One of the dudes I play bball with is an engineer for ercot, the texas agency that is often blamed for the Feb 2021 freeze.
His explanation of last years freeze:
1. Nat gas power plants were not built for such cold temperatures and they broke, not the green wind turbines
1/n
His explanation of last years freeze:
1. Nat gas power plants were not built for such cold temperatures and they broke, not the green wind turbines
1/n
2. There just was not enough power generation. Ercot’s job is to best use the power they are given by the power plants and there was not enough so they had to rotate it between the residential areas.
3. Depending on whether or not the city’s residential grids were shared with critical infrastructure that never loses power eg hosptials, fire, and other city stuff, their experiences were different
4. One reason why the power was particularly bad in Austin was that Austin has a lot of trees and the city was not trimming them. When trees get covered In freezing rain they touch power lines causing shorts.
5. Two changes have been made to prevent recurrence. Ercot (I believe) now as the power to check power plants to make sure they are weatherized. The cities are trimming branches in the inter before storms.
#longTejas
/end
#longTejas
/end
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