BRKG Rolling power outages underway in TX...

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TXKajun

TXKajun

Veteran Member
What an incredible coincidence!

"ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND PAYMENTS UNAVAILABLE FEB. 16-21, 2021
All City of Lubbock Utilities account management and bill payment services will be unavailable Feb. 16-21 while we transfer our customer management and billing to a new system. All payment services will be unavailable including in-person, online, by phone and by kiosk during this time.
Payments through Western Union will be unavailable Feb. 16-23.
Payments made by mail or AutoPay Feb. 17-23 will process on Wed., Feb. 24.
The Customer Service lobby and call center will be closed on Fri., Feb. 19.
City of Lubbock Utilities will not assess late fees or disconnect utilities for nonpayment during this time.
If you have questions, please contact Customer Service at 806-775-2509."
 
Texican

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Texas
Customers Tracked: 12,496,929
State Outages: 127,075
Last Updated: 2/19/2021, 6:35:44 PM

Texas
Customers Tracked: 12,464,052
State Outages: 180,660
Last Updated: 2/19/2021, 12:26:59 PM

In the last 6.2 hours, outages have dropped to 127,075 without power. A reduction of 53,600. Customers Tracked up by 32,900.

More people have power.

Texican....
 
X

xtreme_right

Veteran Member
I have a neighbor who discovered someone came onto her property last night and cut down a dead tree and haul it away. Behind a locked gate. She said they’re lucky she didn’t see it because she carries.

She would have been more then happy to give it to them if they asked, since they obviously were desperate for heat.

Just another example of the desperation of people who don’t prep.
 
DryCreek

DryCreek

Veteran Member
Dennis Olson said:
I worked for ERCOT for awhile. I spoke to many engineers. What you say is true. That doesn’t mean any actual work is done.
Click to expand...
At our plant we have a program that goes three levels deep, and is driven by corporate.
If your plant trips due to something that was reported as being taken care of - and it wasn't, you can bet that all of the management at that site will be gone in less than a week.
Why?
The cost of buying replacement power on the spot market. As a generating entity, we have contractual demand that has to be met. If you cannot generate it yourself, you are forced to buy replacement power. Buying at spot is never cheaper than what you can produce yourself - no matter how inefficient the heat rate is at any facility.
There is an incredibly strong monetary incentive to keep the plant online at all costs. When a freak storm like this is predicted, there is fear and anticipation throughout the industry. Fear - that you may lose a plant and have to purchase power at the absolute worst time that could ever happen. Anticipation - that your competitor will have a unit trip and you can sell any excess at an astronomical rate.
When you see what is actually done, then you might appreciate the effort. Seeing huge Visqueen tents being built around the intake pumps and around the exposed feed headers is impressive. Temporary heaters are set up everywhere. As an operator, you triple the number of tours through your assigned spaces and are expected to identify any condition that would lead to frozen sensing lines or freezing in dead legs of cooling systems. Now that I'm in Operations Support, we were on call/standby 24/7 for the duration of this event - and events like it. There is an incredible amount of stress distributed through the personnel at a power plant when something like this happens.
The biggest enemy we fight is the deign of the plant. Generating plants here are not built for extended cold operation. Dennis, how long have you lived here? How many times have you seen it below freezing? On top of that, how many times have you seen it below freezing for more than 24 hours at a stretch? Plants down here are built to run for months at temperatures near or above 100F. The buildings are designed to encourage airflow and maximize heat transfer during the long summer months where we typically run. Even the tax structure in this state encourages construction of power plants that are nearly impossible to adequately protect at near-zero temperatures. The generator and turbines are typically mounted on the roof. Out in the open. Why? Well, the roof is a roof, not considered as production floor space, so it is not added into the square footage for taxation at the industrial rate.
I have heard that some folks are not buying the dire warnings issued by ERCOT about how close we came to losing the entire grid. Trust me - believe them. We have procedures that we enter when we are in off-normal conditions. These abnormal operating procedures have us take actions that wouldn't normally be done. We had to enter those conditions as grid frequency degraded. It lowered to such an alarming point that we had to divorce our safety-related buses (switchgear powering safety pumps and equipment) from the grid and supply them with our emergency diesel generators. That requires an operator being stationed at each of those four very large generators continuously while they run. That sucks. Anyway, if frequency would have degraded by just 0.4 Hz more, and lasted for more than 10 minutes - we would have had to take BOTH of our units offline. So 2,400 MW of generation would have instantaneously been dropped from the grid. We have large, bold print in the caution statement directing the trip that the grid will almost certainly be lost. Across the state. It would take at least 48 hours to bring it back from a blackstart condition. This shit was real. We feel the pressure to keep the plants operating. Nobody want to be the one. The one site that infamously took down the entire grid.
Look at the historical charts showing reserve capacity (spinning reserves). At times it was less than 700 MW. That's a typical small combined cycle plant. Lose one of those, and the dominoes fall.
It's unfair to assume that on the generation side we are lackadaisical when it comes to doing our best during extended cold weather. That is the one true benefit of the competitive business model on the generation side. Outside of government subsidies that distort the free-market model, the competition ensures that generating companies have serious skin in the game and only the competitive and efficient units are operated. But, that also causes a disincentive to build excess reserves. If you cannot run a plant and sell the power consistently, why build on and let it sit idle? How are you supposed to recoup your investment? As Texas grows each year, more inefficient generating capacity is decommissioned than new capacity is added. The ease at which we will reach the limit of available reserves will only be more common as time goes on as we do not replace this lost generating capacity.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Look, I appreciate your passion. I’m just saying that many generators just sign the docs and do nothing. But you wouldn’t know that, being on the outside looking in.
 
Meemur

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
Cyclonemom said:
For some in the northern tier of states, shorts and flip flops are a year around wardrobe.
Click to expand...

I know. I have to speak to youngsters on occasion. When it's icy, cars can go into the ditch without warning, or bad things can happen to good car batteries. It is a matter of survival to dress appropriately for the weather in the winter, as well as carry a fully charged cell phone. I generally hold my tongue with older adults, unless I know for a fact they are from CA or a foreign country that doesn't have sub-zero winters.

And, yes, I have been known to wear flip-flops down to 32 degrees, but I always carry socks and hiking boots in my car, along with warmer clothing.
 
rob0126

rob0126

Veteran Member
DryCreek said:
At our plant we have a program that goes three levels deep, and is driven by corporate.
If your plant trips due to something that was reported as being taken care of - and it wasn't, you can bet that all of the management at that site will be gone in less than a week.
Why?
The cost of buying replacement power on the spot market. As a generating entity, we have contractual demand that has to be met. If you cannot generate it yourself, you are forced to buy replacement power. Buying at spot is never cheaper than what you can produce yourself - no matter how inefficient the heat rate is at any facility.
There is an incredibly strong monetary incentive to keep the plant online at all costs. When a freak storm like this is predicted, there is fear and anticipation throughout the industry. Fear - that you may lose a plant and have to purchase power at the absolute worst time that could ever happen. Anticipation - that your competitor will have a unit trip and you can sell any excess at an astronomical rate.
When you see what is actually done, then you might appreciate the effort. Seeing huge Visqueen tents being built around the intake pumps and around the exposed feed headers is impressive. Temporary heaters are set up everywhere. As an operator, you triple the number of tours through your assigned spaces and are expected to identify any condition that would lead to frozen sensing lines or freezing in dead legs of cooling systems. Now that I'm in Operations Support, we were on call/standby 24/7 for the duration of this event - and events like it. There is an incredible amount of stress distributed through the personnel at a power plant when something like this happens.
The biggest enemy we fight is the deign of the plant. Generating plants here are not built for extended cold operation. Dennis, how long have you lived here? How many times have you seen it below freezing? On top of that, how many times have you seen it below freezing for more than 24 hours at a stretch? Plants down here are built to run for months at temperatures near or above 100F. The buildings are designed to encourage airflow and maximize heat transfer during the long summer months where we typically run. Even the tax structure in this state encourages construction of power plants that are nearly impossible to adequately protect at near-zero temperatures. The generator and turbines are typically mounted on the roof. Out in the open. Why? Well, the roof is a roof, not considered as production floor space, so it is not added into the square footage for taxation at the industrial rate.
I have heard that some folks are not buying the dire warnings issued by ERCOT about how close we came to losing the entire grid. Trust me - believe them. We have procedures that we enter when we are in off-normal conditions. These abnormal operating procedures have us take actions that wouldn't normally be done. We had to enter those conditions as grid frequency degraded. It lowered to such an alarming point that we had to divorce our safety-related buses (switchgear powering safety pumps and equipment) from the grid and supply them with our emergency diesel generators. That requires an operator being stationed at each of those four very large generators continuously while they run. That sucks. Anyway, if frequency would have degraded by just 0.4 Hz more, and lasted for more than 10 minutes - we would have had to take BOTH of our units offline. So 2,400 MW of generation would have instantaneously been dropped from the grid. We have large, bold print in the caution statement directing the trip that the grid will almost certainly be lost. Across the state. It would take at least 48 hours to bring it back from a blackstart condition. This shit was real. We feel the pressure to keep the plants operating. Nobody want to be the one. The one site that infamously took down the entire grid.
Look at the historical charts showing reserve capacity (spinning reserves). At times it was less than 700 MW. That's a typical small combined cycle plant. Lose one of those, and the dominoes fall.
It's unfair to assume that on the generation side we are lackadaisical when it comes to doing our best during extended cold weather. That is the one true benefit of the competitive business model on the generation side. Outside of government subsidies that distort the free-market model, the competition ensures that generating companies have serious skin in the game and only the competitive and efficient units are operated. But, that also causes a disincentive to build excess reserves. If you cannot run a plant and sell the power consistently, why build on and let it sit idle? How are you supposed to recoup your investment? As Texas grows each year, more inefficient generating capacity is decommissioned than new capacity is added. The ease at which we will reach the limit of available reserves will only be more common as time goes on as we do not replace this lost generating capacity.
Click to expand...

Sounds like theirs never a dull moment at a power plant.
 
Hfcomms

Hfcomms

EN66iq
DryCreek said:
When you see what is actually done, then you might appreciate the effort. Seeing huge Visqueen tents being built around the intake pumps and around the exposed feed headers is impressive. Temporary heaters are set up everywhere.

The biggest enemy we fight is the deign of the plant. Generating plants here are not built for extended cold operation.

The buildings are designed to encourage airflow and maximize heat transfer during the long summer months where we typically run.
Click to expand...

All that is interesting. I hadn't considered how the basic design and layout of the plant differs with the anticipated climate. Up here in the U.P. I've worked at the coal fired generation plants servicing their fire equipment from the sub basements and grizzlies up to over the boilers, coal dock conveyors and outbuildings.

Up here the turbine decks are usually on level three or level four of twelve levels with the main switchgear a level before that and on the main floor the pulverizers and pony engines and blowers, etc. With the turbines on the roof it would be almost impossible to protect them from freezing. The design here protects the most critical parts within the bowels of the facility.

Because of the design up here I avoided having to go up over top of the boilers as in summer even when everything is opened up it's around 140 degrees up there. Up here the intake pump houses for the cooling water from the river or lake are steam heated with diversion from the boilers. I've walked into a pump house in the middle of winter and it's coated with ice on the outside and by the door because of the moisture and rapid cooling but on the inside it's a toasty 85 degrees. Without any heat those pumps and lines would freeze up quickly.

We just decommissioned two of the biggest coal fired plants that I had worked at within the last three or four years. Dumbest thing they ever did imo. When the last coal ships come by in November they unload enough coal to last for six months. Instead they went to natural gas fired turbines and have built several new plants. Looking at the gas pipelines up here we are at the tail end of the system and I was wondering if the gas pressure was falling off at all considering the production issues and larger draws on the system from further south. They stuck tens of millions of dollars into these plants including new state of the art precipitator baghouses to deal with emissions and it was rare to see more than a very light color coming out of the stacks. Cleanest that those plants ever operated and the regulations still made them uneconomical to use anymore.
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
DryCreek said:
At our plant we have a program that goes three levels deep, and is driven by corporate.
If your plant trips due to something that was reported as being taken care of - and it wasn't, you can bet that all of the management at that site will be gone in less than a week.
Why?
The cost of buying replacement power on the spot market. As a generating entity, we have contractual demand that has to be met. If you cannot generate it yourself, you are forced to buy replacement power. Buying at spot is never cheaper than what you can produce yourself - no matter how inefficient the heat rate is at any facility.
There is an incredibly strong monetary incentive to keep the plant online at all costs. When a freak storm like this is predicted, there is fear and anticipation throughout the industry. Fear - that you may lose a plant and have to purchase power at the absolute worst time that could ever happen. Anticipation - that your competitor will have a unit trip and you can sell any excess at an astronomical rate.
When you see what is actually done, then you might appreciate the effort. Seeing huge Visqueen tents being built around the intake pumps and around the exposed feed headers is impressive. Temporary heaters are set up everywhere. As an operator, you triple the number of tours through your assigned spaces and are expected to identify any condition that would lead to frozen sensing lines or freezing in dead legs of cooling systems. Now that I'm in Operations Support, we were on call/standby 24/7 for the duration of this event - and events like it. There is an incredible amount of stress distributed through the personnel at a power plant when something like this happens.
The biggest enemy we fight is the deign of the plant. Generating plants here are not built for extended cold operation. Dennis, how long have you lived here? How many times have you seen it below freezing? On top of that, how many times have you seen it below freezing for more than 24 hours at a stretch? Plants down here are built to run for months at temperatures near or above 100F. The buildings are designed to encourage airflow and maximize heat transfer during the long summer months where we typically run. Even the tax structure in this state encourages construction of power plants that are nearly impossible to adequately protect at near-zero temperatures. The generator and turbines are typically mounted on the roof. Out in the open. Why? Well, the roof is a roof, not considered as production floor space, so it is not added into the square footage for taxation at the industrial rate.
I have heard that some folks are not buying the dire warnings issued by ERCOT about how close we came to losing the entire grid. Trust me - believe them. We have procedures that we enter when we are in off-normal conditions. These abnormal operating procedures have us take actions that wouldn't normally be done. We had to enter those conditions as grid frequency degraded. It lowered to such an alarming point that we had to divorce our safety-related buses (switchgear powering safety pumps and equipment) from the grid and supply them with our emergency diesel generators. That requires an operator being stationed at each of those four very large generators continuously while they run. That sucks. Anyway, if frequency would have degraded by just 0.4 Hz more, and lasted for more than 10 minutes - we would have had to take BOTH of our units offline. So 2,400 MW of generation would have instantaneously been dropped from the grid. We have large, bold print in the caution statement directing the trip that the grid will almost certainly be lost. Across the state. It would take at least 48 hours to bring it back from a blackstart condition. This shit was real. We feel the pressure to keep the plants operating. Nobody want to be the one. The one site that infamously took down the entire grid.
Look at the historical charts showing reserve capacity (spinning reserves). At times it was less than 700 MW. That's a typical small combined cycle plant. Lose one of those, and the dominoes fall.
It's unfair to assume that on the generation side we are lackadaisical when it comes to doing our best during extended cold weather. That is the one true benefit of the competitive business model on the generation side. Outside of government subsidies that distort the free-market model, the competition ensures that generating companies have serious skin in the game and only the competitive and efficient units are operated. But, that also causes a disincentive to build excess reserves. If you cannot run a plant and sell the power consistently, why build on and let it sit idle? How are you supposed to recoup your investment? As Texas grows each year, more inefficient generating capacity is decommissioned than new capacity is added. The ease at which we will reach the limit of available reserves will only be more common as time goes on as we do not replace this lost generating capacity.
Click to expand...

I really appreciate your input.

Looking at this whole thing from an unaffected distance (N. MN, warm and cozy with a hot cuppa and a slow cook pork roast already in)...I've had to deal with uncontrollable events of this magnitude both at work and at home myself more than a few times...

Nobody plans for 100 year disasters. It simply isn't economically feasible. When it comes down to it, it's good to give yourself options when systems are in the planning stage, and it's indispensable to have people in leadership AND on the ground in the trenches who can think clearly, inventively and work a problem when it smacks you in the head, (YaY INTJ's!), but with a mess such as Texas got hit with, all you can do is muddle through the best you can with what and who ya got at the moment of crisis. Then all do some serious and honest debriefing after the smoke clears to figure out if any sort of changes are needed.
 
Seeker22

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Power came back up at 1:00AM. It is now 8:30AM and power is still on. Sun is out. Pretty this morning.

I think we will use Doc1's radiator hose idea to fix the main water line in the pumphouse.

I bought two solar powered cell phone tablet rechargers and neither worked correctly, nor had any directions. Will be returning these and getting the better ones. Any recommendations?

All in all, it was a longer duration of the freeze we get almost every year.

We had plenty of food, warm clothes and blankets. Plenty of water from ice and snow. Plenty candles for nightlights and lighters. Matches if those ran out.
Rechargeable batteries and plenty of Carbons to run the LED flashlights, hands free head lamps, and Streamlight lantern. Plenty of K-1 for the DynaGlo. Cooked on that and my propane stove in the kitchen.

Turned the cell phones to something called Power Saving Mode. That helped.

Not a bad seven days, all of us are still alive and no stock froze. The pups got to play in snow. This after action report could be much worse.

The two holes I will be filling in preps is radiator hose/clamps and a functioning, reliable cell phone charger.
 
Last edited:
S

savurselvs

Veteran Member
SusieSunshine said:
www.upi.com

President Joe Biden orders FEMA to deliver generators, other supplies to Texas - UPI.com

President Joe Biden ordered FEMA to deliver generators to power critical sites such as hospitals and water facilities in Texas after a winter storm caused blackouts throughout the state.
www.upi.com www.upi.com
Biden orders FEMA to deliver generators, other supplies to Texas

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the federal government to provide generators and other assistance to Texas amid power outages brought on by extreme cold.
Homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said during a press briefing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent 60 generators to support critical sites such as hospitals and water facilities.

FEMA also provided 729,000 liters of water, more than 10,000 wool blankets, 50,000 cotton blankets and 225,000 meals, as well as attempting to get more fuel oil and diesel in to fuel the facilities. The blackouts and freezing temperatures have also disrupted the food supply chain in Texas, creating a food shortage.
"Jill and I are keeping Texas, Oklahoma and other impacted states in our prayers. I've declared states of emergency, authorized FEMA to provide generators and other supplies and am ready to fulfill additional requests," Biden wrote on Twitter. "Please heed the instructions of local officials and stay safe."

Millions in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi were without electricity by early Thursday, and residents in 100 Texas counties were under boil water advisories after blackouts shut down treatment facilities.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden remained in close contact with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and leaders of other states affected by the winter storm and was receiving regular briefings from national security officials.
"The president has kept abreast of the developments in Texas and the surrounding states and receives updates every day but more than once a day," she said. "It is certainly a focus."

Psaki added that Biden has directed his team to "make rapid decisions and be responsive to the needs of the states as they come up."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on Thursday describing Biden's emergency declaration as a "vital, life-saving step" as Congress works to pass his American Rescue Plan, which includes $50 billion in funding for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.
"All Americans are watching the situation in Texas and throughout the heartlands with great sadness. We must come to the aid of those suffering without power and water and we grieve with the families who have lost loved ones to this disaster," she said.
Click to expand...
Well Friday it’s 45 in Kerrville/ 53 in west Texas panhandle. Thanks slow jo. Perfect timing as always
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
xtreme_right said:
I have a neighbor who discovered someone came onto her property last night and cut down a dead tree and haul it away. Behind a locked gate. She said they’re lucky she didn’t see it because she carries.

She would have been more then happy to give it to them if they asked, since they obviously were desperate for heat.

Just another example of the desperation of people who don’t prep.
Click to expand...
This is an indication of what will happen during epic events. They will come and just take and take and take until you are dead.
 
Tex88

Tex88

Veteran Member
xtreme_right said:
I have a neighbor who discovered someone came onto her property last night and cut down a dead tree and haul it away. Behind a locked gate. She said they’re lucky she didn’t see it because she carries.

She would have been more then happy to give it to them if they asked, since they obviously were desperate for heat.

Just another example of the desperation of people who don’t prep.
Click to expand...

During one of the hurricanes I cut open a neighbor’s gate and cut down a tree that was shortening out power for the entire block.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Meemur said:
I know. I have to speak to youngsters on occasion. When it's icy, cars can go into the ditch without warning, or bad things can happen to good car batteries. It is a matter of survival to dress appropriately for the weather in the winter, as well as carry a fully charged cell phone. I generally hold my tongue with older adults, unless I know for a fact they are from CA or a foreign country that doesn't have sub-zero winters.

And, yes, I have been known to wear flip-flops down to 32 degrees, but I always carry socks and hiking boots in my car, along with warmer clothing.
Click to expand...
Most people don't.

Take a look a the Matt's Recovery on youtuber for an example. The pull people from ditches, etc that are totally unprepared for what they need to survive 24-48 hours and they are out in the middle of nowhere in a lot of cases.

They actually expect cell service and a quick tow. The looks on their faces for being there overnight is priceless.

I was so cold?
I am so thirsty, do you have any water?

Etc.....
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Hfcomms said:
All that is interesting. I hadn't considered how the basic design and layout of the plant differs with the anticipated climate. Up here in the U.P. I've worked at the coal fired generation plants servicing their fire equipment from the sub basements and grizzlies up to over the boilers, coal dock conveyors and outbuildings.

Up here the turbine decks are usually on level three or level four of twelve levels with the main switchgear a level before that and on the main floor the pulverizers and pony engines and blowers, etc. With the turbines on the roof it would be almost impossible to protect them from freezing. The design here protects the most critical parts within the bowels of the facility.

Because of the design up here I avoided having to go up over top of the boilers as in summer even when everything is opened up it's around 140 degrees up there. Up here the intake pump houses for the cooling water from the river or lake are steam heated with diversion from the boilers. I've walked into a pump house in the middle of winter and it's coated with ice on the outside and by the door because of the moisture and rapid cooling but on the inside it's a toasty 85 degrees. Without any heat those pumps and lines would freeze up quickly.

We just decommissioned two of the biggest coal fired plants that I had worked at within the last three or four years. Dumbest thing they ever did imo. When the last coal ships come by in November they unload enough coal to last for six months. Instead they went to natural gas fired turbines and have built several new plants. Looking at the gas pipelines up here we are at the tail end of the system and I was wondering if the gas pressure was falling off at all considering the production issues and larger draws on the system from further south. They stuck tens of millions of dollars into these plants including new state of the art precipitator baghouses to deal with emissions and it was rare to see more than a very light color coming out of the stacks. Cleanest that those plants ever operated and the regulations still made them uneconomical to use anymore.
Click to expand...
Do you actually pull the equipment or are they just mothballed and can be restarted at one point?
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
WalknTrot said:
I really appreciate your input.

Looking at this whole thing from an unaffected distance (N. MN, warm and cozy with a hot cuppa and a slow cook pork roast already in)...I've had to deal with uncontrollable events of this magnitude both at work and at home myself more than a few times...

Nobody plans for 100 year disasters. It simply isn't economically feasible. When it comes down to it, it's good to give yourself options when systems are in the planning stage, and it's indispensable to have people in leadership AND on the ground in the trenches who can think clearly, inventively and work a problem when it smacks you in the head, (YaY INTJ's!), but with a mess such as Texas got hit with, all you can do is muddle through the best you can with what and who ya got at the moment of crisis. Then all do some serious and honest debriefing after the smoke clears to figure out if any sort of changes are needed.
Click to expand...

I agree 110% with this. That is why on a personal level you must be prepared. Uncle will not be there until after the fact.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Seeker22 said:
Power came back up at 1:00AM. It is now 8:30AM and power is still on. Sun is out. Pretty this morning.

I think we will use Doc1's radiator hose idea to fix the main water line in the pumphouse.

I bought two solar powered cell phone tablet rechargers and neither worked correctly, nor had any directions. Will be returning these and getting the better ones. Any recommendations?

All in all, it was a longer duration of the freeze we get almost every year.

We had plenty of food, warm clothes and blankets. Plenty of water from ice and snow. Plenty candles for nightlights and lighters. Matches if those ran out.
Rechargeable batteries and plenty of Carbons to run the LED flashlights, hands free head lamps, and Streamlight lantern. Plenty of K-1 for the DynaGlo. Cooked on that and my propane stove in the kitchen.

Turned the cell phones to something called Power Saving Mode. That helped.

Not a bad seven days, all of us are still alive and no stock froze. The pups got to play in snow. This after action report could be much worse.

The two holes I will be filling in preps is radiator hose/clamps and a functioning, reliable cell phone charger.
Click to expand...
We went with those battery packs. They are not expensive and we used them effectively for 5 days and kept cell service the whole time. Granted we limited our use as the packs we got could only charge the phone fully twice per. We had 4? I have to ask the wife, as it is her area of expertise.

They did not cost a lot, $10 ish per battery and they could be recharged by a car (plug in) or even a small generator.
 
Last edited:
Hfcomms

Hfcomms

EN66iq
20Gauge said:
Do you actually pull the equipment or are they just mothballed and can be restarted at one point?
Click to expand...

Nope....totally razing them to the ground. Dirty shame. The big plant already has it's stacks down and they are knocking down the infrastructure and the smaller one was in the city of Marquette and their board of light and power had considered whether or not to mothball it for future use but then they discovered they would have to put boilers in and heat it and decided just to go with their new gas turbines.

Took them a few years to get the three gas turbines from Germany and one of the turbines is set up to run off fuel oil in an emergency and there is a big above ground tank at the facility but I've been told it's only good for about 24 hours of operation or so and real expensive to run so now they are totally dependent on a steady natural gas supply.

Being of a prepping mindset I never want all the eggs in one basket and that is pretty much what they did. They do have a couple of small dams that generate a little power and a peaking turbine that still works and they had that along with the coal fired plant but that doesn't generate much power at all.
 
Seeker22

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Hfcomms said:
Nope....totally razing them to the ground. Dirty shame. The big plant already has it's stacks down and they are knocking down the infrastructure and the smaller one was in the city of Marquette and their board of light and power had considered whether or not to mothball it for future use but then they discovered they would have to put boilers in and heat it and decided just to go with their new gas turbines.

Took them a few years to get the three gas turbines from Germany and one of the turbines is set up to run off fuel oil in an emergency and there is a big above ground tank at the facility but I've been told it's only good for about 24 hours of operation or so and real expensive to run so now they are totally dependent on a steady natural gas supply.

Being of a prepping mindset I never want all the eggs in one basket and that is pretty much what they did. They do have a couple of small dams that generate a little power and a peaking turbine that still works and they had that along with the coal fired plant but that doesn't generate much power at all.
Click to expand...

That is a shame. If they'd had more smart concerned people protesting that move they might not have plopped all those eggs in one flimsy expensive basket.
 
D

desert knight

Contributing Member
20Gauge said:
Most people don't.

Take a look a the Matt's Recovery on youtuber for an example. The pull people from ditches, etc that are totally unprepared for what they need to survive 24-48 hours and they are out in the middle of nowhere in a lot of cases.

They actually expect cell service and a quick tow. The looks on their faces for being there overnight is priceless.

I was so cold?
I am so thirsty, do you have any water?

Etc.....
Click to expand...
i have property in sw utah and have seen and talked with matt a few times. 99.9999% of the people who get stuck and are unprepared are tourists who rent cars and come to sw utah and have no clue about proper preparation and common sense. the “mighty five” commercials bring people from all over the world to the area and those are mostly the ones who are completely in over their heads. they are making matt rich lol. some are the 4wd know it alls and dont realize after a snow or rain event, most dirt roads become slicker than snot, and mud tires dont quite live up to their names
 
Texican

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Texas

Customers Tracked: 12,455,348

State Outages: 60,074

Last Updated: 2/20/2021, 2:57:24 PM

Over 4.24 million customers have had power restored.

The amount of frozen and burst water pipes must be astronomical in Texas.

May God help all of those that have been impacted by this frigid weather.

Texican....
 
Countrymouse

Countrymouse

Country exile in the city
I know it's been a while, but I need y'all's help.

I have tried and tried to find the tweet someone shared that had all the HORRIBLE Pictures of the water flooding apartments, causing ceilings to fall in , cascading off apartment balconies like a waterfall---

and I've searched and searched the thread and just can't find it.

I wanted to show that to my husband and several friends.

Does anyone have any idea where I can find it?

(I don't mean the one with the guys showing what the temperature is in their home, that has the dog running around in a sweater. I'm talking about one that was a montage of, or several tweets in succession, of extreme damage happening in homes / apartments as the pipes thawed and broken pipes began running again......

Thanks in advance!

PS--and no it wasn't on the "Frozen Pipes" thread....
 
Millwright

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
th
 
DryCreek

DryCreek

Veteran Member
Hfcomms said:
All that is interesting. I hadn't considered how the basic design and layout of the plant differs with the anticipated climate.
Click to expand...

Finally, someone who "gets it".

Just to prove the point, take a look at he plant where I work at. Use Google Maps and find Glen Rose Texas. Just about due north, six miles, you will see Comanche Peak on the Squaw Creek Reservoir. Using satellite pictures, zoom in good an tight. Yes, those are our turbines on the exposed upper level. Those large lines heading east-west are the main steam lines. The smaller lines are the feed lines. The MSR's flank each LP turbine on the north and south side. The smaller tubular items are some of our low pressure feed heaters. The head tanks for our turbine system cooling water is also up there. On the north side is our cooling water intake structure. Notice how the pumps are out in the open - unprotected?

But, also take a look at South Texas Project. Same thing.

Just almost due ESE from our plant. is the Wolf Hollow Generating Station. These are combined-cycle units. Zoom in tight and you can see how open the structures are. Looking about 20 miles east of that outside of Venus you will see the Midlothian Power Station. Pretty much open.

Just having to deal with an occasional dip below 20 degrees for 10 hours or so is enough of a challenge. Imagine what we went through with temperature at or below zero, and not rising above 15 for more than 48 hours, and being below freezing for just over 100 hours.

The fact that we didn't lose the whole grid is proof that as generation-side employees, we put in great amounts of effort and take winter readiness seriously.
 
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