Vince has had no power since before 2 a.m. It’s been a rough day! With the fireplace going non-stop and one electric heater going in the kitchen, the house stays about 53 degrees. That’s not comfy . . especially for Vince who likes it way warmer than I do. I wouldn’t be real comfy at 53 either but that’s survivable.
He has a generator going for the well pump and a heater in the well house and has faucets dripping in the house so the pipes aren’t freezing. A second generator is keeping the house fridge and the electric heater in the kitchen working.
It looks like the Texas grid has had major problems and as far as I’ve figured out, there’s no anticipated restoration date being shared. Some areas are having rolling blackouts and some areas are just down for the count.
I watched a newsfeed from Abilene and they are totally without water. They have three treatment systems and each of those are connected to at least two substations so if one fails, they can switch to another. When they all fail . . there’s nothing they can do. It’s a sad and scary situation with the low there being zero tonight. We’re lucky that our house has the well, the fireplace and the gas stove. Selling points, right? 🙂
In the grand scheme of things, this is small but I’m glad we don’t have chickens or the greenhouse. I’d be sick to have gotten my plants through til mid-February then lose them all due to a power outage. The chickens would probably survive with no heat (birds do) but I’d be sad for them being cold.
Cat was under her heat light last night but then when the power went off, she went somewhere else and Vince hasn’t seen her all day. She wouldn’t come around with the generators running anyway. She’s never heard them and she’d be scared but I worry about her too.
I still can’t believe so much of the Texas grid has failed and I can’t believe (knocking on wood) that I’ve never lost power in MO.
Dottie Newkirk says
Hoping the power is restored soon…..our area is under rolling blackouts, but, for right now they’ve stopped. Lots of businesses, doctors, schools already cancelled for tomorrow because of the anticipated rolling blackouts that are being planned for tomorrow.
Sara says
My niece near Troy TX shared a picture with me tonight of their 14 yr old granddaughter reading a ghost story to them by flashlight. They were bundled up in stocking hats and coats. They had spent lots of time today making sure their horses were all OK. I always felt bad for our livestock in this kind of cold.
Linda in NE says
I heard part of the Texas problem is that because of the cold & freezing rain about half the state’s wind towers are froze up and producing nothing. Sad situation. Supposed to be -23 (actual temp) here tonight & we were given notice of possible rolling blackouts for the next 48 hrs. to try to keep some power to about 14 states from Oklahoma to Canada. I just hope if it goes off for the 30-60 min. that it will come back on. So cold everywhere. Hope your power holds out.
Judy Laquidara says
I’ve heard all kinds of stories about what happened in TX. All the wind turbines only provide 17% of the power. Only half of them were down so, at most, that should have been 10% power taken out but it seems there’s a whole lot more than that missing. I don’t know the answer. My guess is that most people in Texas don’t have fireplaces or woodstoves; are used to short sleeves in the house and the thermostat set on 72+, newer homes have heat pumps that don’t heat well in very cold weather and it’s all combined, to result in a big mess! How’s that for a very technical opinion? 🙂
Nancy H. says
I read today that the wind turbines got to cold and seized up causing some of the power loss in Texas. Apparently, if they get to cold they have to have heaters keep the fluids warm. According to the article I read to heat them uses 2 megawatts of power so they begin using a lot power. so much for green energy….
We had a big storm here in the PNW but are now beginning to thaw out. There are still almost 300,000 homes without power after 3 days. We had friends who lost power on Friday come spend last night at our house. They house was down to 40 degrees. No wood stove, no gas stove, no generator. There power came back on today but I fixed them dinner before they left as I figured they needed to have a warm meal. Even though it had been cold some of the stuff in their frig had to be pitched.
I imagine Chad will be working a lot in the near future.
Dorothy Matheson says
Yes I am so mad about going to ‘green’ power. This did not happen to us with the older power systems.
48 in my house in no acceptable
Barbara says
Wind turbines in Minnesota shut down at -20F. Deicing machines are available to help with snow and ice build up. According to a professor at Rice University, Daniel Cohan, “ERCOT expected to get low capacity factors from wind and solar during winter peak demand. What it didn’t expect is > 20GW of outages from thermal (mostly natural gas) power plants.” Cohan also said “Wind has been producing ~1.5 GW less than ERCOT expected for a winter peak event, solar ~1 GW more than expected, & nuclear running 100%. Meanwhile, >30 GW of fossil plants, mostly natural gas, went down. So of course the narrative is — frozen wind turbines!”
ERCOT has a Resource Adequacy section on its website, you can see for yourself. There are Capacity Changes by Fuel Type Charts.
This is a crisis for Texas, and all the Texans have my sympathy. Cold temperatures are unpleasant for some and dangerous for others. I hope you stay warm and stay safe.
Once this is over, the question is why does Texas have its own power grid, and does the infrastructure need to be upgraded.
Judy Laquidara says
I would imagine that like most all infrastructure in this country, it needs to be upgraded. No one jumps on the upgrade drama til something happens and then they want it fixed yesterday. Where money has to be spent, there’s not much happening that’s proactive.
It all depends on what you read. I read yesterday that half the wind turbines were off due to ice but the remaining half were producing more than they had expected . . which, of course, wasn’t nearly enough. Texas has grown so quickly and while everyone welcomes new residents to the state, it has obviously taxed our power grid, our roads, our schools.
There are reasons Texas started out with its own power grid and reasons why it has stayed that way. You can google and read lots of opinions about whether it should stay that way or whether it should be changed. Everyone is happy with it til they’re not.
Rosalie says
We are outside of Johnson City in Texas and lost power for 2 hours Friday and 3 hours Sunday. Our wonderful cooperative linemen promptly got it going again. We do have propane space heaters to keep us warmer until the furnace could run again. Had several heating pads for outside cats and didn’t discover until 10 hours later that the one that is digital does not come back on with the power. Lesson learned.
Had one pipe break last night and got it capped off for now.
Hauling hay for animals and chopping ice on the troughs and filling them with a hose from the well house. Staying busy. Prayers for all those people and critters who are suffering in this cold.
Donna in KS says
Grandson, mid-year graduate at TCU, in a house with 3 other guys has been affected by loss of power. For some reason he has much of his hunting garb with him. He walked, wouldn’t drive on the icy streets, to his girlfriends to share part of his warm clothes with her. She’s from CA so sure wasn’t prepared for this kind of weather! Mothers and grandmas are concerned, but nowhere close by!!
Judy Laquidara says
What a sweet young man. You’re right, we never stop being concerned about our kids and grandkids.
Nelle Coursey says
If you looked at the map you saw that the only counties not affected were a few in the panhandle (what’s up with that!!) and some in and near Brownsville which is on the Mexico border in far south Texas. The rest of the state was entirely pink!
Judy Laquidara says
I think some of those northern counties are not part of ERCOT but I have no idea about the southern counties. Poor Vince can’t seem to keep power.