually mining bitcoin, but without the wear and tear on their expensive hardware. It’s a legalized extortion racket being enacted on the public purse.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 5 months ago
didn’t mining costs just double? gl with that
masquenox@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Bookmarking this for the next time white supremacists here in good ole’ South Africa peddles the “privatisation is the only thing that will fix our electricity problems!” bullcrap.
Thanks, Texas!
piecat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
No no no, that’s not true privatization. True privatization would fix all the problems
Blackmist@feddit.uk 5 months ago
Privatisation can only work if the end consumers have genuine choice.
In the UK electricity is privatised and I can pick from dozens of companies. This honestly works pretty well, and you can pick the cheapest depending on when you use electricity and how much. It’s the same infrastructure no matter who you pick, but that seems handled fairly well. Same with internet providers.
We also privatised water, and we just get given a company to rule over each area of the country. Unsurprisingly, given the consumer has no recourse other than “have no water” this is an absolute fucking shit-show. They’ve not invested in enough reservoirs, nor sewage handling, and instead lobby the government to make it legal to just put it in the rivers instead. It’s the same story with trains.
whoisearth@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
ladicius@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Pretty sure they don’t have “communism” when they pay those bills.
Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Imagine all those Californians that moved to Texas.
stoly@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Seriously they deserve what they get for not appreciating what they had.
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Some, but there are a lot of people here who recognize the hypocrisy and trash policies put into place in the state by politicians who do not wish to govern, only consolidate power.
hperrin@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I bet those businesses who relocated from Cali to Texas are loving those power prices.
Oh yeah, they already left Texas.
x0x7@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Besides that one time power goes out more often in California. In Texas you just have a temporary price surge you could treat like a blackout if you wanted to. The difference is it’s less often and you have a choice.
hperrin@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I haven’t had a power outage in about ten years, between SDG&E, PG&E, and SoCal Edison. Meanwhile, Texas has regular power outages. So just what are you on about?
Eww@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Like the time people were freezing to death during a power outage while the governor took a vacation to Cancún?
GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Maybe power is more reliable in central Texas, my family still has no electricity from the derecho that hit Houston. And they lose power frequently from all the heavy storms or hurricanes that pummel the gulf coast.
downpunxx@fedia.io 5 months ago
Texas under Republicans is a disaster as an ongoing concern
wafflez@lemmy.world 5 months ago
What year in a row ia this?
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 5 months ago
I don’t know but it started making international news during the pandemic, so at least 5th.
exanime@lemmy.today 5 months ago
Enjoy the freedom!
fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Greed and incompetience. No wonder Texas has been resistant to federal regulation and interconnect its power network with the rest of the country.
magnetosphere@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Oh, Texas. Your power grid is an endless source of amusement (for people who don’t have to rely on it, of course).
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Losing power for three days, but knowing my energy bill will be twice as high as last months is always a cool feeling.
magnetosphere@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Smartass remarks aside, you have my sympathies.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the power bill.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Everything is bigger in Texas
* Except the paycheck
Snapz@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So I assume that ted cruz flees to ski somewhere this time? And does he still blame his daughters, or does that change as well?
Raxiel@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Maybe he’s not fleeing the states crumbling infrastructure, maybe he’s taking his wife and/or daughter(s) for out of state abortions.
Better Sue him to be on the safe side.
FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Buttma taxes
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The Enrons are Enroning the faces.
Crikeste@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Gotta love capitalism.
DMBFFF@lemmy.world 5 months ago
particularly if you have lots of PVC cells to sell.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Gotta love unregulated capitalism.
profdc9@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I guess they’ll have to shut down their bootstrap-pulling engines for awhile.
DMBFFF@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Texas indeed has been blessed with much sunlight to make solar energy quite viable. This includes solar hot water heaters, and many trees to grow with vigour and bio-filtrate.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 5 months ago
fuck… I love me some bio-filtrate
DevCat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
WINNING! /s
unreasonabro@lemmy.world 5 months ago
shitty cruel systems texas likes to inflict on its citizens, the gun-totingest murican motherfuckers there are. kinda surprised they just bend over and take it
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 5 months ago
they do
nothing but steeds and queers in texas
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Click bait story that doesn’t paint the complete picture.
Entropywins@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Seriously, what are we missing?
ShepherdPie@midwest.social 5 months ago
They cropped the edges from the article photo.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
The entire background. The article is vague and is designed to get people upset. They don’t give any more information other than some crazy sounding percentages.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
good thing you’re only possibly linux. If you were fully linux i’d be retiring from life.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The weather has absolutely nothing to do with that
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
Like we literally watched this kind of behavior with Enron (though they mainly spooked the california government into buying more). Is anyone looking more closely at these operations?
Wanderer@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Good way to cause expansion renewables and batteries.
Napain@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
shouldn’t there be an abundance of energy if its hotter?
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
We’ve learned nothing from the 2021 winter storm that killed over 200 people.
stankmut@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They did change one thing. You used to be able to get electricity at wholesale prices from certain providers. When the rates went crazy during the 2021 storm and people’s crazy bills for turning on the lamp blew up on the news, they shut down that option.
These rate surges do hurt customers, but now it’s in the form of rate increases when their contract expires.
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Thank you for the clarification.
Mereo@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Rationality is out of the window. Ideology is the new religion. They don’t want to become “socialists” even though they don’t know what it truly means.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s almost scary to think of how bad it would have to get in order for voters to tick the boxes for Greens or Libertarians.
Like, how badly do these fuckers have to fail before you’re willing to shed your partisan jersey and vote to your own benefit?
cerement@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Correct.
Didn’t the state basically re-elect everyone who oversaw that shit show?
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Not only did they re-elect them, deregulating the power grid even more was an explicit part of the Republican platform
deranger@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Instead of requiring weatherization, they allowed power plants to opt out. Everything these clowns do is an absolute joke.
texastribune.org/…/texas-power-grid-loophole/
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
It’s absolutely wild. The last time around, people died, and a lot more were put into financial hardship due to the shitty, hypercapitalist energy infrastructure. People were rightly ripshit angry about it.
And then nothing was done about any of it.
And then people keep voting for the politicians who created and perpetuated the situation.
It’s really hard to keep giving a shit about people who actively work and vote to make their own lives worse.
downpunxx@fedia.io 5 months ago
well we did learn that when shit hits the fan Rafael Edward Cruz likes taking vacay down south of de border way
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Desire for more money overrides literally every other thought for those who have the most
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
they almost learned nothing. The grid almost shutdown this time, instead of shutting down…
baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Sure we have: profits are worth more than 200 lives, and counting.