Rolling Power Outages

The storm of the century is upon us. Nationwide, temperatures have plummeted and snow and ice are continuing to take over life as we know it. Chicago, New York, Boston, Tulsa, have incurred billions of dollars in damage as a result. 



 But, up in northern Texas, specifically Dallas, the airports are shut down and streets are sheets of ice. Drivers battle the ice, and each other, on the roadways to the amusement of onlookers. As long as no accident results, watching someone unsuccessfully continue to try to get up a hill of ice is somewhat amusing.

And, one big question looms in everyone's mind: what will happen to the Superbowl?

While the rest of the country is dealing with these horrendous burdens, we living down here in Houston have our own worries. We, too, have been plagued by intense, record-breaking cold for days. No ice, no snow. {There is a reason I live in the South} We throw on sweaters and try to dig out our coats. Can't remember where the gloves are but here is a scarf. We walk around with our arms clutched around ourselves as we try to retain our body heat and we brace ourselves against the frigid wind. At least the sky is blue and clear.

You get the idea.

However, with that icy cold comes more energy use. The first response here is to turn the thermostat up; our houses down here are not built to withstand and insulate us from the cold. When enough people do that, energy supply is most likely affected.

The Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT...change that to a 'P' and you get EPCOT) determined at some point in the last few days, as the temperatures started going down, the necessity of rolling power outages throughout Texas. The extreme temperatures in our state (all due to global warming, I'm sure) along with excessive use of energy by paying customers has destabilized supply in our great state. The Council deemed it critical to preserve the energy balance by switching off supply to random neighborhoods for indeterminate amounts of time beginning this morning. Thank goodness the Council excluded hospitals, nursing homes, public service facilities, and water treatment plants from this inconvenience. Read more....


I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I am not normally one who complains about stuff like this. I understand the basics behind the perceived need and I really do hope that, despite the inconveniences, our energy source in Texas was stabilized as they had hoped.


However, the critical side of me, the evil flipside of my personality, can't help but point out some cracks in the facade and characterize how "the best laid plans of mice and men" can be distorted. Sorry...my cynicism roars during times like these.

It was considerate of them to exclude hospitals and other public service facilities, but why not exclude the schools as well? After all, schools are public facilities. If they can pick and choose locations like a hospital or a water treatment plant, they should also be able to pick out the schools in the area. Instead, they bussed students in some schools to other schools for the duration of the outage. So, while they are conserving the balance of electrical power, they are burning gasoline and releasing air contaminants. I would say that one cancels out the other. Let's not even go into the disruption to the students and staff at the affected schools.

Furthermore, on the topic of exclusions, what about the traffic lights? I understand how this might be more difficult to efficiently "exclude" because traffic control is most likely on the same grid as residential and commerial. In other words, it doesn't have its own source. But couldn't someone come up with a better plan? Maybe place traffic police at the major intersections of affected areas? I wonder how many traffic accidents resulted in Houston alone due to people either not knowing how to handle the intersection, being rude, or just not paying attention and blowing right through.  

And then there are the minor annoyances...like having to reset the clocks on the oven and microwave twice today and showering in the dark at 6 a.m. Thank goodness the Comcast modem has a battery backup or I most likely would be complaining more loudly. My sister-in-law had the best one: the aftereffect of the power outage that occurred while she was at level 12 on the treadmill.

In the whole scheme of weather-related inconveniences nationwide, our problems down here are relatively mild. At least we can still get out of our back doors, into our cars, down our driveways, and to the store. We are in positive double digit cold, and we don't have to stock up on toilet paper and booze in preparation for in-home incarceration of indeterminate length. 

In sight of this, I won't complain too much and will just be thankful that rolling power outage is the only insult we have to endure because of the weather.

But, the storm of the century is supposedly coming our way on Friday. Stay tuned....and let's all pray that the Superbowl can still be played.

Photo courtesy of photos.nj.com