Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
Latest activity
Classifieds
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Log in
Register
What's New?
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
Install the app
Install
More Options
Advertise with us
Contact Us
Close Menu
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Forums
The Water Cooler
General Discussion
Utility Bill Shock?
Search titles only
By:
Reply to Thread
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Message
<blockquote data-quote="dennishoddy" data-source="post: 3528739" data-attributes="member: 5412"><p>Texas has options. The homeowner can opt to be in the fixed rate or the variable rate like home interest rates used to be back in the day.</p><p>The variable rate is not regulated. That is where the $10,000 electric bills are coming from for a few days of power. The folks on the regulated power system will get normal bills.</p><p>You can thank your Okla Corporation Commission for looking into the future when the commifornika rolling blackouts were happening in the late 90's I think it was in their unregulated system that relied on mostly wind and solar.</p><p>The Ok Legislature elected to remain under a regulated system. Merchant power plants were being built around OK in anticipation of going unregulated. The CC required OG&E to absorb them although they were only natural gas peaking plants, not base load and had no redundancy. Base load power plants carry dual redundancy so they can stay online with full power if a motor/pump, etc fails. The plant just keeps going while control systems switch over to the backup.</p><p>OG&E as well as ONG are regulated for most of their power outputs around the state but there are exceptions for gas delivery. Heard on KRMG radio today that Jet Ok and maybe Nash were under unregulated gas so their bills could be high but Gov Stitt said they would look into it. Electric won't be affected for users around the state. OG&E uses excess power that is generated in the Southwest Power Pool to make a profit. The profit margin allowed by the Corporation commission we pay for our electric won't pay the bills to keep the company alive so the sale of unregulated electricity is where they make their profit.</p><p>What happened in Tx was that the fossil plants and the wind/solar plants were not set up for freezing weather. Worst weather in 49 years.</p><p>When I spent 16 years at OG&E Sooner Power Plant one of my jobs during maintenance shutdowns was to built heated instrument cabinets that were freeze proof so critical data that kept the plant online would not be interrupted by sub zero weather. Every winter when the temps got well below freezing it was all hands on deck at our plant with propane torches and spare bottles to keep the older instruments from freezing up in cabinets that had not been upgraded to freeze proof.</p><p>None of the Tx power plants/wind farms/ solar farms were freeze proof. Solar panels have to follow the sun across the horizon. Covered in Snow and frozen, they couldn't do that. Wind towers were covered in ice and snow with the instruments frozen. How do they become frozen? Humidity in the air is brought into the instrumentation and freezes the diaphragms/gears/whatever is needed to monitor pressures, heat, environmental monitoring and so on. It's a very detailed monitoring by instrumentation to keep a power plant alive and running.</p><p>Thousands of those data points are being monitored. In some cases only one can trip a 1100 megawatt power plant offline if they fall below the threshold.</p><p>The EPA would not allow the Tx fossil fuel power plants to exceed their environmental government requirements so they could ramp up and cover part of the load that was building. They froze up their instrumentation and were forced to shut down.</p><p>I saw a program today that gave the Tx Nukes an A rating for keeping the power coming. Fossil fuel plants a C rating, and "green energy" an F rating. The green energy totally failed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dennishoddy, post: 3528739, member: 5412"] Texas has options. The homeowner can opt to be in the fixed rate or the variable rate like home interest rates used to be back in the day. The variable rate is not regulated. That is where the $10,000 electric bills are coming from for a few days of power. The folks on the regulated power system will get normal bills. You can thank your Okla Corporation Commission for looking into the future when the commifornika rolling blackouts were happening in the late 90's I think it was in their unregulated system that relied on mostly wind and solar. The Ok Legislature elected to remain under a regulated system. Merchant power plants were being built around OK in anticipation of going unregulated. The CC required OG&E to absorb them although they were only natural gas peaking plants, not base load and had no redundancy. Base load power plants carry dual redundancy so they can stay online with full power if a motor/pump, etc fails. The plant just keeps going while control systems switch over to the backup. OG&E as well as ONG are regulated for most of their power outputs around the state but there are exceptions for gas delivery. Heard on KRMG radio today that Jet Ok and maybe Nash were under unregulated gas so their bills could be high but Gov Stitt said they would look into it. Electric won't be affected for users around the state. OG&E uses excess power that is generated in the Southwest Power Pool to make a profit. The profit margin allowed by the Corporation commission we pay for our electric won't pay the bills to keep the company alive so the sale of unregulated electricity is where they make their profit. What happened in Tx was that the fossil plants and the wind/solar plants were not set up for freezing weather. Worst weather in 49 years. When I spent 16 years at OG&E Sooner Power Plant one of my jobs during maintenance shutdowns was to built heated instrument cabinets that were freeze proof so critical data that kept the plant online would not be interrupted by sub zero weather. Every winter when the temps got well below freezing it was all hands on deck at our plant with propane torches and spare bottles to keep the older instruments from freezing up in cabinets that had not been upgraded to freeze proof. None of the Tx power plants/wind farms/ solar farms were freeze proof. Solar panels have to follow the sun across the horizon. Covered in Snow and frozen, they couldn't do that. Wind towers were covered in ice and snow with the instruments frozen. How do they become frozen? Humidity in the air is brought into the instrumentation and freezes the diaphragms/gears/whatever is needed to monitor pressures, heat, environmental monitoring and so on. It's a very detailed monitoring by instrumentation to keep a power plant alive and running. Thousands of those data points are being monitored. In some cases only one can trip a 1100 megawatt power plant offline if they fall below the threshold. The EPA would not allow the Tx fossil fuel power plants to exceed their environmental government requirements so they could ramp up and cover part of the load that was building. They froze up their instrumentation and were forced to shut down. I saw a program today that gave the Tx Nukes an A rating for keeping the power coming. Fossil fuel plants a C rating, and "green energy" an F rating. The green energy totally failed. [/QUOTE]
Insert Quotes…
Verification
Post Reply
Forums
The Water Cooler
General Discussion
Utility Bill Shock?
Search titles only
By:
Top
Bottom