Sad state of affairs when the supposed greatest country in the world can’t keep their lights on. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

After 28 cold hours, we got power restored last night around 11pm. It was blissful until about 1pm today, then off again.

It's considerably warmer today (mid 30s), so being without power hasn't been so bad. I've got a small generator running on nat gas to run the fridge, a space heater, and charge electronics, plus the night of power brought the house back up to temp.

The bigger issue now is the (lack of) water and risk of frozen/broken pipes. I saved some drinking water and partially the tubs yesterday, but water goes real quick - - you don't think about it until you use a bunch to flush the toilet. My neighbor has a pool and we still have gas, so we'll figure something out.

Praying we don't have any busted pipes in the house.... Will know soon enough, I suppose.

I agree - it is a total joke around here that any sort of inclement weather means a mini-Armageddon. I lived in Rockwall Texas for about six years, prior to moving to Ft. Worth, and in a 12 month span, the power went out 22 times (many outages were extended, including one that lasted five days in similar conditions that we are having now). The outages were so frequent that I started keeping track, filed a complaint with the BBB, and Oncor (the power company) responded with all of the outages cataloged - really something to see in print.

And Rockwall is just 15 miles east of Dallas - a white flight area that is not some 3rd world destination.

Ft. Worth is not as bad, but still, most any kind of inclement weather means power going out for extended periods.

I need to buy a big ass, diesel generator and become more self-sufficient about power.

Rockwall is very nice, I had family in Rowlett that now live in Royce City. They lost power today but not natural gas, so they are huddled around their gas fireplace. You expect this in BFE, not in a major metro area.

After 36 hours the power came back on here. Don't know how long it will last. I have the generator all gassed up and power cords still deployed to run the furnace and fridge if it goes out for a long stretch again. Water pressure back up and phone lines/internet is back. Fingers crossed. I may venture up to the country property on Saturday to survey the damage. I have been replacing the CPVC with Pex gradually but wish I had stepped up the program a bit before this. Even though I drained the water I did not have time to blow the lines out so there may have been low spots that had water. I kept calling the land line to see if the answering machine would pick up. Monday night the phone kept ringing so I figure the power was out then. I try a couple times a day now and still no answering machine so three days below freezing with no power.

I suppose our grid is part of the essential infrastructure. Power went down at 1:30am Monday, they were working on it within 10 minutes. No water/power outage since. Across town, not so lucky. Widespread, rolling.

I'm sure one pipe froze, but it is not going to create a mess inside if it burst.

I'm very thankful. Good luck guys. One more night.

We just got power back at our house.

Well, the power is still on. Generator is standing by.

Our MUD (Municipal Utility District) finally got it's crap together and we have water. It is from a well, so they are limiting the supply by keeping the pressure on the lower side (25-30 psi).

At my house, my pipe break was in a hot water line on the kitchen outside wall. We turned off the hot water heaters and drained the system, disabled the hot water lines until it is fixed. We now have cold water. So toilets flush and self fill. Water at the sink. We can for the short term boil water, Next step is finding the broken pipe in the wall.

I am expecting the power to go off again.

That is great news! What is a hot water heater? If its hot, do you have to heat it twice for the long runs?:confused:

Interesting. I didn't know we had nuke power here.

Sucks that it burst, but great that you found it and mitigated!

Texas may be the one having problems now, but the infrastructure of the whole country is in bad shape. It's a result of decades upon decades of politicians bypassing infrastructure spending, building, & upgrades for pet projects. You can see other countries building and upgrading infrastructure and passing us up in that respect. I had some friends from Switzerland visit last year. They commented it was puzzling that a country as big and rich as ours still had power poles everywhere and not buried lines. Not trying to PARF this.

Germany is having the same problem - spends money on trendy "green" infrastructure. ... which is stymied by snow.

Engineers will design and build some ridiculously cool wind turbines. But that doesn't mean that wind turbines are a smart solution. Thing is, engineers are no longer being asked what is the smart solution. They are simply told what expensive toy the the glorious leaders desire.

Truly sucks to hear of such dysfunction in Texas of all States.

Really sorry to hear all the stories from TX. Pelicans are handy sorts so I’ll bet you’re coping better than most. That kind of cold, for that long, with no power or water, houses and wardrobes not meant for it - fearing the death toll reports.

I guess it’s okay to check in from other places in this thread?

Oregon’s ice storms had about 500K without power, around 150K still without right now, expecting most to get restored by end of week and then the lucky ones left may wait another week for power - they’re in places with particularly bad damage. Internet outages are also widespread and those are almost as frustrating as heat and light. Used to be no internet meant no Pelican, now it means no way to work or go to school.

Fortunately the temperatures haven’t been that cold - houses only got down to 45F or so, plumbing is fine, but trees have taken a real beating. A big tree down on my block has cut off the road, there’s a big tree or large parts of a big tree down every few blocks. I have some minor damage to fix - collapsed patio awnings, a fence section pulled askew.

My whole neighborhood lost power, nearly everyone I know in Portland lost power, so shared experiences abound. My house lost power, internet and cell service early Monday. And so did my office building, and that was A Problem. Because the market didn’t close . . .

I drove into downtown Monday morning to rent a couple hotel rooms, then decided I wasn’t moving the family into the boarded-up deserted mess that is our downtown right now, so I got on the phone and snagged the last two “tiny houses” at the Tiny Digs Hotel that is several blocks from my house - and, astonishingly, still had power and internet. https://www.tinydigshotel.com/ My wife and I were in the “Cottage” and my daughter and my temporary office were in the “Beach”. I brought over my laptop, extra monitor, etc and was in business. Damn, wish I had the mobile office rig ready, this would have been a good test run.

So we’ve been warm and WiFi’ing here all week, popping back home to feed the cats, walking to get takeout food and coffee at the local restaurants. This here is “restaurant row”, there’s twenty places in six blocks, and a fair number were able to keep serving through the ice.

Power is back at home. We’re still staying in the tiny houses - moved to the “Arthur” - partly because still no internet at home and mostly because I booked until Friday and I’m going to stick with that. Pam and Bruce, the owners of the place, have barely hung on during the pandemic, and this week is going to help them a bit. They, and every other hotel in Portland, have been booked solid! I did get back into my office today, which was great.

Wind power works fine in the winter - if you pay for the winterized equipment. So does nat gas - if you winterize your pipelines and plants. Texas didn’t, because it wasn’t thought necessary. And TX is its own electrical grid, not interconnected with other states - not sure why that decision was made.

TX power shortages are almost all nat gas related. Wind is actually generating more than normal for this time of year - yes, some turbines are down but others are getting lots of wind.

Not the right time for this discussion but that statement is completely misleading.

"An Electric Reliability Council of Texas official said Tuesday that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, was offline.

However, 30 gigawatts had been lost from thermal solutions, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy."

Given wind power is only 20% of the total generated, that's a huge percentage loss over a short period of time.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1613637122.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1613637456.jpg

See what energy source actually dropped.

The statement you quoted about wind is misleading. In TX, wind averages about 1/3 of installed capacity, meaning if 16 GW of wind capacity is offline, about 5-6 GW of planned power is lost. And the turbines not offline are making up for some of that, turning faster. Nat gas, coal and nuclear are supposed to be able to run near installed capacity, so if 30 GW of nat gas capacity is offline, that’sa actually 30 GW of planned power lost. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=45476

Maybe this will clear it up. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2021/02/17/no-frozen-wind-turbines-arent-the-main-culprit-for-texas-power-outages/

And to confirm the obvious - that in cold climates, wind turbines are equipped with deicing
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/02/16/wind-power-isnt-to-blame-for-texas-electricity-crisis/?sh=495e7e5a21b3

The energy infrastructure, wind or natural, is not polar winterized, surprise surprise. They are all down to some extent and fluctuating day by day, wind apparently more so. For example, looks like it almost go completely offline on Tuesday.

I read an article about Griddy customers facing enormous daily usage charges. Does anyone have insight on that?

I also read that the building codes aren’t standardized across the state, and not enforced? That can’t be true?

It sure looks like a massive challenge — the closest experience I had was the ice storm in 1998. Good luck to all of you . . .

Yup, I worked at the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Glen Rose back during construction in the 1970s. Then there is the South Texas Plant in Bay City. I was not aware they had a nuke facility in Austin. I think Google Maps is not correct on that. I believe that one is natural gas fired.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1613651915.jpg