Needles & Grooves

By any chance do you have a wood stove or fireplace?

Nope. Siting in my car to top off the charge on my phone. I’m sure it will be back on today, but less sure it will stay on. Power usage is an issue, and we’ve got another day or so of this.

Hopefully you get your power back soon. Mine never went out and I think we are only a few miles apart. I woke up to a text saying the TX electric grid operators is directing rotating outages that should last 40 min or less. Maybe you are experiencing one of these?

Mine initially went out around 1:45 this morning. It has come on briefly a few times since then, but never for more than 5-10 minutes.

I'm fully expecting ours to go at some point, but keeping my fingers crossed ours stays on and yours comes back on.

Am I hearing right that there are rolling blackouts in Texas because the grid can't supply enough demand to run heat?

@RenegadeMonster yes. there are 3 main grids in the US- east, west, and Texas. as a major energy market, we have no problem running everyone's AC all summer BUT we haven't had these temps in decades and are super unequipped for this weather.

50% of TX power is fueled by natural gas, but all the wellheads have frozen and are mostly inoperable. 20% of our grid is fueled by wind energy, but the turbines froze days ago. we are mostly operating on the 20% of coal we use and reserves, so the demand is far outstripping supply.

Everything I’ve seen indicates that my power won’t be back on at any point today. Another really cold night tonight, and we’re supposed to have another storm on Wednesday, I believe.

@Aron make sure you turn off the water to all the outdoor spigots and drain them. Also live a faucet on in the house overnight on a slow trickle to prevent pipes from freezing / bursting.

Not sure my Zoom job interview scheduled for Wednesday morning is likely to happen at this point. This week is already a cold mess.