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Interesting... how their buildings are designed to dissipate heat, not hold it.  
 
Two different worlds. Alberta vs. Texas regarding energy, reserves and emergency prep.  
 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/texas-power-outages-alberta-1.5917052

have had cold spikes in the past and still never prepared for that worst-case scenario. And while many are quick to blame the wind and solar power for all the issues, except the coal, NG and nuclear all had failures. Their system has been setup for the lowest price to the consumer and not having to follow federal regulations. Hence no cold weather provisions, no backups, no reserve power and limited connection to outside power grids.

It's frankly laughable how certain people are blaming the wind generation for all their troubles, while ignoring the fact that it's a relatively small part of their overall network and literally everything is not working, including all their fossil fuel-based generation capacity.  
 
We somehow manage to keep the lights on here even with the cold. Even our hydro electricity keeps chugging along!

It's because cold is the nature of the beast in our part of the globe. Not generally for theirs. Though it CAN be, it's very rare. Thus, not worth the cost of retrofitting the infrastructure.  
 
Truth be told, even I was surprised at how isolated the Texas power grid was from that of the rest of North America. Though it apparently makes for (or CAN make for) very cheap power rates, this is the other side of the coin. Big problems when there is a huge spike in demand in combination with a drastic drop in generation capacity.  
 
It's unfortunate, really. Given the right infrastructure investments in Texas, I could even see power generated as far away as here helping the situation. The intercontinental grid infrastructure is there (though I suspect the price may not be the best considering how many power companies are between here and TX).

Just so we're clear, I'm not laughing at them, as in, "Look, they can't handle the cold!" It's for sure a disasterous, rare situation... that they had 10 years ago and were warned about then. They neglected to upgrade and force companies to take the recommended steps should such an event happen again. They actually have deregulated and created less incentive to build the infrastructure to withstand these events that have occurred and will occur again.  
 
THAT's the cost of their cheaper power. They might have saved a few million in infrastructure then, but damages are in the billions now, and will potentially take months or years to recover from all the damage. They're comparing it to Katrina. And it could have been largely mitigated with a little foresight and planning.  
 
What I *am* finding laughable is that they're using it as a excuse to pan renewable energy, and many pro-oil pundits are placing the blame squarely on that. Had only that failed and the rest of their generation capacity remained intact, they might have been okay. But that's not what happened.

Can you imagine what would’ve happened to Texas if they would’ve gotten our past two weeks of sub -40 weather? Probably be talking about a serious death toll. Mother Nature can be devastating in a lot of different ways.

the 1989 and 2011 cold spells Texas was told they need to winterize their power generation plants and never did. They knew this could happen again. But profit before winterization. Had they followed the recommendations, this would never of happened. And of course since they decided to have an independent power grid they couldn't draw power from neighboring states. Guess one section of Texas is connected to outside sources and had no power issues as the result.  
 
It's funny reading and listening to the pro-oil people trying to blame it all on wind and solar. Yet ignoring the fact that all other thermal plants failed. They create reasons why wind and solar isn't reliable. One guy tried to say it's not windy when it's cold outside, WTF!! Wind turbines are not reliable in cold conditions and the list goes on.

MB Hydro is pumping hydro into their system the last few days

Texas has a "stand-alone" power grid. They can't even accept electricity from neighbouring states. I have a brother, two nephews, a sister-in-law, and a grand neice who live in Texas. It's not something they are prepared for at all - and my brother and sister-in-law used to live here in Brandon... they aren't coping well.

Texas belongs to the SouthWest Power Pool that connects 17 States. It runs from Texas up to Eastern Montana.  
Eastern Montana is taking rolling Blackouts to help Texas  
MB Hydro is exporting power down to these States

Parts of Texas are connected to outside sources. For example the panhandle looks to be connected to the Southwest Power Pool. Apparently the El Paso area is interconnected with the south western states. The parts of Texas that are interconnected are having minimal problems.  
 
The area of Texas where the disaster is happening has refused interconnection with outside grids and that has exacerbated the situation. They purposely refused to interconnect to avoid federal rules that would have prepared them for this week.  
 
edit: I'm looking closer at some of the maps. There seems to be some connection in the affected area, but not much.  
 
Edited by RantsFromWinnipeg, 2021-02-18 20:36:54

Our friends manage a Trader Joes in Houston  
They’ve thrown out or donated $80,000 worth of food to shelters or people who need it bc they’ve had no power for 3 days  
It’s just sad what some people are doing to stay warm and die instead like carbon monoxide poisoning