Quote:
Originally Posted by arista
[questionable if our power grid can even handle all this growth.]
Yes, they will have to Enlarge
the Power for Texas.
Many California Companies
are moving to Texas.
I went to Houston, Texas
some time back,
Nice and clean place.
|
Houston is a concrete forest for sure and so many people won't agree with that last statement
, but yes parts of it are coming up and modernizing quite nicely.
Though husband just showed me an article saying we are #1 for the "most" financially distressed right next to Atlanta, which is considered a sister city... I can't connect that to first hand experience except maybe if you look at average salary, you can still find zips where it's very low. And yet our cost of living is accessible so it's very easy to get into trouble here with a cheaper living, I think... it's not always easy to see how real life translates to paper. Many Americans are
massively in debt and yet seem to be OK with maintaining it as a status quo, even though it's not impossible to get out of it...
Anyway, back to the grid, historically our power had been really cheap. After Winter Storm Uri and the Texas Blackout, they made changes to make sure there was enough generation set aside so it could be made available during a dangerous change in frequency. Supposedly that's not actually the case it's been said, but we put a significant amount of supply towards that which meant rates jumped... And yes, our rates went up 20-25% after Uri. Also didn't help it was the same year Biden had been elected. I made a profitable gamble that year on a 3 year plan and we paid what used to be normal rates for 3 years when it was
really bad and rates were at 14-15c/kW avg. Depending on the time of the year ,it's still that expensive, but for a while we were still paying 9c/kW. It worked out because I was definitely not conservative with the thermostat during both pregnancy and then nursing... since then we've installed an eco friendly thermostat with multiple sensors so that it can turn off when the house averages out to an ideal temp and we set it conservatively.
Whether they add generation or not, we still will be fighting high rates. I know the average across the country is up as well. Allegedly Trump can supposedly address this. But what he can't address is that people are not willing to approve reliable forms of generation that could meet demand (nuclear, etc) and so they're falling back on batteries, etc... and it isn't helped either that now the govt says they will invest in AI... Part of the reason we are having trouble with demand is because of growth in tech and so time will if our infrastructure can hold with the booming changes in the tech industry... Elon also moved Tesla production here and I've seen more Cyber Trucks than I thought I'd ever see here with us being such a hub for oil.
22-02-2025, 01:25 AM
. ... and during the "energy crisis" peaked at something like 45c/kW.
Hybrid Mode
