from Hacker News

Breaking down a record-setting day on the Texas grid

by kmax12 on 8/21/24, 7:18 PM with 142 comments

• by hmcdona1 on 8/21/24, 10:53 PM

  If I'm reading this right, my thermostat's "rush hours" seem to be scheduled for gross load peak. They then seem to usually end (and kick my AC back to a desired temp causing a ton of usage) right around net load peak...which this is now reporting is when energy prices go through the roof.

  So basically the "rush hour" program has likely been costing me more money than if I just ignored them to begin with up to this point. I do realize these programs are primarily about limiting peak gross load and not saving individuals money but maybe I won't go out of my way to abide by them now...

• by jillesvangurp on 8/22/24, 6:38 AM

  Pretty interesting to see how this stuff is holding up. The market is evolving rapidly currently with absolutely massive amounts of wind, solar, and battery being deployed everywhere.

  What's odd in Texas is that they are resisting the notion of connecting to the rest of the US grid. This would allow them to import power cheaply when they need to and export power when they have too much of it. My guess is that they actually curtail a lot of energy at this point because there's simply too much of it most of the time.

  A quick glance at the main page of gridstatus.io shows that right now California and Texas are burning a lot of gas while there is negative pricing due to wind delivering over capacity in the states in between. They are literally paying people to consume more power there while they are paying for huge amounts of gas to be burnt in California and Texas. It's night time there of course so, solar is out.

  What's preventing states from doing the obvious thing here? The mid west could be exporting power at a profit right now and instead it has negative power. And California could not be burning many tons of gas right now because there's a surplus of power right next to it.

• by MBCook on 8/21/24, 11:38 PM

  So the day peaked at 85 GW of load, and they got down to only 130 MW of spare capacity. Just 0.15% from running out.

  And they never asked for conservation?

  Is it normal to go that close to the edge without trying to cut load?

• by baldeagle on 8/22/24, 2:04 AM

  What I want to know is how much we spent kicking crypto miners off the grid for a couple hours.

• by mjevans on 8/22/24, 4:20 AM

  They should 'ask'.

  After background thought for an hour, they should ask. Their load projections and needs should be fed out to the network somehow, and it should be opt in for the customer to help support the projected load shaping IF they desire and can. It should never be forced upon the customers.

  The incentives and potential for abuse of the billing provider to provide data that negatively shapes the customer's use into more expensive use is an issue that should be avoided.

• by thesis on 8/22/24, 4:55 AM

  Texas has these free electricity nights. Anyone know of a battery system that can fill the batteries at night (from the grid) and use them during the day? And then recharge at night again. Due to location solar isn’t an option but still interested in batteries due to free nights.

• by bilekas on 8/22/24, 10:47 AM

  I have to say, I don't understand very well these graphs, but this sounds like a good thing, but is there any information relative to other energy sources in TX ?

• by dyauspitr on 8/21/24, 10:56 PM

  What is triggering the battery discharge? I assume these are referring to decentralized battery storage in people’s homes.