Texas Power Failure

[svetz]

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Two Men Who Saw the Storm Coming and Sold Their Electric Companies Before Disaster Hit​

Two former CEOs in Dallas saw this coming years ago, which is why they sold their companies. They’d separately come to the same conclusion: if something like last week occurred, it would put them out of business. One of those CEOs believed a disaster was likely, if not imminent.

The idea of deregulation was to let the market drive energy production instead of any government agency, but that didn’t translate into sufficient reserve power or infrastructure improvements that may have helped keep the plants online in single-digit temperatures.

 

[Hedges]

<The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has announced that its Office of Enforcement is examining wholesale natural gas and electricity market activity during February’s extreme cold weather to determine if any market participants engaged in market manipulation or other violations.>

Nope, no manipulation by anyone except the regulatory agency, who raised the price to $9.00/kWh

 

[EricT808]

Just joined the forum and would like to add what happened on my side. I live in NE Austin and only briefly lost power on one day, but it was back on line pretty quickly. I'd say maybe an hour or two. Later in the week we noticed our water pressure started to drop and we could tell 2 of our sinks were starting to freeze up. We opened up all the cabinets and turned on a very slow drip, but eventually we lost water for 3-4 days. Before that we had filled up the bath tubs with water for flushing the toilets. Also, we grabbed some buckets and started collecting snow. That way we at least had enough water to flush the toilets. We were kinda lucky to get the snow, for that reason...lol. Our house is 100% electric, so we would have been fubar (like a lot of Texans), if our power would have gone out for the week.

So...during this hell week, I had already started my "Prep List" to make sure we are in a better position to deal with this kind of situation in the future:

1. Bought a camping stove (Duel Fuel)
2. Bought a bunch of propane bottles
3. Bought my first 100W folding solar panel (baby steps)
4. Bought my first "power station"
5. Bought 3 Jerry Cans for water collection/storage
6. Bought 30 days of camping food

Next on the list:

1. More solar panels and battery solution
2. 12V portable fridge/freezer/cooler type thing
3. Portable Honda gas/propane generator
4. Sealed can of pure gasoline for longer term storage for the generator (will rotate to keep fresh)
5. Propane camping heater type thing
6. Some 12v USB fans
7. USB camping shower thing
8. ....etc

Before this happened we were slowly starting to become part-time "preppers" with the whole toilet paper and lack of food in the stores thing, but now...I have kicked it up a bit!! My first goal is to be able to make it a week with no issue.

 

[Woody]

Just joined the forum and would like to add what happened on my side. I live in NE Austin and only briefly lost power on one day, but it was back on line pretty quickly. I'd say maybe an hour or two. Later in the week we noticed our water pressure started to drop and we could tell 2 of our sinks were starting to freeze up. We opened up all the cabinets and turned on a very slow drip, but eventually we lost water for 3-4 days. Before that we had filled up the bath tubs with water for flushing the toilets. Also, we grabbed some buckets and started collecting snow. That way we at least had enough water to flush the toilets. We were kinda lucky to get the snow, for that reason...lol. Our house is 100% electric, so we would have been fubar (like a lot of Texans), if our power would have gone out for the week.

So...during this hell week, I had already started my "Prep List" to make sure we are in a better position to deal with this kind of situation in the future:

1. Bought a camping stove (Duel Fuel)
2. Bought a bunch of propane bottles
3. Bought my first 100W folding solar panel (baby steps)
4. Bought my first "power station"
5. Bought 3 Jerry Cans for water collection/storage
6. Bought 30 days of camping food

Next on the list:

1. More solar panels and battery solution
2. 12V portable fridge/freezer/cooler type thing
3. Portable Honda gas/propane generator
4. Sealed can of pure gasoline for longer term storage for the generator (will rotate to keep fresh)
5. Propane camping heater type thing
6. Some 12v USB fans
7. USB camping shower thing
8. ....etc

Before this happened we were slowly starting to become part-time "preppers" with the whole toilet paper and lack of food in the stores thing, but now...I have kicked it up a bit!! My first goal is to be able to make it a week with no issue.

Welcome EricT808

Everyone needs to be able to be on their own for a minimal of a few days. Coming for California we took it for granted that you had enough food, water, supplies,... for at least 3-4days. Cali has lots of little shakes <3 but every now and then some nice big ones that take out infrastructure. After Lima Prieta quake, the public information ads stated you should have enough for at least 1 week. Now a days enough to get by for 3-4 weeks would be a good starting point. If the disaster is limited regionally, then help will be able to come in from the surrounding areas. As the disaster area increases in size so does the duration of when help will become available if any. Also the more remote you are the slower any help will come. Think Hawaii when hurricane Iwa took out the electrical power system on Kauai. A US Naval nuclear power sub had to come into port and provide power to the island as they went about restoring their power system.

So if you like camping, you probably already have supplies to get by. Sleeping bags, lights, cooking gear, matches,... A travel trailer is a good thing to have too, since it can become your new home on wheels if necessary. As for food, keep some extra pasta, can goods, etc. Don’t have to buy everything now, just as you can add an extra item to your pantry/cabinet over time. Lots of sites out there on line can address this. Just google to find them.

As for power, your spot on for initial items. I’d suggest some additional items like USB LED solar battery banks. Something like:

https://www.amazon.com/Charger-25000mAh-Battery-Portable-External/dp/B07MR5RPLL/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=solar+power+usb&qid=1617640574&sr=8-10

Look at ebay for others that are cheaper. They work nice, can fit in your pocket, provide light, can recharge a phone a couple times,... and can slowly recharged off the sun or quick charge via the Input USB port.

I’d also recommend moving up the bi-fuel generator up to the number one item ranking in your future purchase list. The generator will provide more power to run more items in your home and can recharge your batteries.