this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
932 points (98.7% liked)

News

23296 readers
3363 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Almost three years since the deadly Texas blackout of 2021, a panel of judges from the First Court of Appeals in Houston has ruled that big power companies cannot be held liable for failure to provide electricity during the crisis. The reason is Texas’ deregulated energy market.

The decision seems likely to protect the companies from lawsuits filed against them after the blackout. It leaves the families of those who died unsure where next to seek justice.

In February of 2021, a massive cold front descended on Texas, bringing days of ice and snow. The weather increased energy demand and reduced supply by freezing up power generators and the state’s natural gas supply chain. This led to a blackout that left millions of Texans without energy for nearly a week.

The state has said almost 250 people died because of the winter storm and blackout, but some analysts call that a serious undercount.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No no... Checks the GOP playbook: we just need to offer a premium power support plan so if the power goes out they'll provide you a backup generator. It just costs twice the normal rate.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I know your joking here, but this is actually the path forward and is being implemented in other states and countries.

The power company provides at a discount or for free a home backup battery to the residence. If not free, You pay off the battery at a very affordable rate but end up with a smaller power bill as the power company can access its power to balance the load, filling it up when power is cheap and the battery being used when power is expensive.

In a blackout, the home owner gets to use the battery and doesn't suffer an outage.

It makes the grid more secure by dispersing it around thousands of homes instead of a large expensive failure points and gives them an improved ability to balance the overall load instead of needing a gas peaker plant.

I think it was recently announced that a Vermont power company was going to onboard 100% of their users in the next few years, but it's happening elsewhere too. If a tree takes something down in a snow storm, people won't lose power giving them time to fix it.

[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That actually seems like a really good idea on the infrastructure side. We should still get rid of private power companies.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

We should still get rid of private power companies.

Absolutely.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Batteries are consumable though. Only so much usage available

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

An LFP battery will last over a decade of daily full discharges, and that's not going to be what happens, and even then, it's still 80%.

Probably looking at ~~30-40~~ 20-30 years before wanting to replace it due to energy levels.

Peaker plants also require maintenance and staffing and other costs associated with them.

The batteries being consumable isn't a problem.

Edit: and gas from a peaker plant is consumed too