Probably a stupid question...

[Osvaldo Cristo]

It run worldwide the terrible scenes of Texan houses being flooded by blowed pipes at this unsual local Winter. It is really sad to see desperated people losing most of their possetions in a such way.

On the other hand, at last here in our country, people, included myself, cannot understand why people there simply did not shut off the main water entrance when the leak started. Don´t they have a main water switch in the water entrance for each home? Don´t they have a switch valve inside home that shut off water completely?

I can see a such disaster occurring in a house without people inside but it is a challenge to me to understand that if there are people inside home.

Thanks i advance if you can give me the answer...

Take care!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Osvaldo, you came to the right place for a stupid answer to a stupid question! LOL!:eek::D

In short, yes most homes have a shutoff valve outside the home and most have one within the home.

[Dave Cav]

A lot of those probably occurred after the occupants vacated the house for a warmer location, and failed to close the main water shut off before leaving.

Unfortunately a lot of people just have no clue as to how things (like main water shut off valves) work.

[John Stankus]

Yesterday it was 79 F (21 C) a week prior 12 F (-11 C) here in San Antonio. There are shutoff valves at the water meter. The issue is that some folks don't know where their meter is, or they don't have the proper wrench. The apartment complexes may have the shutoffs where the tenants can't get to them.

I can shutoff at the street, and I have put in a shutoff by the water softener. So I am able to shut things down if necessary. There are just a lot of folks who never deal with their home's systems themselves and are left to get someone to come in to do it for them.

We had something like 107 hours below freezing. 3 days or so without power. (the Joy of deregulation :mad:)

John (thankful it is warmer this week)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

The problem with water lines freezing and breaking is a little complicated. Here where I live, because the area can see subzero weather, our water lines are typically buried 4' underground. So, normally water lines buried that deep won't freeze. Then potentially they could still freeze within a unheated/uninhabited house. Even in heated houses when weather gets extremely cold local residents will leave a faucet dripping overnight to keep water moving and not freezing within the structure. In the mountainous areas nearby where it regularly gets below freezing, those with homes not regularly occupied will have a waste/drain valve inside that is below the lowest point in the house. Closing this valve shuts off the water and drains the waterlines within the home. These same people will shut off their water heaters when they are not staying in the home. For example, a friend has a home in the mountains he and his family only use in the winter when skiing and in the summer to escape the heat. They shut the waste/drain valve and shut off the water heater every time they leave the home for the season. It prevents the water lines from freezing and they don't have unnecessary expenses of paying for unused heated water.

As pointed out by Dave in an earlier post, a lot of people don't know where the waste/drain valve for their domestic water is located. Our water shutoff is located in an underground vault with a manhole cover near the street. Our irrigation waste/drain valve for our untreated irrigation water is located in a different vault with a manhole cover. Though our irrigation waterline is buried at a 4' level it comes up to a 1" level at the two control boxes I installed and in which I placed the sprinkler system control valves. I shut this irrigation water waste/drain valve each fall, it drains the lines to the control valves and then I have the sprinkler lines blown out with a commercial air compressor so the sprinkler lines don't freeze during the winter.

[George Yetka]

the other problem is some of these breaks are before the valve.

Most codes call for underground pipe to be buried below the frost line but a place like texas probably has a shallow frost line. A freeze like they just got may have caused some of these to freeze and crack/split as well.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

the other problem is some of these breaks are before the valve.

Most codes call for underground pipe to be buried below the frost line but a place like texas probably has a shallow frost line. A freeze like they just got may have caused some of these to freeze and crack/split as well.

The frost line variation can cause problems. One of our friends sold their local home and moved to Tucson, AZ. He was shocked to find just digging in his yard to remove a dead tree he hit the incoming water line.

[Jerry Bruette]

Simply because they don't know what they don't know. If you've never dealt with those types of temperatures you aren't aware of the consequences.

[Jerry Bruette]

the other problem is some of these breaks are before the valve.

Most codes call for underground pipe to be buried below the frost line but a place like texas probably has a shallow frost line. A freeze like they just got may have caused some of these to freeze and crack/split as well.

Being below the normal frost line is no guarantee of safety either. If those lines happen to go under a driveway or a road the frost can be driven deeper than normal. Cities around here will typically have one or two water main breaks every winter. I've already seen frozen septic systems if we don't have enough snow cover before the sub zero temps. hit.

[Doug Dawson]

A lot of those probably occurred after the occupants vacated the house for a warmer location, and failed to close the main water shut off before leaving.

Unfortunately a lot of people just have no clue as to how things (like main water shut off valves) work.
This has never happened before in Central to South Texas, in its extreme, and nothing even _remotely_ like it has happened here in over thirty years. Most Texans have no experience with it. The standard advice has always been to keep the taps dripping during a hard freeze. People get that from the local news. Nothing in the local media talked about shutting the water off at the street, and the way those valves are usually configured, you’d need a special utility wrench to do it, which few people have (you could always call the utility to come out and do it for you.) In fact, during the third day of the freeze people were told by the local media, instructed by the utilities, to stop their taps from dripping, so that they could more easily repressurize the systems.

Needless to say, people who were “just doing as they were told” suffered some calamitous consequences. Trust the gubment, huh? :^)

I suppose you could just go on the internet for a second opinion, but that was down (as was cel phone service) in many areas. Chipping your way into the car (if you could) to listen to the car radio was often the only way to get any information as to what was going on. The roads were impassible anyway.

What _we_ did here in South Texas was shut off the water at the street and drain all the plumbing. No water issues, even though we were without power for three days.

What really mystified _me_ is all of the so-called facilities managers who had no idea what to do. Some of the most dramatic media footage after the fact was of commercial and institutional buildings that had severe water damage. I guess they never saw it coming.

[Malcolm McLeod]

It run worldwide the terrible scenes of Texan houses ...

I don't want to minimize the impact of the weather and power situation on those it DID impact, but not everyone was frozen, flooded, and in the dark. Beware the IF-IT-BLEEDS-IT-LEADS media reports.

And some of the disasters are self-inflicted. I have family in Houston, in a rental home, with typical setup: meter at the curb, shutoff valve there, buried line to the house ... but then discovered it emerging from the ground outside the house. Landlord had pulled it out to tap for a yard spigot. As prep for the cold snap, family insulated the water line coming into the house. Based on time below freezing, it was not even close to enough. Should have heat traced it - - but wait - - that requires electricity. Where did that go? (Note: in 20yrs family has seen snow in Houston once. Melted in <2 hrs.)

....Still haven't heard why they shut down all the wind turbines? TX has largest installed wind energy potential in the US, but I drove by hundreds of them just standing there, blades feathered - in a howling wind. One media outlet said they were 'frozen' (...but the nacelles have heat!). Proof of intermittency? Mismanagement? Or just STOOO-PID?

[John Stankus]

Frost line... not in San Antonio

Our all time record for time below freezing is 109 hours (last week was a close second). When you are not below freezing for very many hours in a year, the ground does not freeze.

The line to my water meter is maybe a foot down if I'm lucky, But he meter and the pipe connecting it are exposed in a little hole with a metal cover.453017 Actually looking at the picture it may be a bit less than a foot deep. Shut off is adjacent to the meter.

When you deal with that level of cold once a decade, those coping skills are not developed (practiced).

It would be nice to have a drain for the system (or at least for the outside faucets, which can be at risk even in our normal brief freezing spells)

John

[Doug Garson]

Still haven't heard why they shut down all the wind turbines? TX has largest installed wind energy potential in the US, but I drove by hundreds of them just standing there, blades feathered - in a howling wind. One media outlet said they were 'frozen' (...but the nacelles have heat!). Proof of intermittency? Mismanagement? Or just STOOO-PID?
Why are you singling out wind turbines? The majority of the lost power generation capacity was thermal power plants (gas, coal and nuclear). One reason for the lost production for both the windmills and thermal power plants was because they weren't winterized. Why weren't they winterized is the question. Another reason for the lost production was a shortage of gas again because the gas system wasn't winterized.
This is a classic example of what happens when you have a lack of regulations to force for profit utilities to spend money to avoid disasters and then just when you thought it couldn't get worse these same utilities use the excuse that demand exceeds supply to jack up prices on those who didn't lose power.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Why are you singling out wind turbines? The majority of the lost power generation capacity was thermal power plants (gas, coal and nuclear). One reason for the lost production for both the windmills and thermal power plants was because they weren't winterized. Why weren't they winterized is the question. Another reason for the lost production was a shortage of gas again because the gas system wasn't winterized.
This is a classic example of what happens when you have a lack of regulations to force for profit utilities to spend money to avoid disasters and then just when you thought it couldn't get worse these same utilities use the excuse that demand exceeds supply to jack up prices on those who didn't lose power.

Are you with ERCOT? ;)

I 'singled out' wind turbines because I drove by 300-400 of them just standing there (from Carlsbad NM to Dallas TX); even passing thru Sweetwater TX - - their city limit sign is a 150-ish foot turbine blade! :: "Wind Turbine Capital of TEXAS!"

Want to spread the wealth? PV was down cuz it was cloudy and it snowed on them. Apparently no one thought of that either.

Some thermal plants aren't winterized because there is no demand for them in the (typical) winter. They do maintenance in winter, so we can run the dog-snot out of them when its 108F and we set the AC to 'cool breeze':cool:. We only use ~45-50% of our peak summer capacity in the (typical) winter, so the unused plants are not paid to be on standby. ...the AUDACITY (spelt 'greed'?) of not paying for what we're not using. Tsk. Tsk.

Check a little deeper on the high bill 'victims'. They are on wholesale rate plans and have been saving money every month .... until they didn't. I watched one such victim interviewed - - terrible, horrible, very bad, no good electrical supplier, aka the boutique wholesale supplier she chose, warned her to change plans 2 days before her 'victimization'. She chose not to avail herself of that. ...Here's your sign.

...I'm NOT with ERCOT!

Forgot: My electric rates didn't change at all.

[Doug Dawson]

Why are you singling out wind turbines? The majority of the lost power generation capacity was thermal power plants (gas, coal and nuclear). One reason for the lost production for both the windmills and thermal power plants was because they weren't winterized. Why weren't they winterized is the question. Another reason for the lost production was a shortage of gas again because the gas system wasn't winterized.
This is a classic example of what happens when you have a lack of regulations to force for profit utilities to spend money to avoid disasters and then just when you thought it couldn't get worse these same utilities use the excuse that demand exceeds supply to jack up prices on those who didn't lose power.
That’s exactly right.

[Mel Fulks]

Could have been caused by someone fighting it. Remember anti- windmill arms have come a long way since Don Quoxite. Or maybe the
guys who maintained it got better jobs making the solar panels.

[roger wiegand]

Wind turbines work fine for power generation in Antarctica. Much more total power was lost due to the gas transmission facilities failing in the cold. The failure is largely one of people. Extreme weather events are a predictable consequence of ongoing climate change; some choose to ignore the changing likelihood of extreme events.

[Jim Koepke]

the other problem is some of these breaks are before the valve.

Most codes call for underground pipe to be buried below the frost line but a place like texas probably has a shallow frost line. A freeze like they just got may have caused some of these to freeze and crack/split as well.

It amazes me how many people do not know where the street shut off or the house shut off valve are located.

Another problem is some places might not have "freeze line" codes. Then there is the problem of builders not bothering to follow the codes.

One of the problems experienced in Texas is a lot of the natural gas lines are above ground. The moisture in the gas freezes and clogs the lines.

Many places were windmills are used for power generation have heaters in them. Texas power companies didn't think they would need them.

Even the coal fired power plants had problems with the coal storage piles freezing.

Of course the politicians made excuses and even blamed things that have nothing to do with the real problem trying to cover their backsides.

jtk

[Doug Garson]

No I'm not with ERCOT, I've just noticed some people trying to blame the power outage in Texas on renewable energy when the real problem is not planning for an entirely predictable event. Of course idle windmills are much more visible than an idle thermal power plant unless you know what to look for. Maybe your electrical bill wasn't affected but there are law suits over the price gouging.
"A Texas power retailer was hit with a more than $1 billion lawsuit on Monday filed by Texas residents who accused the company of price gouging in the face of a deadly winter storm that knocked many of the state's power supply facilities offline.The Dallas Morning News (https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/23/texas-electricity-supplier-griddy-hit-with-1-billion-class-action-lawsuit-for-price-gouging-after-outages/) reported that a class action lawsuit filed in Houston district court accuses Griddy, a Texas company that is one of several providing power to state residents in the state's unique energy grid, of sharply raising prices for thousands of users in the face of the storm.
Texas residents reported sky-high bills (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/539693-texas-households-face-massive-electricity-bills-some-as-high-as-17k) in the days following last week's storm as frozen natural gas plants and other facilities meant the supply of available power was sharply reduced."

[Malcolm McLeod]

...
Many places were windmills are used for power generation have heaters in them. Texas power companies didn't think they would need them.

...

I can't speak for turbines on the South TX coastal plains, but TX turbines North and West of the Edwards and up thru the Llano all have heated nacelles.

I watched media reports of all 4" of Snowmagedon, the outages, and doom. Walked outside to await the, uuuhmm, ...end? After awhile I showered and drove to work. Again, not trying to be oblivious to other's plight, but a lot of responders are not in TX and the alphabet media may have overdone it ... just a bit.

[Lee Schierer]

On the other hand, at last here in our country, people, included myself, cannot understand why people there simply did not shut off the main water entrance when the leak started. Don´t they have a main water switch in the water entrance for each home? Don´t they have a switch valve inside home that shut off water completely?

I can see a such disaster occurring in a house without people inside but it is a challenge to me to understand that if there are people inside home.

Thanks i advance if you can give me the answer...

Take care!

Having lived in that part of the country the most likely answer is, most houses in Texas are built on a slab of concrete. They were not built with sustained freezing temperatures in mind. Pipes are often run through the slab or in the ceilings. They do not have crawl spaces nor basements. The only main water shutoff is out by the street next to the water meter. I owned a house in South Carolina and there as well the only main water shut off was in the front yard by the water meter and you needed a special wrench.

[Malcolm McLeod]

... accuses Griddy, ...

YeeeHAW!! Lawsuits for ALL! I'm 90% that this was the provider to the victim I saw interviewed. The one that she said warned her to change plans. Cuz' her contract allows variable rates.

Blame who you wish ...politicians, or BIG OIL, or BIG POWER, or even little power (Griddy). Believe the media - hook, line, and sinker - or not.

Come visit. Some of us are still here.

Out.

[Doug Dawson]

YeeeHAW!! Lawsuits for ALL! I'm 90% that this was the provider to the victim I saw interviewed. The one that she said warned her to change plans. Cuz' her contract allows variable rates.
You left out the part where she _tried_ to change plans, but the other providers said No. They have to pay wholesale prices too. :^)

Griddy does not charge for electricity per se, they charge a minimal monthly fee to connect you to whatever is the cheapest wholesaler at the moment. It’s basically a pass-through. So now _they_ should be on the hook for other people’s foolishness? Maybe you can tell that I’m not in favor of gambling of this sort unless you’ve got a really big bankroll. Ah, deregulation. I’m shocked, _shocked_ that there is gambling going on in this establishment...

[Erik Loza]

Much good info in here and I will add my firsthand account as well:

1.) This was truly a "Once in a century event". Here in Central TX, we get one or two ice storms a year which typically last a day or so. In Houston, even less. So, the majority of homes simply are not weatherized against a week's worth of sub-freezing temperatures. I expected that if the power went out, it would be a rolling blackout, which we have had in the past. Power out for an hour or two, then comes right back on. Nobody expected to be without power for as long as we were.

2.) ERCOT was woefully under-prepared to deal with an event like this. According to the latest news, we were something like 4 minutes away from crashing the ENTIRE STATE'S power grid. Hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, everything. How any modern organization can allow itself to be put in that kind of jeopardy by simply a cold spell is beyond me but hopefully, our legislature will take action to prevent this from happening ever again.

3.) I agree that folks ought to know how to disconnect their own water at the street. I have owned one of those tools for years but most folks don't. Several of my neighbors ended up using it and were glad I had it.

So, it might seem funny to people who live in other parts of the country that 6" of snow paralyzed Texas but we just weren't prepared for it and don't have the equipment/infrastructure for when it does happen. And typical Texas, it was 80F today.

Erik

[Bruce Wrenn]

Try finding that meter when it's covered in snow. Good luck! It's the same with hurricanes here. When one is even remotely predicted to affect us, I stock up on gas for generator. If I don't burn it in generator, it goes into cars. Two weeks ago, bought 20 gallons at $2.05 a gallon for generator. Today same gas costs $2.53 a gallon. Because I didn't use it in generator, I made $0.48 per gallon, as we are now using it in the cars and truck.

[Jon Nuckles]

I’m shocked, _shocked_ that there is gambling going on in this establishment...

Round up the usual suspects.

[Brian Elfert]

Here in Minnesota the street shutoffs for city water are definitely not designed for use by homeowners. For starters for a lot of houses the access to the shutoff is buried under dirt. We don't have boxes like down south, but rather a pipe that runs into the ground down to the buried valve. The actual valve is well below ground level and requires a special long wrench to reach. The city is called if the water has to be shut off at the street. They have maps of where the valves should be and use metal rods to poke around until they hit the cap on the pipe.

Water meters are inside houses here. There is typically a valve on either side of the meter that can be turned off. A big issue is older houses usually have gate valves that are corroded so they won't close completely.

[andrew whicker]

The only way people know things are by learning things. What class teaches you home ownership?

[John Goodin]

Like Erik, I live in the Austin area. These homes are not built for long term freezing temperatures. Main waterlines are typically about a foot below grade but did not freeze. Exterior hose bibs, especially in uninsulated garage walls, froze quickly causing leaks upon thawing. Power outages allowed pool pumps, filters and plumbing to freeze as well. Austin has grown significantly in the last 20 years drawing people from all around the country and many are not familiar with how homes are built.

Even the trees had a difficult time. The NW side of town had a bad ice storm and our neighborhood is filled with live oaks. They have leaves this time of year. At the moment you can’t walk six houses down any street without passing a pile of limbs that would fill the back of a long bed truck. My neighbor had a 14” caliper tree which split straight down the trunk from the first “V.” It is just a stump now. It reminds my of hurricane damage while growing up in Florida.

[Larry Frank]

It would be a good time to learn from this. Homeowners need to look at their vulnerabilities and plan for them. I think plumbers are going to be really busy as well as swimming pool people.

[Jim Matthews]

Simply because they don't know what they don't know. If you've never dealt with those types of temperatures you aren't aware of the consequences.

This is a key observation.

Each time a catastrophe strikes, it removes (by Death or dislocation) most of the residents that could warn others.

Transient populations don't have a local history and will always remain ill prepared without guidance.

[Jim Matthews]

YeeeHAW!! Lawsuits for ALL! I'm 90% that this was the provider to the victim I saw interviewed. The one that she said warned her to change plans. Cuz' her contract allows variable rates.

Blame who you wish ...politicians, or BIG OIL, or BIG POWER, or even little power (Griddy). Believe the media - hook, line, and sinker - or not.

Come visit. Some of us are still here.

Out.

Don Quiquote,

The original question was why are Texans shivering in the dark and wet. Thank you for the exposition on how (once again) the poorest and defenseless are responsible for their own predicament.

While we do appreciate your efforts to educate us poor misled steeple, most of us are Vegan heathens that are allergic to your blessed Spam diet.



Consider decamping to more welcoming environs.

[Jim Matthews]

The only way people know things are by learning things. What class teaches you home ownership?

Well, I don't know anyone who has actually read *any* manual.

I'm only guessing but most of the dramatic videos were taken inside Apartments.

[Jim Matthews]

This has never happened before in Central to South Texas, in its extreme, and nothing even _remotely_ like it has happened here in over thirty years. Most Texans have no experience with it.

What really mystified _me_ is all of the so-called facilities managers who had no idea what to do. Some of the most dramatic media footage after the fact was of commercial and institutional buildings that had severe water damage. I guess they never saw it coming.

The same thing happened in financial services before 2008.

All the risk management departments were eliminated.

When dealing with sprawling, complex organizations you get what you don't pay for.

This is why ServiceMaster pivoted to remediation, disaster recovery and smoke removal in their business model. Nobody signed up for actual maintenance plans.

[Jim Matthews]

Again, not trying to be oblivious to other's plight
Try harder. That should require very little effort.




...but a lot of responders are not in TX and the alphabet media may have overdone it ... just a bit.

4.5 million in the dark, in houses with no heat is significant.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/

The only thing you got right is some of the Alphabet people overdid things, although the recipients appear glad outsiders did not remain oblivious to their plight.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-houston-relief-aid-texans-weather-crisis

[Erik Loza]

Like Erik, I live in the Austin area. These homes are not built for long term freezing temperatures. Main waterlines are typically about a foot below grade but did not freeze. Exterior hose bibs, especially in uninsulated garage walls, froze quickly causing leaks upon thawing. Power outages allowed pool pumps, filters and plumbing to freeze as well. Austin has grown significantly in the last 20 years drawing people from all around the country and many are not familiar with how homes are built...

John, our tankless water heater burst. It was an exterior wall mount, which is the common installation in my neighborhood. 10+ years, no issues until now. These units have some sort of internal heating elements that kick on if the ambient temps drop below freezing but of course, that requires electricity. I did not think to drain it on Sunday night because, well, I did not think we would lose power for so long. My next door neighbor also has a Rinnai but wisely drained his and no problems. As soon as I figured out ours had burst, I got online and ordered a replacement unit because I know there would be a run on them. Rinnai apparently makes a dual-solenoid kit that automatically drains the heat exchanger if the unit loses power and I'm going to order one of those and install it later.

To your point, we have a large number of CA tech transplants in my neighborhood (no shade: I came from CA in 2004). It's deceptive because you can live here 5 years and never see anything like this, so it just won't ever occur to you. On one of days last week, my neighbors and I were wandering the neighborhood and spotted a house with water gushing out the side yard. His Rinnai had burst as well but he had no idea how to shut the supply off (we did it for him). Point being that while most of us are handy about household repairs, there are at least as many folks who aren't.

Erik

[Doug Dawson]

Like Erik, I live in the Austin area. These homes are not built for long term freezing temperatures. Main waterlines are typically about a foot below grade but did not freeze. Exterior hose bibs, especially in uninsulated garage walls, froze quickly causing leaks upon thawing. Power outages allowed pool pumps, filters and plumbing to freeze as well.
Interesting that pools should come up. Standard practice down here is to not “winterize” pools (whatever that means) but to turn the pumps on whenever the temps get below freezing, so you can power through it. That’s what we did, but in the interest of preparedness we threw some heavy blankets over the equipment, just in case. The power went off at around 1:45am Monday, and when it didn’t come back on by 3am as promised, I threw the breaker and went out and pulled the drain plugs on them.

Snow and ice are good insulators (ask the Eskimo in his igloo,) so with 8 inches of snow and at least 1 inch of ice on top of that, everything apparently survived intact, having (with great trepidation) turned it all back on today to check.

In the past few days I’ve been bombarded with emails offering good prices on replacement pool pumps and filters, and pool repair services. Thankfully there is no need.

[Doug Dawson]

3.) I agree that folks ought to know how to disconnect their own water at the street. I have owned one of those tools for years but most folks don't. Several of my neighbors ended up using it and were glad I had it.
You can take that fitting and drive a hand wheel onto it. Everybody should do this.

The hand wheel should be modified to make this happen.

Alternatively, Vampliers (linesmans) are a nice thing to have around, should you run into an oddball.

[Malcolm McLeod]

You can take that fitting and drive a hand wheel onto it. Everybody should do this.

The hand wheel should be modified to make this happen.

Alternatively, Vampliers (linesmans) are a nice thing to have around, should you run into an oddball.

Curb Stops (what I've always heard used to describe this 'lug' style valve) at the street seem to universally suffer from a lack of exercise. Very high torque requirements, restricted access, and dirt washed into the valve box can complicate things. Around here, Mr. Loza's tool (assume the 3-4' long T-handle style) gets you up high enough to get some 'grunt' applied to a valve. Not sure I understand how Mr. Dawson's wheel is applied here, but I have the T-handle so SWMBO can get enough leverage if I'm not on scene.

The area around me hit -2F at the coldest, but the ground still never froze. Bare dirt was still soft and shoveling the walk found a layer melted against the concrete; the water quickly sublimated once exposed. ...And is why pools don't get winterized here (assuming power to circulate is available, of course).

[Jim Koepke]

4.5 million in the dark, in houses with no heat is significant.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...treme-weather/

From the story at that link:


One power generator (name omitted by me) defended its performance during last week’s deep freeze, saying it produced about 25% to 30% of the power on the grid Monday and Tuesday, compared with its typical market share of about 18%.

Interesting the power generator put it in terms of percentage of power on the grid instead of wattage output.

For some reason my brain always looks at this as some kind of mathematical trickery.

For example, if the power on the grid is typically 100 megawatts and the one generator typically produces 18 of those megawatts, that would be an 18% share.

If during the freeze the grid's total power was 10 megawatts and the one company was producing 2.5 to 3 megawatts they would be producing about 25% to 30% of the total power.

So the power company could have been producing more power than normal or less power than normal. From their Public Relations department's statement we have no way of knowing.

The statement makes them sound good. They may have been doing good. They could also have been failing terribly, but the PR makes them sound like they stepped up to the challenge and deserve some credit.

jtk

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Interesting that pools should come up. Standard practice down here is to not “winterize” pools (whatever that means) but to turn the pumps on whenever the temps get below freezing, so you can power through it.

I am glad you made it through. The “whatever that means” seems to be the problem for a lot of people. They just have no idea what to do with cold weather.

I do not have a tool to shut my water off at the street. I have a valve inside my house, about two feet from where the water lines comes through the foundation. Do people not have those in Texas? They are useful in all kinds of situations, whether it is cold or not.

[David Publicover]

I’m surprised that there isn’t an inside shutoff as well. I often turn off my main shutoff if I’m away for a couple days. I’ve known of several cases where a joint has let go and a home has flooded without any unusual weather events.

[Rob Damon]

If you don't live in an area that deals with cold temperatures, you don't know the simple remedy's.
When we lived in a trailer, even with insulated water lines and heat trace, heat trace doesn't work in a power outage. We would shutoff the main water and open a faucet to relieve pressure and we would attach a garden hose and drain a couple inches out of the water heater tank and open the pressure release valve whenever the temperature dropped below 20 deg and power was out. Never had an issue.
If we just lost power, we would open all the faucet and let it drip and get up in the middle of the night and run the water wide open for a few minutes.
We have a main shutoff inside the house, but we also bought a tool at HD to shutoff the water at the street. Wasn't that expensive.

[Doug Garson]

This is a key observation.

Each time a catastrophe strikes, it removes (by Death or dislocation) most of the residents that could warn others.

Transient populations don't have a local history and will always remain ill prepared without guidance.
Don't follow your logic in this case. If we were talking about Alaska and people who moved there from Texas then yes the transient population wouldn't be aware of the history of water lines freezing but we are talking about Texas where freezing water lies is possible but rare.

[Larry Frank]

It is a good time for homeowners to learn about their houses. Where are the shut offs or drains. What pipes are likely to freeze. This will likely happen again. What can be done for the next occurrence?

Maybe houses need to be built with better insulation and pipe protection.

Up north we know what we need to do for winter to protect from burst pipes and other cold weather issues.

[Doug Garson]

I think the Texas incident was more a message that the power grid needs to be upgraded and interconnected with the rest of the country. Better insulation on your pipes only buys you a little time, without power at -10F it's just a matter of time before they freeze.

[Bill Dufour]

My uncle works for years for Lockheed in San Jose. Many of the buildings had been built during WW2. In the early seventies the Vietnam war ended and business slowed down. It was no longer running 24/7. They found out that much of the lighting had no switches. The lights had been turned on 35 years ago and never switched off. There were circuit breakers buried away locked up somewhere and hard to figure out.
Bil lD

[Keith Outten]

Texas is very proud of the fact that their electrical grid is not connected to the national grid. There are very good reasons to operate outside of the main grid, think about the power outage that happened in New York that brought down the entire east coast. We now have protective systems to keep this from happening again but they could fail, nothing is perfect.
Connecting to the main grid saves a lot of money allowing each state to build and manage less power stations so that there is makeup electricity available during plant refueling and maintenance outages. The downside is that you must comply with a broader range of safety regulations and be able to provide neighbors with power during unplanned events. The power company in Virginia is part of a multi state cooperative, years ago we had to keep 20% on the grid above our normal demand so there was always capacity to pickup the loss of a power station. Don't know if this is still the case because there haven't been any major power plants built in Virginia since 1980.

Virginia is currently building one of the largest wind farms in the Atlantic ocean 25 miles off the coast. I expect it will be a major failure, the cost is prohibitive based on the projected lifespan of the equipment.

[Curt Harms]

The only way people know things are by learning things. What class teaches you home ownership?

I learned it at my father's knee, not everything we need to know is taught in class. There's also This Old House and its ilk. Someone who has grown up in an urban area or grew up in a rental situation where the solution to every utility problem was to call the landlord, there's a lot to learn.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Texas is very proud of the fact that their electrical grid is not connected to the national grid. There are very good reasons to operate outside of the main grid, think about the power outage that happened in New York that brought down the entire east coast. We now have protective systems to keep this from happening again but they could fail, nothing is perfect.
Connecting to the main grid saves a lot of money allowing each state to build and manage less power stations so that there is makeup electricity available during plant refueling and maintenance outages. The downside is that you must comply with a broader range of safety regulations and be able to provide neighbors with power during unplanned events. The power company in Virginia is part of a multi state cooperative, years ago we had to keep 20% on the grid above our normal demand so there was always capacity to pickup the loss of a power station. Don't know if this is still the case because there haven't been any major power plants built in Virginia since 1980.

Virginia is currently building one of the largest wind farms in the Atlantic ocean 25 miles off the coast. I expect it will be a major failure, the cost is prohibitive based on the projected lifespan of the equipment.

Yes, always an outlier, but in my travels most here would agree with this. By all the reports I've seen/heard, our neighbor states could not have helped anyway. They had their own victimization to deal with.

We've discussed building other power plants (in other threads); all end up locked.