DOE controls power generation in TX and canceled TX during the crisis

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Important updated information at the end

ORIGINAL STORY

The DOE limits the amount of fossil fuels Texas is allowed to use. In emergencies, they can go to full capacity, but then the power companies can raise rates. The rates went up 10,000 times.

The federal government controls how Texas generates electricity if they exceed pollution limits. It wasn’t just about windmills. The DOE would not allow the power facilities to operate at full capacity until the emergency passed or the rates went up to pay for the pollution.

Texas isn’t part of the National Power Grid but they are not independent as one might have thought.

UPDATED INFORMATION

ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, did not weatherize the plants as they were supposed to and that was a big part of the problem. If they had the three coal plants recently closed down online, they would have had enough power.

Some Texans are getting $7,000 power bills. The Federal guidelines don’t allow for subsidies. That has to be addressed immediately.

We are waiting for a call back from ERCOT, but the latest information indicates that ERCOT first asked for the $1500 Mwh. The power companies were allowed to up the charges as demand increased. It doesn’t change the fact that these Green laws don’t have an escape clause when emergencies occur.

Business Insider reported:

Spiking bills won’t hit state residents who had fixed-rate electric plans. The problem for many comes from index or variable-rate plans, in which rates to power their home or business change with the price of the wholesale market. In good times, a customer’s bill can be lower than it might be otherwise — but if the cost to produce electricity skyrockets, so too do bills.

Last Monday, as freezing weather rolled through Texas and much of the US, the wholesale price of electricity shot up 10,000%. It went from about $50 per megawatt hour to $9,000 — a system cap, according to data provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the operator of Texas’ electric grid.

Some critics say ERCOT was asleep at the wheel. Watch the video below.

Watch for more information:

CORRECTION: UPDATED INFORMATION WAS ADDED AFTER PUBLICATION. THE PROBLEM IS COMPLICATED.


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