Have been mostly ignoring the Texas grid. On a whim just had a peek and quickly ran to turn the A/C up. Looks like wholesale prices are at $5000 (it was $27 at one point this afternoon) with solar ramping down for the day and wind yet to kick in. Why does this very predictable situation result in such wild price fluctuations? Not the way I was told Capitalism is supposed to work. I do see storage (batteries) are at 2.6%, the most I have ever seen. Slurping up some of that gravy usually reserved for the “thermal” guys.

A good read on the changes in Puerto Rico after the collapse of the power grid following two hurricanes in 2017. From OilPrice.com.

Puerto Rico’s Solar Rooftop Revolution

Most of these are records. And we really need rain.

I recently read the biography Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson. I have read much of Thompsons writings over the years and admit I am something of a fan. I had avoided this biography because it was edited by Jan Wenner, the founder and editor of Rolling Stone magazine. Wenner and Thompson had a notoriously difficult relationship. I recall someone describing it as the world’s worst employee working for the world’s worst boss.

There was also some controversy about the content. Thompsons second wife, Anita, removed her support from the project after seeing the early drafts. So perhaps there were some axes ground. And it isn’t a hagiography for sure. But a good read, composed completely of quotes and stories by people who knew Thompson. I did learn three things.

• The word Gonzo comes from the 1960 jazz recording titled Gonzo by New Orleans music legend James Booker.
• The phrase “fear and loathing” is from the author Thomas Wolfe, known for novels such as Look Homeward Angel. Thompson did not cite the author because he was afraid people would confuse him with his fellow New Journalism author Tom Wolfe.
• The contemporary author Thompson most admired was Norman Mailer.

All in all an entertaining read, with some noticable gaps (no mention of Ken Kesey or Neal Cassidy?) but probably mostly for Hunter Thompson fans.

I thought we would have sold our house and moved by now,, but fate (and the Fed) intervened. One thing I looked forward to was getting rid of Time Warner / Spectrum / Charter internet. We don’t have any other options and for maybe two decades it has been broken. I even filed an FCC complaint at one point to no avail.

Last week hubris got the best of me and I ordered a new DOCSIS 3.1 modem to replace my old DOCSIS 3.0. I even noticed that the long standing latency / routing problem seems to have been fixed. Maybe I would have a few last months in this house with actual functioning internet.

Read all the docs and plugged in the new modem like they said to. It synced and connected and then automatically sent me to the Spectrum page to register a new modem. So far so good. But the new modem was nowhere to be found. No links except one to documentation that spun for a while and then gave an “out of service” message.

Now it’s important to note I’m all connected and packets are flowing. All I seem to need is some sort of verification / registration from Spectrum. I read the docs again, bypass my router and plug straight into the modem. Nada. Got angry. Cursed Time Warner or whatever they call themselves this week. Gave up.

Thought maybe it could be something broken on their end and decided to try again today. Same exact results. I called TW/S/C. Man was very helpful, but needed me to connect the new modem. But if I do that the phone call gets disconnected. Ok, I’ll try some other day. No point in ruining my Sunday.

But I hooked up the new modem and called back on my cell anyway. Finally getting a live person and verifying my name, address, zip code, phone number, date of birth, place of birth, favorite color and the name of my first pet, we were ready to go. He wanted the MAC address of my router. I pointed out that he already had it. He said he did not. I pointed out that I was logged in and they were sending me packets and he was looking at my modem connection. Why this ruse? Ok, I’ll play along. I read him the long hexadecimal alpha numeric code from the bottom of the modem. He read it back with military codes for the Alpha Bravo Foxtrot parts.

I inquired why this was so broken, why I couldn’t just do this all from the web page they (partially) served me. Mentioned I had done this before at my daughter’s new apartment. At this point he admits if you buy your own modem you have to call in to get it “activated”.

HUH???

I just read all sorts of documentation and on-line posts and saw nothing about this. Nor did the Modem Activation web page they have been serving me for two days say anything about calling in for an customer owned modem. So if I rent a modem from TWSC I can do this all automatically. Otherwise I need to figure out that I need to call in, that then problem isn’t a broken modem or some mistake on my end. Bastards.

I read about this but did not believe it. ERCOT, which manages the Texas Electric Grid, is looking to ban batteries from the grid. My understanding is that batteries and similar storage are the future. They store power from renewables (currently wind and solar) to use when these renewables aren’t producing. They also have the effect of smoothing the crazy gyrations in pricing on the grid. This seems to be the core of the “problem”.

Today when the sun goes down, and before the evening wind kicks in, there is a “duck bill” lull in renewable energy generation. In the Texas system, this leads to an increase in wholesale electricity prices, which until recently was exclusively served by oil gas and coal. This summer, with capacity tight, I have watched rates go from a few tens of dollars to hundreds of even thousands of dollars per kilowatt hour. A huge bonanza for legacy “thermal” power generation.

Today batteries are starting to supply power during the duck bill hours, usually from power stored earlier in the day when it was plentiful and cheap. What’s not to like? Well, nothing, unless you own a gas or coal fired plant. Batteries are said to pay for themselves in 18 months, making them a great investment and encouraging rapid adoption. They are now accounting for a measurable part of the power on the grid, especially in the early evenings.

I spent my career in tech. I’ve seen this sort of “disruption” many times. I see “thermal” electric generation technology as dead men walking. But these people have enormous political power in Texas. Will cleaner, cheaper, more reliable renewable power displace “thermal”? I think it is inevitable. The only question is how much pain will be inflicted on Texas consumers as this dying portion of the energy industry is propped up politically.

A good article from the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter.

Is ERCOT attempting to “eighty-six” batteries?

Getting a bit predictable, if not tedious. Saw this news is several outlets. Only one tried to blame The Windmills. From the Austin Chronicle.

It also seems ERCOT is voting Thursday to ban storage (batteries) from the grid. My understanding is batteries are doing a good job filling in the “duck bill” that occurs when the sun goes down and wind hasn’t picked up. Seems like a naked gift to oil and gas, at the expense of everyone who uses electricity.

Gas and Coal Outages Behind ERCOT’s Constant Calls for Conservation

Heard about this yesterday, even though the news was almost a year old. And probably a long time coming, after a quarter of a century or so. But I did hang on to this bit of history.

I am undeniably a lucky person. Always have been. When I was younger, I resented it a bit, because I felt like much of the time my hard work and accomplishments were written off by friends and family as luck. And they may have been right. As J. R. “Bob” Dobbs once said, (and I paraphrase) I would rather be lucky than smart. From Sapient Capital.

How To Be Lucky