Texas power use hits record high as heatwave lingers::Demand for power in Texas hit a record high on Monday as homes and businesses kept air conditioners cranked up to escape a heatwave.
If only the power companies had been repeatedly warned that this would happen, and given millions of dollars of taxpayer money to increase power generation potential.
Oh wait… They were warned of this? And they were given taxpayer money? And they illegally used it for stock buybacks instead? And nothing was ever done to prosecute the illegal spending? Yeah, that sounds about on par for Texas.
I mean, even if everyone did everything right, the demand would still be record high, right? It’s not like heeding the warnings would lower demand.
Yes, but if they had invested it like they were supposed to, the grid capacity would be higher, so there would be less chance of failures…
Well, they did invest in it. After the mass failure in February 2021, they passed a bunch of new regulations, and within one year, the entire grid was pretty much up to the new regulations. IIRC, like 98% of the grid was up to the new regulations within a year after that freeze. There hasn’t been mass failure since then. There was a local failure this past winter in Austin due to the trees not being trimmed properly, then freezing rain caused branches to break and fall on power lines (called Arborgeddon by the locals). But there have been no state-wide failures since the new regulations have been put in place.
