Re: Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts

[JASON BOTHE via NANOG <nanog () nanog org>]

The professor has it right. Before the state privatized the grid and made ERCOT, we never had these problems. Every few 
years, these private companies complain they need a rate hike because they need a grant to ‘beef up’ the infrastructure 
and it’s granted although we seem to keep having this issue. I’m certain history will continue to repeat itself. 

> On Feb 16, 2021, at 06:32, John Sage <jsage () finchhaven com> wrote:
>
> On 2/16/21 4:22 AM, John Sage wrote:
> > > On 2/15/21 10:02 PM, Mark Tinka wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > > On 2/16/21 07:49, Matthew Petach wrote:
> > >
> > > > Isn't that a result of ERCOT stubbornly refusing to interconnect with the rest of the national grid, out of an 
> > > > irrational fear of coming under federal regulation?
> > Yes. This has been widely documented in numerous articles, both very recently and previously.
>
> As one example only, of many:
>
> "What went wrong with the Texas power grid?"
>
> Marcy de Luna, Amanda Drane, Houston Chronicle
>
> Feb. 15, 2021
> Updated: Feb. 15, 2021 9:23 p.m.
>
> "Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, said the rolling blackouts are taking more power offline 
> for longer periods than ever before. An estimated 34,000 megawatts of power generation — more than a third of the 
> system’s total generating capacity — had been knocked offline by the extreme winter weather amid soaring demand as 
> residents crank up heating systems."
>
> . . .
>
> "Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures on the 
> state’s deregulated power system, which doesn’t provide power generators with the returns needed to invest in 
> maintaining and improving power plants.
>
> “The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on 
> underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances."
>
> https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Wholesale-power-prices-spiking-across-Texas-15951684.php 
>
>
> - John
> __