#electric-grid — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #electric-grid, aggregated by home.social.
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Texas: Energy, the Grid, and the Price of Denial
By Cliff Potts, CSO
Editor-in-Chief, WPS NewsBaybay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 1, 2026, 9:15 p.m. PHT
Texas likes to think of itself as an energy state. Oil, gas, wind, solar — we have all of it. And yet, when the lights go out, when the heat becomes deadly, or when a winter storm knocks the grid flat on its back, we suddenly act surprised. As if this all came out of nowhere. It didn’t. These failures were forecast years in advance. We just chose not to listen.
Energy is not ideology. It is engineering. It is planning. It is maintenance. And in Texas, we have spent far too long confusing political posture with physical reality.
The Grid Didn’t Fail by Accident
Texas’s electric grid failures were not acts of God. They were acts of policy. Decisions were made to isolate the grid, minimize regulation, and prioritize short-term profit over long-term resilience. Those decisions had consequences. People froze in their homes. People died. Businesses collapsed. Entire communities were thrown into chaos.
What made those events worse was not just the outage itself, but the refusal to take responsibility afterward. Blame was scattered everywhere except where it belonged: on governance that treated critical infrastructure as a political talking point instead of a public obligation.
A grid is not strong because it is cheap. It is strong because it works when conditions are bad.
Energy Abundance Is Not the Same as Energy Security
Texas produces enormous amounts of energy. That fact has lulled policymakers into complacency. Production does not equal reliability. Abundance does not equal resilience. A state can produce all the energy in the world and still fail its people if distribution, storage, and backup systems are weak.
Wind turbines freezing was not the problem. Natural gas infrastructure failing was not the problem. Solar underperforming during storms was not the problem. The problem was that Texas built an energy system without redundancy and then pretended that redundancy was unnecessary.
Every serious energy system plans for failure. Texas planned for profit.
Climate Reality Doesn’t Care What We Believe
Texas politics often treats climate change as a debate. Texas weather treats it as a fact. Hotter summers, more intense storms, longer droughts, and greater strain on water and power systems are already here. Insurance markets are reacting. Agriculture is reacting. Public health systems are reacting.
The only thing lagging behind is policy.
Refusing to acknowledge climate reality does not protect the economy. It destabilizes it. Energy demand spikes during extreme heat. Infrastructure ages faster. Maintenance costs rise. Emergency responses become routine. This is not hypothetical. It is already happening.
The Cost of Cheap Power
Texans are often told that deregulation keeps energy prices low. What rarely gets mentioned is the hidden cost of that cheap power. Grid failures destroy food, medicine, and equipment. Businesses lose revenue. Families incur repair costs. Emergency services are stretched thin. Lives are lost.
When those costs are added up, “cheap” power turns out to be very expensive.
A serious state calculates total cost, not just monthly bills.
Renewable Energy Is Not the Enemy
Texas has become a national leader in wind energy, and solar capacity continues to grow. This is not a threat to Texas identity. It is an extension of it. Texans have always used what the land gives them. Wind and sun are no different from oil and gas in that respect.
The mistake is framing energy transition as replacement instead of integration. A resilient Texas energy system uses multiple sources, backed by storage, upgraded transmission, and modern grid management. It does not pit one sector against another for political points.
Energy workers deserve stability, retraining opportunities, and respect. Transition does not mean abandonment. It means planning.
Infrastructure Is a Public Responsibility
Energy infrastructure is not a luxury. It is as fundamental as roads, bridges, and water systems. Treating it as a private gamble rather than a public responsibility invites failure. Other states, and other countries, understand this. Texas should too.
That means enforcing standards. It means requiring weatherization. It means investing in grid upgrades and transmission capacity. It means planning for peak demand instead of reacting to collapse.
None of this is radical. It is basic competence.
Energy, Water, and the Future
Energy policy does not exist in isolation. It intersects directly with water use, agriculture, and urban growth. Power plants require water. Water systems require power. Drought strains both. Planning them separately guarantees inefficiency and conflict.
A forward-looking Texas coordinates energy and water policy, anticipates growth, and prepares for stress instead of denying it.
What Leadership Looks Like Here
Leadership on energy does not mean promising impossible outcomes. It means telling people the truth. It means acknowledging tradeoffs. It means investing now to avoid catastrophe later.
Texans can handle hard truths. What they cannot handle is being treated like fools.
The Price of Denial
Every year Texas delays serious energy reform, the bill grows larger. The cost shows up in emergency spending, insurance premiums, lost productivity, and human suffering. Denial does not make problems cheaper. It makes them compound.
Texas has the resources, talent, and experience to build an energy system that works under pressure. What it lacks is the will to stop pretending that the current approach is good enough.
Why This Matters Going Forward
Energy underpins everything else this series will discuss: work, health, education, public safety, and economic stability. Without reliable power, none of those systems function. Energy policy is not a niche issue. It is foundational governance.
Texas can lead on energy, not just in production, but in reliability and responsibility. Or it can continue to gamble and hope the next crisis is survivable.
Hope is not a plan.
This essay will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.
References (APA)
#climateResilience #electricGrid #infrastructure #powerReliability #publicUtilities #renewables #TexasEnergy #TexasPolicy #WPSNews
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2025). Texas energy production, capacity, and reliability data.
Public Utility Commission of Texas. (2025). Electric grid performance and weatherization reports.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2025). Grid resilience and renewable integration studies.
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. (2025). Economic impacts of energy disruptions.
NOAA. (2025). Climate trends and extreme weather impacts in Texas. -
👷♂️ Oh, the riveting tale of the electric grid; because nothing sparks joy like turning on a light bulb, right? 🕯️ Meet Viktor, the unsung hero you never knew you needed, unless you're into obscure engineering history. Guess we all missed the memo on being electrified by this yarn! ⚡🙄
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-the-worlds-first-electric-grid-was-built/ #electricgrid #engineeringhistory #unsunghero #lightbulb #electrification #storytelling #HackerNews #ngated -
How the world’s first electric grid was built
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-the-worlds-first-electric-grid-was-built/
#HackerNews #electricgrid #history #innovation #technology #renewableenergy
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Switching between different grids will be performed offshore.
See MPI Network Model schematic, bottom of page 1.
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#SevereWeather #PolarVortex #ElectricGrid
From Reuters.com: Frigid weather stresses US electric grid -
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Drought Magnifies and Complicates Climate Change’s Impact on the Grid
Drought is a systemic threat to the electric grid, writes columnist Dej Knuckey. Like other weather extremes, it undermines supply, drives up costs, and exposes weaknesses in infrastructure planning.
We need to think of drought as more than an agricultural or wildfire-risk problem; it’s a systemic threat to the electric grid.
#drought #ElectricGrid #energy #weather #ExtremeWeather
https://www.rtoinsider.com/123647-drought-magnifies-complicates-climate-changes-impact-grid/
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AI Data Centers Pushing Electric Grid Into Meltdown
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-data-centers-electric-grid-meltdown
#tech #technology #ai #artificialintelligence #electricgrid #grid #electricity
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#Ford is pivoting its #batteryproduction capacity to a new #batterystorage business, utilising cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries to power #datacentres and support the #electricgrid. The company will invest $2 billion over the next two years, repurposing its Kentucky factory to produce LFP batteries and battery energy storage systems. https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/15/ford-is-starting-a-battery-storage-business-to-power-data-centers-and-the-grid/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
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Uncover the cyber wolves at the electric grid's door—ransomware, APTs, and more—plus ironclad defenses to keep the lights on. Essential read for grid guardians. 💡🛡️ #CyberSecurity #ElectricGrid #ThreatHunting
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Hackers Target Swedish Power Grid Operator https://www.securityweek.com/hackers-target-swedish-power-grid-operator/ #Svenskakraftnät #DataBreaches #electricgrid #Ransomware #databreach #Featured #Sweden #grid
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The NYT conducted its analysis by examining federal #funding records, which include details about the #city & #state where each grant recipient is based. The projects include new investments in #CleanEnergy, upgrades to the #ElectricGrid & fixes to the nation’s transportation infrastructure, primarily in #Democratic strongholds, such as #NewYork, #Chicago & #California.
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1,000 SIM cards, eh? Hmmmm...🤔
A plot could have caused #CellPhone chaos. It's part of a troubling trend.
The discovery of thousands of devices that could have wiped out communications in #NewYorkCity comes after a series of #cyberattacks targeting the US.
by N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Will Carless, and Michael Loria
September 23, 2025Excerpt: "The discovery of a vast telecommunications network that authorities say was capable of wiping out cellular communications in the nation's largest city is just the latest in a steady series of high-profile plots targeting critical #infrastructure.
"With the right amount of resources, bad actors can shut down anything from hospitals to gas #pipelines, according to Kevin Butler, director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research.
" 'What we're really seeing is how cyber attacks can be targeting various aspects of critical infrastructure and in very meaningful ways,' said Butler. "Even things like our water infrastructure or the #electricgrid.
"What happened in New York City?
"Investigators found more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards in the New York tri-state area. The Secret Service said it moved quickly to dismantle the network given its proximity to a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
"The devices allowed for anonymous, encrypted communication, which enabled criminal organizations to operate undetected, according to Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in New York. McCool said the network could have been used to disable cell phone towers, disrupt emergency communications, and shut down the city's cellular networks.
"Telecommunications devices discovered throughout the New York tristate area that the U.S. Secret Service claimed 'were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials.'
"It's not yet clear who is behind the plot in New York or what their intentions were, but Butler said the level of sophistication indicates the perpetrators are likely a highly organized group, like a foreign government or non-state actor.
"And though attacks against telecom providers are not unusual, this kind of brute force method is almost unheard of, said Butler, a professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida. Though fraudsters sometimes amass SIM cards to execute scams, Butler said those operations typically involved 'a couple thousand at most.'
" 'My initial reaction is this is a very large scale attack,' Butler said. 'I've never heard of somebody putting 100,000 #SIMCards together in such a coordinated way.' "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/nWu9B#1000SIMCards #CyberAttack #SystemVulnerabilities #ConnectedGrids #TechDisruption #DisruptiveTechnology
#Landlines #TechVulnerability #OneThousandSIMCards -
Detailed analysis of factors affecting wholesale electricity prices, leading to perhaps unsurprising conclusion:
"since 2020, [WEP have] risen substantially, faster than consumer electricity prices. And in most places, transmission capacity appears to be an increasing bottleneck
…
It doesn’t matter how cheap your solar PV electricity is if you can’t get the power to where it needs to be”https://www.construction-physics.com/p/whats-happening-to-wholesale-electricity
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CPH Daily Bulletin 9/14/2025
#GavinNewsom gets his big #energy deal
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/13/california-gavin-newsom-energy-00563105
#California #CapAndTrade #Wildfires #OilDrilling #ElectricGrid #AirPollution
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Gaps in natural gas regulation could leave Texas vulnerable to another winter storm-related blackout.
#Business #EnergyEnvironment #News #Texas #ElectricGrid #KUT #NaturalGas #RailroadCommissionOfTexas #TexasWinterStorm #WinterStorm
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#Siemens are utilizing new technological approaches (#STATCOM:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_synchronous_compensator ) to stabilize the #ElectricGrid without the use of batteries by providing a replacement for system inertia inducing high rotating masses:"A SVC PLUS FS ... is able to emulating system inertia by boosting high active power into the grid when needed. In addition it offers voltage support by means of reactive power compensation."
via Akku Doktor https://youtu.be/O5xdGkpe9xE?feature=shared
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As nuclear manufacturers and researchers descend on Texas, responding to the governor's legislative call, environmentalists and analysts voice their concerns.
#Business #EnergyEnvironment #Local #News #Technology #Texas #AIData #ArtificialIntelligence #ElectricGrid #GulfCoast #KUT #NuclearEnergy
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Yes, #AI is straining our #electricGrid. But historically, we’ve faced these demands on energy before, and each time we’ve innovated new, more efficient ways to produce power. Will history repeat itself this time? spectrum.ieee.org/ai-energy
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Interesting analysis of the power failure in Spain – interesting to see the problem of frequency of solar inverter pop up again.
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Interesting research for injecting solar and wind power into the grid even without the frequency being given by large power stations.
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Systemic Drivers of Electric-Grid-Caused Catastrophic Wildfires - Implications for Resilience in the United States
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https://doi.org/10.3390/challe16010013 <-- shared paper
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#wildfire #electricgrid #ignitioncauses #wildfireprevention #mapping #spatial #spatialanalysis #risk #hazard #fire #wildfire #climatechange #Anthropocene #humanimpacts #infrastructure #massmovement #debrisflow #engineeringgeology #denudation #environment #ecosystems #ecology #loss #cost #economics #residential #waterquality #water #hydrology #electricty #energy #LahainaFire #CampFire #MarshallFire #SmokehouseCreek #fires #bushfire #vegetation #wind #weather #landuse #humanimpacts #utilitycompanies #utilities #resiliency -
The company CirclesX says it can prove widespread natural gas market manipulation. So far, its case has gained no traction in court.
#Business #EnergyEnvironment #News #Texas #2021WinterStorm #Blackouts #ElectricGrid #KUT
