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swraith

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Posts posted by swraith

  1. I think I will vote against almost all of the Props.  Yes to Props 9 and 11.  

    In general, I don't like the fund creation of some of these Props.  If the Legislature wants to fund spending, then let's fund spending.  I don't see the upside of creating these funds and then empower small Boards to direct the spending.  It seems like less oversight than just having the Legislature be responsible for it.

    Prop 7 is trash.  I'm in industry and it is a $5 billion dollar subsidy to thermal generation developers.  Very little is understood in terms of how this plan will integrate into the broader ERCOT market framework.  Anybody who votes yes for this and expects to get a good ROI on the investment, doesn't understand the situation.

    Many of the other Props appear to be carve outs around the primary tax system of property tax.  If property tax has so many negative impacts, let's reform the property tax system.  Not create carve outs for this industry and that industry. 

    • Hook 'Em 2
  2. 5 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

    It's pretty obvious this isn't a crypto friendly audience, but I for one am ok with ERCOT/Miner arrangement.  The miners flexible demand reponse capability is an extremely rare trait that is huge to the grid as it transitions to more and more renewables.

    First, no one is "paying" anyone anything (ie no money is exchanging hands). The miners are getting future credit on energy use. The reason miners are in Texas is because we have huge amounts of renewable energy capacity that often goes unused.

    Right now ERCOT has basically said to them (as it does to hundreds of other companies that don't happen to be in crypto), please stop using as much power as you can now and we'll discount you on future power.  ERCOT has traded high demand periods now, when it has no excess, for later times when excess power becomes available.

    Is it a great deal for miners - absolutely, but it's also a great deal for everyone else. 

    Do they actually keep energy prices lower? ehh, long term yes as they certainly incentivize more capacity construction now which is more and more renewable.  Short term - not as clear, but if the prices rise they use less (or none) anyway as they become unprofitable.

    In essence we are basically having the miners themselves pay to add battery like capacity on our grid. Yeah it's not "storage" but the net result is very similar.

     

    TLDR:  So you'll buy excess power we have available? And you agree to not use any during high demand if we credit you some of your money back? Deal

    Please provide a direct link to how this "future credit" works because the ERCOT settlement protocols say you are 100% wrong.

    For specific refence, look at Section 9: Settlement and Billing on this page Current Protocols - Nodal (ercot.com) 

     

    If your post was an attempt to create some kind of metaphor, so be it, but acknowledge that.  Because it is factually not accurate.

    ERCOT has a real time settlement system.  The bitminer here contracted an amount of supply for their load.  The miner then reduced their load in real time.  The ERCOT real time settlement processes look at this imbalance.  The imbalance results in the miner have more supply than load.  ERCOT then directly pays the miner for this excess energy.  It is settled at the interval level.  This payment happens on the standard load settlement cycle.  Technically the money is going to go to the QSE hosting the miner.  However, the miner is the only "customer" in the QSE, so they are going to get all the money.  Money is changing hands.  The miner can effectively take this money and gamble it in Vegas, have a crazy party in Dubai, they could reinvest in their business, or divest it to owner's of the private company.  It is a pure windfall for the miner.  The above process is the settlement for the $24.2 million ERCOT is paying Riot for energy sold back.  

     

    The $7.4 million in demand response credits is a different discussion but it only represents 23% of the $31.7 million reference in this clickbait news story.  

    All of the above is neither good nor bad. It just is how a very complex set of rules have evolved with the Zonal and now Nodal markets in ERCOT.  The miner hit the jackpot.  Oh and the miner still has to pay its energy supplier for the supply it contracted for. So, subtract that expense from this new "revenue".

    • Hook 'Em 3
    • Like 1
  3. 1 hour ago, Texzilla58 said:


    Joining the either regional grid does no good. The issue for Texas is we haven’t built enough reliable new generation to accommodate the massive influx of folks from other parts. Wind and solar can’t do it on demand; NG used to be top of the demand pyramid for turning them on. Texas needs nuclear, and new oil burners.

    Other states don’t gen enough and sick power from others. Fuck California and their time for use bullshit and constant rolling brownouts. They need to build more power plants for themselves. It’s why EV conversion is a stupid scam. The proponents think electricity is free.

    50% of the energy fed into the total grid dissipates. That is physics. We need more micro generation, better load management, more regional plants. Texas doesnt need the national grid it needs to go the other way with more subautonomous regional grids that can power themselves.

    This has to be a troll post.

     

    new oil burners? no one in the US is building new oil burning power plants.  They are incredibly cost inefficient based on their fuel cost and their pollution levels are absurd.

    Texas is theoretically getting a new nuclear plant.  We will see if it actually gets built.

    Dow, X-energy to drive carbon emissions reductions through deployment of advanced small modular nuclear power

     

    As Brisket stated, Transmission and Distribution losses are nowhere near 50%. Here is a citation for Brisket's posted 5%.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

     

    image.png.4fe12d078a5cb913da4a0544aeb9bb2f.png

     

    The 2 areas ERCOT could easily import from are SPP (lots of wind) and MISO.  Both of those have reserve margin capacity that ERCOT could import from.  In theory, ERCOT could import more from Mexico as well, but that is far more complicated, from a political perspective.  CFE (Mexico Electric Utility) already does importing and exporting across the small DC Tie.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  4. 2 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

     


    At least one AISD high school had their AC fail yesterday, on the first day of school. It’s working today. Two years ago they had month long failures in parts of the same building.

    Bond money will be paying for a complete upgrade of the HVAC, but they haven’t had time yet to replace it. Thank you to everyone who voted for the last two AISD bonds!

     

    My daughter's elementary classroom has no functional A/C. It was expected to be fixed prior to school start but it didn't happen.  The portable unit in the room doesn't keep up.  Her class has relocated to the school library indefinitely until the A/C is fixed.  Oh, and the cafeteria has a massive portable A/C that does work.  No idea how many years it will be left in place.  

    • Rage+1 1
  5. 3 minutes ago, HonkeyVape said:

    No way. That's not a basis in any precedented and codified religion. I think the slippery slope argument won't work here, because it's not just like you go register a spaghetti monster religion or I hate [insert race here] people religion online. It's for legitimate religious practice.

    The supreme court quietly (or maybe it was just lost between this and the student loans) ruled in accordance to religious practices but it also made it seem pretty rigid:

    From NYT:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/us/politics/supreme-court-religion-sabbath-postal-worker.html

     

    In your opinion, why are some religious practices legitimate and others not? Who is to decide what a legitimate religious practice is? Religion can be any held beliefs, not just your standard fair Christian fundamentalist. 

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Like 1
  6. 1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

    I notice on the Ercot dashboard that the Bitcoin miners & EV charging are going wild overnight with their power consumption.

    Which ERCOT dashboard are you seeing this breakout?

  7. Total load could definitely climb a lot more given the temperatures.  Loads closer to 80k are scary.  However, current conditions have substantial volumes of wind and solar generation during this week.  No CR.  

     

    image.thumb.png.f269c08f96f7d5d58cbe660e748bff73.png

  8. Mine is up in Travis County.

    Market Appraised value up 4.5%

    Net Appraised up the full 10% as I have several years of catchup accumulated.

    Dispute every year via Five Stone.

     

    Fucking BS....my neighbor's market appraised values dropped vs mine going up.  

     

     

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