lmao lmao.

Reminder that Texas is a separate grid, which is deregulated and financialized, according to neoliberal ideals of efficiency.

  • emizeko [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 个月前

    I would never live in Texas but if I did I would have like 20kW of batteries on the wall of my McMansion’s garage and a generator, they would pay for themselves within a couple years of this bullshit

    • Mactan
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      4 个月前

      the inevitable end for those with the wealth to survive the mortgaging of our utilities. you will have to have water treatment too because the water from your municipality or well will not be safe

    • Snackuleata [any]@hexbear.net
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      4 个月前

      That is the solution most people go for. Rather than get mad and demand power be a public utility, rugged individualism prevails, everyone who can buys a generator, and the poor get shamed for being idiots for not buying one and deserving to suffer for their mistake. I’m still a bit bitter arguing with people that the government should do basic infrastructure spending on the power grid and being told instead everyone should only look out for themselves. I’m glad I moved out.

    • porcupine@lemmygrad.ml
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      4 个月前

      if someone were so authoritarian that they’d disrupt the free market in this way, President Biden would simply have no choice but to impose tariffs on them to protect American business from such dangerous foreign technology

    • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      4 个月前

      I hate talking about solar here because you hear the dumbest fucking arguments against it that it makes me want to get violent.

      It can’t support all our energy needs? It’s better than using 100% fossil fuels though you have to start somewhere.

      What about when the suns not out? removed ITS FUCKING TEXAS

  • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 个月前

    I love free market basic utilities because of the informed choice you have as a consumer to choose to use it when you hear about price changes before you’re charged

  • UltraGreen [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 个月前

    I hate it here. Texas is a hellhole. There are zero redeeming qualities about living in this state. It’s too hot, the environment is ugly and barren, every city is a concrete jungle, flat and full of parking lots and nothing else.

    If my power goes out at the peak of the heat, I guess I’m killing an ercot exec?

    • invo_rt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 个月前

      every city is a concrete jungle, flat and full of parking lots and nothing else

      I visited Dallas once. Stayed in a hotel for a weekend-long event. Wanted to go get food. “Hey, I can see stuff right across the street, let’s walk.” The street is a fucking massive highway with no crossings unless you walk like a mile in either direction to get to an intersection and then a mile back to get to the food. Repeat to get back to the hotel.

      youre-awful

      • atyaz [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 个月前

        I had the exact same experience in Dallas. Do we work for the same company or is that just how Dallas is everywhere.

        • JayTwo [any]@hexbear.net
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          4 个月前

          That’s just metropolitan Texas. Houston is just as bad if not worse. Austin is a lot better though but only because the bar is pretty low.

    • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      4 个月前

      Having power go out during peak summer never used to happen. Texas sucks ass, but genuinely we produce enough energy that we often sell it to the other energy grids from what I understand. We shouldn’t really have any brown/blackouts at all other than the freezes.

        • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          4 个月前

          Ercot has been saying this for almost a decade at this point though. I’m not arguing it isn’t hotter than it used to be, I’m saying it’s more likely that they’re lying about the reasoning for it. Like their lack of modernization of the infrastructure in general.

          • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            4 个月前

            ERCOT is a bazinga system operator set up by the characters from looney tunes. They’re the only system operator without a forward capacity market. Everyone else pays uneconomic reserve plants money just to stay connected and ready to respond to demand spikes, but the brain trust at ERCOT decided it would be cheaper for rate payers to not do that. Turns out it is until it isn’t, and the only way they have to balance supply with demand is to curtail demand with eye bleedingly high real time prices since there isn’t enough slack in the system.

  • OgdenTO [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 个月前

    The cost being measured in MWh - does that mean that this is the production cost, and that the KWh rate that people are paying is even higher?

    This is $.688 per KWh, which is high, but like only about 4 times the cost of my regular priced electricity in my region.

    Does this jumping 1600% mean that normally electricity is less than $.04 per KWh. That is incredibly low! There’s no way that what people pay for electricity in Texas. This must be production costs, right?