Only In Texas....

[sunday]

Or a Torsen diff.

[DB]

Just so. With 4 wheel drive, you need three of them to be fully covered. I think that torsen (as in "torque sensing") is frequently used to govern the front to rear distribution, but I'm sure every option has been used at various times.

[Ivanhoe]

4 hours ago, Rick said:

Limited slip differential? Was thinking of one when get a newer full bed pickup truck.

Without question. A standard open diff is fine on dry asphalt, but useless in the slippery stuff.

It'll pay for itself after the first time you need a tow because one of your rear wheels went off-pavement into slick mud.

 

[Ivanhoe]

8 hours ago, rmgill said:

There's the cost. Does the company plan for power generation/fuel delivery systems to handle the extreme weather of say Minot, ND for central Texas? 

You cannot talk about cost without first talking about the way Texas' energy "market" works, and the regulatory environment within which the generators operate*. Due to the subsidies given solar and wind, and the precedence they have over traditional generation, and the squirreliness of regulations controlling who/what can own generation, the first thing you have to do is let go of any beliefs about normal microeconomics.

There's also the issue of temperature ranges of equipment. Can it be designed for handling the 120°F Peak temps of Texas AND the cold temps they are dealing with now AND be cost effective? 

Again, its not just about cost, it is about revenue vs. cost. As explained by the gal in the Youtube interview, market incentives punish reliability and reward unreliability.
 

* When the electrical energy system was deregulated, some rather weird regulations were put in place to control who could own generation.

[Ivanhoe]

There's a news story about a single mother who received a roughly $4k electricity bill.

It turns out she signed up for one of those sketchy variable-rate power contracts. In normal weather, she was probably paying half or less per kWh than folks like me, but when the generators have to pay 10X the normal price for NG, the power retailers jack their rates up.

AIUI, the higher rates aren't getting passed to the generators, so look for a lot of bankruptcies in 2021 in the power generation industry.

As always, the workboot crowd gets screwed, the wingtip crowd gets richer.

[Steven P Allen]

15 hours ago, rmgill said:

Why not take the chains off when you get to a spot that's good pavement? 

Geez, Ryan.  Put them on for 1/2 mile of travel; lie down in the snow to pull them off; then reverse the process to get home?  In office clothes?  Not my idea of a good time 😒

[Josh]

From what I've read, none of the Texas electrical grid was particularly cold resistant, be it turbines, gas, or even goal generated electricity. Which makes a certain amount of sense in that climate, but then you should probably stock up on bottled water and blankets if you aren't going to harden your infrastructure.

Someone commented on the interconnection issue - I assume while that wouldn't have solved all the issues, it would at least have opened up some options. I don't have it on hand but the map I saw of power blackouts from a couple days ago basically had the Texas interconnection glowing like a road flare with only sporadic outings outside of it.

[DB]

Not sure about what the actual weather was in Texas, but in some areas of the US there were heavy ice storms. These will take down overhead power lines whatever you try to do.

[rmgill]

9 hours ago, DB said:

Exactly this.

4wd (pick your own version) distributes the power across more wheels so that acceleration is easier. Brakes use all four wheels whatever the drive mechanism, so stopping is no better (all else being equal).

It can get you moving when standard differentials just spin one wheel, but that's torque redistribution rather than 4 wheel drive per se.

Depends on the diff, what power division, locking, etc is there. Brakes have proportioning valves across the front/ side to side that are set for engineering design weights btw. If your vehicle has any antislip/abs functions it modulates the brakes to effect better control under adverse conditions. stability assist modulates power delivery per wheel with controls in differentials or in the brakes themselves to keep cars going the direction the driver wants.

 

[rmgill]

3 hours ago, Steven P Allen said:

Geez, Ryan.  Put them on for 1/2 mile of travel; lie down in the snow to pull them off; then reverse the process to get home?  In office clothes?  Not my idea of a good time 😒

 

Better than digging out of a snow bank in office clothes. Or get a pinzgauer. diff and transfer case locks.  

For inclement weather, throw on a set of coveralls. As to chain install, lay them out on the pavement drive over them, lift them over the tire, hook the back hook, add the primary link on the outside and add any tensioners. 

Practice doing it when it's not sleeting. A set of chains should take 5 minutes. Get a heavy canvas bag for keeping the chains in. 

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

59 minutes ago, DB said:

Not sure about what the actual weather was in Texas, but in some areas of the US there were heavy ice storms. These will take down overhead power lines whatever you try to do.

No reports of downed power lines anywhere in TX, TMK. 

Power outages are due to ERCOT telling the distribution companies to cut off customers to ensure demand < supply.

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

Someone commented on the interconnection issue - I assume while that wouldn't have solved all the issues, it would at least have opened up some options. I don't have it on hand but the map I saw of power blackouts from a couple days ago basically had the Texas interconnection glowing like a road flare with only sporadic outings outside of it.

Do you have any data on the current excess generation capacity of the adjacent interconnections?

[Josh]

30 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

Do you have any data on the current excess generation capacity of the adjacent interconnections?

I don't, however the map I was looking at indicated that all the areas of the state of Texas that received outside power (Eastern or Wester interconnection) were largely up and running, which implies there was at least some power available. I doubt the entire state could have been powered, but it might have helped alleviate some of the issues. I wonder if there is a way to prioritize water purification in the future, or if that is too distributed amongst communities to be separated.

[NickM]

hmmmmm....Ted Cruz is in hot water for this vacation to Cancun; and lo and behold the scandal surrounding Capo Cuomo has somewhat disappeared. 

[rmgill]

The left cares about expressed feelings and not actual impacts of policy. that is abundantly clear. 

[Ivanhoe]

6 hours ago, Josh said:

I don't, however the map I was looking at indicated that all the areas of the state of Texas that received outside power (Eastern or Wester interconnection) were largely up and running, which implies there was at least some power available. I doubt the entire state could have been powered, but it might have helped alleviate some of the issues. I wonder if there is a way to prioritize water purification in the future, or if that is too distributed amongst communities to be separated.

it appears that water plants are on regional circuits, so when the power resellers cut off a suburb, they also cut off the water plant. Most of the boil water notices are because the water systems had an episode of low pressure; the EPA apparently requires a BWN every time pressure drops below some threshold.

One might wonder how big of a diesel genset it would take to keep a water plant at full ops. An interesting thing is that a big diesel tank could be used to refuel service trucks, so that the fuel would stay fresh and not turn into biosludge as tends to happen with generator installations like hospitals.

 

[Ivanhoe]

It occurred to me today that Texas could lighten the government thumb on the scale by having a state tax on federal subsidies roughly equal to the size of the subsidies.

Likewise, some sort of winterization tax incentive would be nice. I don't know at this point what else could be done at the state level to encourage overcapacity to get it back up to 15% or so.

https://streetwiseprofessor.com/who-is-to-blame-for-swps-and-texass-forced-outage/
 

Quote

 

Texas has had longstanding concerns about reserve margins. The main drivers have been the retirement of substantial amounts of coal generating capacity, and relatively low rates of increase in natural gas generation (a measly 3.5 percent over the past 4 years) at the same time wind capacity has more than doubled and solar capacity has increased by 2000 percent.

The problems here are twofold. First, wind and solar availability and output are often negatively correlated with demand. (Solar wasn’t doing much at 10PM on Monday, now was it?) Second, and more insidiously, wind and solar generation depress prices–often to below zero–at other times, which undermines the economics of thermal generation. Hence, the low rate of investment in gas, and the actual disinvestment in coal.

As I said, this is a longstanding problem. I remember hosting a roundtable on this issue at UH in 2005 or 2006. Generators were already raising alarms that negative prices were a powerful disincentive to investment.

Things have only worsened since, and perverse policy is to blame. It is unarguable that wind and solar capacity have increased to extremely inefficient levels due to lavish subsidies, especially at the federal level. As a result, Texas has a grotesquely inefficient resource mix.

 

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

7 hours ago, NickM said:

hmmmmm....Ted Cruz is in hot water for this vacation to Cancun; and lo and behold the scandal surrounding Capo Cuomo has somewhat disappeared. 

[Ivanhoe]

I'll be a little surprised if the CEO of ERCOT avois the noose;

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/environment/2021/02/19/winter-storm-texas-ercot-officials-spent-40-seconds-preparedness-meeting/4507805001/
 

Quote

 

Bill Magness, president and chief executive officer of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, spoke briefly about the winter weather during his report to the board at the Feb. 9 meeting, the only mention of the incoming storm during the public portion of the virtual meeting, which spanned two hours, 28 minutes.

Magness spoke about the approaching cold front for about 40 seconds: 

“It is actually going to be winter here pretty soon. As those of you in Texas know, we do have a cold front coming this way. We’ll probably see our winter peak later this week or in the very early part of next week. And Operations has issued an operating condition notice just to make sure everyone is up to speed with their winterization and we’re ready for the several days of pretty frigid temperatures to come our way.

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/ercot-didnt-conduct-on-site-inspections-of-power-plants-to-verify-winter-preparedness/2555578/
 

Quote

 

NBC 5 Investigates has also learned that ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, did not conduct any on-site inspections of the state's power plants to see if they were ready for this winter season. Due to COVID-19 they conducted virtual tabletop exercises instead - but only with 16% of the state's power generating facilites.

As of Wednesday, 40% of the state's generators, four out of every 10, remain knocked offline from an "unprecedented" and "extraordinary" winter storm. Those generators account for 46,000 megawatts of power, enough electricity to power roughly 9.2 million homes.

 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/19/ercot-texas-power-grid-outage-board-bill-magness-greg-abbott-public-utility-commision-energy/4515522001/
 

Quote

 

According to reports, tax filings from 2018 tax filings showed multiple board members with five to six-figure salaries despite working anywhere from five to 15 hours per week.

Magness was given $883,000 that year, the filings show.

 

 

[Josh]

It sounds like a lot of people will get the axe.

[Josh]

I don't think it's worth posting in a new thread, so I'm going to go on a slight Ted Cruz tangent with an article I read that made some interesting comparisons. It clearly is written by someone with a left wing political axe to grind, but I found the comparison between Ted and Beto/AOC really biting:

"

When political incentives are aligned toward boosting Trump, owning the libs, and destroying anyone who says otherwise on social media, it’s easy to think that the path to statesmanship and stardom lies in shitposting on Twitter. Rather, than, say, leveraging your position to marshall resources, raise money, and demand accountability from the influential executives who put Texans in such a miserable condition. Better to leave that to the libs—like Beto O’Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Think about this for a minute: Beto O’Rourke is a private citizen who lost a Senate race to Cruz two years ago. AOC is a member of Congress from the Bronx. O’Rourke organized a massive phone bank to check on Texas seniors, see if they needed help, and direct them to resources. AOC put together a fundraiser for relief services and raised $2 million in two days.

Ted Cruz flew to the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun while Republican Governor Gregg Abbott jumps on to Fox to blame the Green New Deal—which is not an actual law on the books, by the way—for the catastrophe. 

"

https://thebulwark.com/on-cancun-and-the-insurrection/?fbclid=IwAR0-EmoX7SlCns3SxmyTjAYOU_qpFbW788Gr6TwlVE-rOQpaXiesIHqzx7c

[Ivanhoe]

I don't know a single person who got a call from Paddy.

But hey, it sounds good.

As for Abbott, here is the exact quote;

https://grist.org/politics/governor-greg-abbott-on-texas-blackouts-show-that-even-the-weather-is-polarized/

Quote

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott told host Sean Hannity. “Our wind and our solar got shut down — and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid.”

But we're at the point where nobody in their right mind expects any honesty from the left.

And the bullcrap barrage it trying to snow over the fact that 1/3 of the lost generation was wind.

 

[Mikel2]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

I don't think it's worth posting in a new thread, so I'm going to go on a slight Ted Cruz tangent with an article I read that made some interesting comparisons. It clearly is written by someone with a left wing political axe to grind, but I found the comparison between Ted and Beto/AOC really biting:

"

When political incentives are aligned toward boosting Trump, owning the libs, and destroying anyone who says otherwise on social media, it’s easy to think that the path to statesmanship and stardom lies in shitposting on Twitter. Rather, than, say, leveraging your position to marshall resources, raise money, and demand accountability from the influential executives who put Texans in such a miserable condition. Better to leave that to the libs—like Beto O’Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Think about this for a minute: Beto O’Rourke is a private citizen who lost a Senate race to Cruz two years ago. AOC is a member of Congress from the Bronx. O’Rourke organized a massive phone bank to check on Texas seniors, see if they needed help, and direct them to resources. AOC put together a fundraiser for relief services and raised $2 million in two days.

Ted Cruz flew to the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun while Republican Governor Gregg Abbott jumps on to Fox to blame the Green New Deal—which is not an actual law on the books, by the way—for the catastrophe. 

"

https://thebulwark.com/on-cancun-and-the-insurrection/?fbclid=IwAR0-EmoX7SlCns3SxmyTjAYOU_qpFbW788Gr6TwlVE-rOQpaXiesIHqzx7c

 

Cruz represents Texas in Washington and had already requested (and obtained) a state of emergency for Texas. He's not in charge of any of the state functions. What was Cruz supposed to be doing?

As far as Beto and AOC are concerned, I would have much more respect for their actions if they hadn't been surrounded by cameras as they fed hungry babies.  Cruz is clearly not as savvy as these people.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Mikel2

[MiloMorai]

12 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

And the bullcrap barrage it trying to snow over the fact that 1/3 of the lost generation was wind.

wind is 20%. 1/3 is 33.333%

NG is 47.7%

coal is 20.3%

nuke is 10.8%

Texas’ Electricity Resources