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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve OP 1 Sep
Given all that, we are installing one of Generac’s whole-house standby generators. The cost: about $15,000 for a 22-kilowatt, gas-fired, air-cooled system that will automatically turn on when the lights go out. Our contractor is Current Power Technologies, a new company based in San Antonio. Grant Winston, the company’s founder and owner, told me business is “booming.” During a phone interview on Monday, he said, “I’m opening a division in Houston.” He’s also doing a lot of business in the custom home sector. As the number of blackouts in Texas has risen, standby generators are “becoming more of a standard appliance in new homes throughout the state.”
Three things are weakening the grid. The most significant factor is the headlong rush to add intermittent alt-energy sources such as wind and solar. As seen above, Generac names “increasing intermittency” as one of the factors for “supply reliability deteriorating.”
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve OP 1 Sep
Second, too many coal and nuclear plants that provide baseload power are being prematurely shuttered.
Third, policymakers have bought the notion that electricity is a commodity instead of an essential service. This notion is, in part, a legacy of Enron, a company that wanted to trade electricity in the same way that it traded natural gas and other physical commodities. Perhaps the best example of this misunderstanding of electricity can be traced to 1999 when the Texas Legislature debated a bill that would deregulate the Texas electricity market, a measure that Enron was pushing. (The bill passed.)
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