[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes, Texas is in bad shape -- here's why it's only going to get worse

The misery and death in Texas, where the state electric grid was taken down by unusual but predictable cold weather, underscore the misguided conservative Republican values of less regulation, devil-may-care burning of fossil fuels, dangerous tax cuts and unfettered trust in markets as the...

www.rawstory.com

“The set-up for this disaster began years before Abbott was born in 1957. Two decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Texas exempted itself from the then newly established federal regulation of electricity reliability and pricing.”

 

[HDRider]

I have known of datacenters that located into Texas because of its reliable and independent power grid

 

[The Paw]

Scathing indictment.

Free market economics is great for producing and distributing consumer goods. It is severely flawed as a model for managing public utilities.

 

[HDRider]

How much of the US power industry is deregulated?

 

[HDRider]

Scathing indictment.

Free market economics is great for producing and distributing consumer goods. It is severely flawed as a model for managing public utilities.

The only thing worse than free market economics is when a oligarchical government gets involved.

 

[MosaicsMLS]

Yes, Texas is in bad shape -- here's why it's only going to get worse

The misery and death in Texas, where the state electric grid was taken down by unusual but predictable cold weather, underscore the misguided conservative Republican values of less regulation, devil-may-care burning of fossil fuels, dangerous tax cuts and unfettered trust in markets as the...

www.rawstory.com

“The set-up for this disaster began years before Abbott was born in 1957. Two decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Texas exempted itself from the then newly established federal regulation of electricity reliability and pricing.”

I knew it. I just said to my family this morning, "I’m not sure how it all works and how decisions are made (maybe I need to find out), but in my opinion, we’re going to have to watch our state gov’t and ERCOT like a hawk. I can see them trying to use this event as an excuse to link TX power grids up to other states and cede the power to the federal government. Like, “we can share our power with the rest of the country when they need it and they can share theirs with us” but the federal gov’t decides who’ll get it and when. And they’ll use it as a bargaining tool for forcing us to accept their agendas. Sort of like how we send our school tax money to the feds and they parcel it out back to us as long as we toe the line. Or, closer to home, our counties send our fuel taxes to the state and THEY decide which roads will be fixed. And, surprise! It ain’t OUR roads that get fixed."

I will fight with everything I have to keep TX from joining any kind of, or any further federal regulation over our power grid.

 

[Nevada]

I have known of datacenters that located into Texas because of its reliable and independent power grid

That doesn't make much sense. Data centers don't rely on the power grid. They use it when available, but have battery and generator backup to deal with both momentary and extended power outages. The setup is similar to what phone companies use but unlike systems used by hospitals, hotels, and office buildings, who can tolerate momentary power outages.

You'll find that data centers in Dallas & Houston are doing fine during this crisis.

 

[Nevada]

I will fight with everything I have to keep TX from joining any kind of, or any further federal regulation over our power grid.

The only thing worse than incompetent leadership is the public being satisfied with incompetent leadership. I hope that Texans demand better in the future.

 

[HDRider]

That doesn't make much sense. Data centers don't rely on the power grid. They use it when available, but have battery and generator backup to deal with both momentary and extended power outages. The setup is similar to what phone companies use but unlike systems used by hospitals, hotels, and office buildings, who can tolerate momentary power outages.

You'll find that data centers in Dallas & Houston are doing fine during this crisis.

Be that as it may, I will repeat, they went there because of the power grid. A DC only operates on a gen set and a UPS during a crisis, which are typically short lived.

 

[MosaicsMLS]

The only thing worse than incompetent leadership is the public being satisfied with incompetent leadership. I hope that Texans demand better in the future.

We certainly will demand that our leadership get to the bottom of what caused this disaster.

 

[HDRider]

The ranking is based on factors such as land and power costs, telecom infrastructure, and a local workforce with data security skills, including people trained at universities recognized as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, which are certified by the National Security Agency. Other considerations include airline service from national carriers, insulation from natural disasters, and quality of life.

The Best And Worst Cities For Data Centers - InformationWeek

A new report looks at 35 cities as potential homes for data centers and analyzes which are the most and least expensive.

www.informationweek.com

 

[Nevada]

View attachment 94013
The ranking is based on factors such as land and power costs, telecom infrastructure, and a local workforce with data security skills, including people trained at universities recognized as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, which are certified by the National Security Agency. Other considerations include airline service from national carriers, insulation from natural disasters, and quality of life.

The Best And Worst Cities For Data Centers - InformationWeek

A new report looks at 35 cities as potential homes for data centers and analyzes which are the most and least expensive.

www.informationweek.com

I use the Digital Realty (formerly Dupont-Fabros) data center in Elk Grove Village, Ill., about 2 miles due west of O'Hare airport. People use data centers for a number of reasons, but my uses center around internet applications. I've always preferred midwest data centers because they're centrally located, although the internet delay has been reduced to the point where it doesn't really matter anymore. On occasion I've colocated in L.A., Seattle, Miami, and even Buffalo.

The really specialized skill you find in data centers is those who can do system administration, although they employ their share of other talents. The problem with system administration is that colleges haven't stepped-up to teach system administration. You can get a degree in computer science but what they learn isn't as practical as you might think. People working on computer science degrees are usually looking for a management career, as opposed to a technical career.

A long time ago I had a server in Dallas but it didn't work out for some reason. I can't readily recall why. As they say, the memory is the second thing to go.

 

[Redlands Okie]

The only thing worse than incompetent leadership is the public being satisfied with incompetent leadership. I hope that Texans demand better in the future.

We do not often agree,,,,,, but on this I think your on to something.

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

This is where I insert the film clip of where we are heading in 2055 or so.

 

[no really]

This is where I insert the film clip of where we are heading in 2055 or so.

Who knew this movie could turn out to be a true story.

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

Just so all of the nuclear power folks are aware, the nuclear plant in Bay City, Texas, went down on Monday due to freezing water. They are bringing it back online slowly.

I regret to have to link to the Victoria Advocate story. Their form of "journalism" leaves much to be desired.

https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/counties/matagorda_county/bay-city-nuclear-reactor-reconnected-to-electric-grid/article_7126430a-709a-11eb-a770-cb3d1f5f9219.html

 

[HDRider]

Who knew this movie could turn out to be a true story.

That movie is way to accurate. Thanks for pointing me to it

 

[mreynolds]

This had nothing to do with ERCOT but more the federal government.

Texas plant gets nod to export electricity to Mexico

The U.S. Energy Department gave approval for the export of electricity to Mexico from the Frontera gas-fired plant in Texas, owned by Blackstone Group.

mexiconewsdaily.com

Selling the electricity to industrial consumers in Mexico rather than those in Texas represents a considerable advantage to Blackstone given the price differential. Customers north of the border pay less than US $0.06 a kilowatt hour. In Mexico the price is about $0.11.

There has been some movement of electricity across the border but usually to handle emergency situations. Now there are some concerns that the export permit granted to Blackstone might not be good for consumers in Texas, which has a history of shortages.

So who I ask is less corrupt? The federal government or the state?

I say the federal government because they have more people to pay out to. The ones that got them elected anyway.

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

Corrupt? or making bad decision?

 

[barnbilder]

California people ruin everything in their state and then leave, and take their crappy ideas with them. If you look close enough at Texas, there is someone there from California that brought stupid ideas and ruined what should be a pretty stable energy supply.