Electricity prices to shutdown casinos during the arctic plunge?

Quote: gordonm888

Virtually all air conditioning is powered by electricity, but a lot of building heat (residential and commercial) is powered by natural gas, with some propane and oil. Only heat provided by heat pumps depends upon electricity. Some residences also use wood-burning stoves to produce heat (usually supplemental.) Some large industrial sites burn coal for heat.

If they were only smart enough to use candles.

Just turned on The Weather Channel. It says 2.6 million customers (or over 5 million people) in Texas don't have power; and over 40K customers don't have power in Louisiana. DFW airport just went to a ground stop and it's 6 degrees outside.

I've got a winter storm warning tonight for 7-14 inches of snow, and a repeat in the forecast a few days later.

Nearly a quarter of CenterPoint Energy customers in Houston are without power, according to Mayor Sylvester Turner. He added issues are beyond the rolling blackouts.
https://www.khou.com/video/news/local/houston-power-outages-mayor-sylvester-turner-update/285-51820f78-1794-49d2-ad5d-c0a9a25c0935

Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a rare deep freeze across the state locked up turbine towers while driving electricity demand to record levels, the state’s grid operator reported. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AF066?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter

AVERAGE SPOT POWER PRICE ACROSS TEXAS HITS $9,000 CAP ($9/kwhr)

CenterPoint is now telling its customers in the Houston area they could be without power for at least the rest of the day Monday, and probably Tuesday.
https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/how-long-do-rolling-blackouts-last/285-20fc4086-964d-4d6f-98f7-7b995fb58a15

MARATHON'S GALVESTON BAY REFINERY SHUTS DUE TO COLD: REUTERS
Luckily nobody needs gasoline since all cars are electric and it now costs $20,000 to charge them.

Galveston City Manager Brian Maxwell confirms Galveston is 100% without power. Damage to homes from freezes could be worse than some hurricanes if it doesn't return soon.

EXXON SHUTTING BEAUMONT TEXAS REFINERY DUE TO SEVERE COLD WEATHER -SOURCES

Quote: gordonm888

Whatever problems the arctic temperatures may cause, I see no reason to presume that the national casino industry will be much affected. And the notion that electricity prices will spike by factors of >2-10x is not credible -the marketplace just doesn't work like that.

I agree that the national casino industry is minimally affected. But I strongly disagree with the remainder of this paragraph. Pricing at PJM West, Northern Illinois Hub, AEP/Dayton Hub is all about 2x higher for yesterday-tomorrow's day-ahead hourlies than it was for the same hours on thursday and friday. And, Texas pricing really is 280x higher than it was last week ($7k/MWh for HE 1700 today, $25 for the same hour on Wednesday at North Zone (Dallas)).

Southwest Power Pool, which controls a power grid spanning 14 states from North Dakota to Oklahoma, has declared an energy emergency and is ordering utilities to start rolling blackouts amid an extreme cold blast that has already taken down parts of Texas’s grid.

The power system operator said in a statement that this is the first time it has ever had to order rolling outages and that it had exhausted all other options for protecting the grid. “It’s a last resort,” the agency said. “It’s a step we’re consciously taking to prevent circumstances from getting worse, which could result in uncontrolled outages of even greater magnitude.”

MISO isn't looking very good, either. Especially the southern half. 0 issues here in MN, but lots of chatter about LA, AR, MO, and east Texas (Entergy is a MISO customer)

Almost had a Darwin award. Family of six from Houston taken to hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning after using a charcoal grill to heat apartment.

Quote: mcallister3200

Almost had a Darwin award. Family of six from Houston taken to hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning after using a charcoal grill to heat apartment.

They were just emulating EvenBob on a large scale; EB heats his bedroom by burning candles, apparently unaware of the health hazards of combustion gases. Hint: there is a reason why a stovetop in a kitchen must be vented to the exterior of the house.

Quote: gordonm888

Virtually all air conditioning is powered by electricity, but a lot of building heat (residential and commercial) is powered by natural gas, with some propane and oil.

A lot of the biggest skyscrapers
in NYC use steam for heat and
to run the air conditioners. City
steam, made by NYC. Since the
late 19th century NYC has sold
steam to buildings, including
the Empire State Bldg. Ever see
those big cone shaped things
in the middle of a NYC street
that have white smoke coming
out of them? Those are steam
vents to regulate the pressure.

Quote: AxelWolf

If they were only smart enough to use candles.

It's not using candles that's smart,
it's BUYING them right that's the
smart part. Candles are very
expensive per BTU.

Quote: gordonm888

They were just emulating EvenBob on a large scale; EB heats his bedroom by burning candles, apparently unaware of the health hazards of combustion gases.

Sigh. I posted an article awhile
back that said there is no danger
from candles in an average
ventilated room. In a car, yeah.
Did you ever see the warning
on candle wrappers saying you
can die burning candles in your
bedroom? There isn't one.