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Texas power prices soar 20,000% as brutal heat wave sets off emergency (markets.businessinsider.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Texas power prices soar 20,000% as brutal heat wave sets off emergency::On Wednesday evening, spot electricity prices topped $5,000 per megawatt-hour, up more than 200 times from Wednesday morning.

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[–] 33 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

Wait, I have seen that before. I have a déjà-vu

EDIT: so it's 5$ kWh, current price in France is 0.2€ kWh for comparison. Makes a real point for energy-efficient computers/software!

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  • [+] -26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    so it's a publicly traded commodity. are there texasmegawatts or what? are there less texasmegawatts then before? because if not, this is how it works. they gain capital, can cheaper lend capital, buy efficient texasmegawattsfacilities.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Because Texas refuses to connect its grid to the federal grid, yes, there’s effectively texasmegawatts, and they’re fucking expensive right now because the governor keeps refusing to let the power companies properly prepare for devastating weather.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago*

    Texas is connected to the Eastern (Florida to Canada) grid, the Western (Cali to Canada) grid, and a Mexican grid not part of the US/CA system via tie-ins. It is the only state in the continental US with it’s own grid, which was not a smart decision (cough cough feb 2021). The most outrageous part was that they could have bought power from Mexico, east, or west and import it via those tie-ins during Feb 2021 but chose not to. Power was out for millions for over a week in freezing temperatures. Fuck Texas. Fuck CenterPoint Energy.

    Additional Information: Besides Texas, Quebec and Alaska have their own grids as well. Alaska is the only grid without any tie-ins.

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