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As eyes focus on Texas grid supply, experts urge incentives to lower demand
Texas energy experts say Texas should continue improving power supply, while also finding ways to lower demand and improve efficiency.

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"In the late 1990s, it was already clear that every summer was hotter than the summer before and that the weather patterns were changing, but it wasn't something a lot of people talked about," Silverstein said. "We had a habit of reliability based on a lot of investments and a lot of relatively unchanging technology in economics. So it never occurred to anyone in the '90s that the entire nature of the economics and technology of how we operate a grid could change massively over the next 30 years. We assumed we could keep doing the things we had always done and the grid would keep working."

Now, Silverstein pushes Texas leaders to not just increase supply, but incentivize lowering demand.

"On the demand side, we need more weatherization and more efficient appliances: air conditioning, heating, heat pumps and automated thermostats and control mechanisms so that people can keep cold air or hot air in their homes longer without using as much electricity," Silverstein said. "We have the ability to start shaping demand, to meet supply where it is, instead of overbuilding so much on supply and then using it to chase demand."

https://www.kvue.com/article/n...52-8edc-9ef2e0842649

California has been doing this for 30 years. Lowest energy consumption per capita in the entire country.

We hated it as it unfolded. Let’s see what the Texans think.

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We hated it as it unfolded.

Why, what are the burdens that individual households shoulder? Is it things like keeping the house hotter in the summer? Or upgrading to energy efficient appliances before current applianaces break?

US renewable energy hit record 28% in April

A good news/bad news story. Renewables are very important for CO2 emissions reductions, but are inherently less reliable in terms of availability. Methods of storing energy from renewables for later use such as hydrogen production or large scale batteries are not at competitive prices yet. Nuclear is unpopular and opportunities for hydro developments are limited. Conservation, whether compelled by blackouts, driven by pricing, or done because of altruism, is the most immediately effective reaction.

Big Al

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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We hated it as it unfolded.

Why, what are the burdens that individual households shoulder? Is it things like keeping the house hotter in the summer? Or upgrading to energy efficient appliances before current appliances break?

When the CA Title 24 energy regulations were introduced the price of construction increased substantially. Thicker walls, more insulation, better windows, more efficient appliances, fluorescent lighting in kitchens and baths (people really hated that requirement), housewrap, air infiltration mitigation - all contributed to the cost of a house or a remodeling project. People complained and some stopped pulling permits but gradually everything started being built to the new standards.

When electricity was deregulated and the price shot up people stopped complaining so much. Much of what was required in CA seems to be common practice now - this house is as efficient as any CA house and perhaps more efficient yet. Energy star rated appliances have become the norm nationwide and LEDs have made incandescent/fluorescent light bulbs obsolete practically overnight. I don't think anyone even manufactures the old school water heaters any more - they're all sealed combustion now.

CA now requires low ozone pulse-combustion water heaters but I doubt they'll catch on nationwide. They're much larger than the current models; complex and very expensive. LA has banned gas appliances in new construction as well (stoves, furnaces, water heaters) and the rest of the state will likely follow suit. Given the cost of power these new houses will not be cheap to heat and it remains to be seen if that rule stays in place.

There was never a mandate to change out what you have as long as it still worked. What changed was the availability of appliances to replace them with. For a while there was a thriving trade in old-school 5 gallon toilets brought in from other states but the new low flow units work so well no one wants the 5 gallon ones any more. I even have the super efficient ones here and water is definitely not a problem. They work very well and don't cost any more than the old ones did.

Now they're after small engines - mowers, blowers, edgers and such. Again people complain but the new electric ones work pretty well and the price is coming down. I'm not sure how they're going to deal with portable generators - time will tell.

I'm all for replacing the small gas motors. They're a pain to maintain.

Steve, thanks for that explanation! So, it was really mostly growing pains until everything became the norm?

After we bought this house, we bought a new HVAC, that was 2019. It's pretty efficient, the electric company sends a thing that shows energy usage in an "efficient house," the average for your city, and then your own house. We are always just under or sometimes just barely over the efficient house, and always way under the average for our city. I'm pretty sure that's all thanks to the HVAC. Other than that the only thing is that we use LEDs throughout the house... well and I don't think there are any appliances older than 2016, not super new but not super old either.

At this point, I would guess that the only thing that would probably make any significant difference in our energy efficiency in this house would probably be new windows and re-doing the insulation in the attic.

Adding insulation to the attic is the cheapest, most effective thing you can do. You’ll be amazed at how much difference it makes.

And efficiency aside, you will love new windows.

Also, hot water is a big energy hog. I hate to bring this up, SK, because didn't you just get a new hot water heater about a year back?

Solar and tankless hot water heaters really will save you money over time, and the payback time is pretty short. Of course, it depends on how much hot water you actually use. We have a tankless one at Chez Nina/Oregon that's been great. On the other hand, we really don't use much hot water, just for showers and the dishwasher.

Does anyone use hot water for their laundry any more?

The biggest dent in terms of our energy bill was upgrading our heat pumps (in AZ and in OR) and replacing windows here in OR. Unfortunately, both of those are $$, but we did notice a reduction in our power bill pretty much instantly.

And obviously installing solar panels is an instant savings. Between the feds and some state rebates, they can be had for pretty cheap... but you have to have a roof that gets at least some sunlight.

Steve - I seem to recall a bunch of drama around water conservation efforts in California. Things like neighbors turning other neighbors in for watering on their "off days," or having their sprinklers water the sidewalks and street, etc. Am I confusing this with somewhere else?

You have it right - that’s California. It’s important to note that a lot of the complaints had to do with sprinklers watering the street and broken sprinklers in places like parks and green belts maintained by HOAs. Broken sprinklers made good press but weren’t really a significant source of waste. I think the media might have overplayed the situation - the average homeowner suffered very little. Every other day is plenty of irrigation -always was.

LA county has instituted similar restrictions once again. OC has not but I couldn’t tell you why. San Diego is actually in pretty good shape owing to excellent long term planning.

No one will really pay attention until they restrict water to parks and golf courses.

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:
You have it right - that’s California. It’s important to note that a lot of the complaints had to do with sprinklers watering the street and broken sprinklers in places like parks and green belts maintained by HOAs. Broken sprinklers made good press but weren’t really a significant source of waste...

And even all of that (watered sidewalks, golf courses, etc.) is dwarfed by the amount of water used in agriculture.

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Originally posted by Nina:

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:
You have it right - that’s California. It’s important to note that a lot of the complaints had to do with sprinklers watering the street and broken sprinklers in places like parks and green belts maintained by HOAs. Broken sprinklers made good press but weren’t really a significant source of waste...

And even all of that (watered sidewalks, golf courses, etc.) is dwarfed by the amount of water used in agriculture.

That’s changing by the day. Water has been cut off to a lot of the Central Valley because there just isn’t any. The electricity to run the deep well pumps often costs more than the value of the crops. The Sacto River delta is going over to salt water far inland and it’s wreaking havoc. Almonds and grapes are dying. Truck crops come mostly from the Imperial Valley to the south where they’re having a slightly better time of it, but with the Colorado and Lake Mead so low it doesn’t look good for those farmers either.

Whisky’s for drinking, water’s for fighting, and I see big fights in the future. There’s a guy in Blythe, along the Colorado on the CA/AZ border growing vast tracts of nearly worthless alfalfa and exporting it to Saudi Arabia. How long before power generation and drinking water for Los Angeles trump his water claim?

Interesting times.

I’m not so sure about solar and tankless water heaters. They work but I can’t see where the additional cost pays off.

The problem with solar is that the systems don’t seem to last very long. Most of them use a lot of plastic that gets destroyed by the sun fairly quickly. Metal systems tend to scale up in a few years (CA = hard water, YMMV). Unless you can set the panels lower than the hot water tank you have to run a circulator pump all day, which costs money to run. Biggest problem is freezing - that’s what destroyed the system I had in the 80’s.

Tankless is the new thing, but they’re expensive and remarkably complex. The electronics alone are expensive to replace and not always 100% reliable. You’re supposed to have them flushed/cleaned every year which runs about $300 (again, CA) - hard to justify against the cost of a tank type heater.

What interests me are the heat pump type water heaters, especially when integrated with the HVAC system. Again $$$ and very complex, but I like the idea of heating water with waste heat from the A/C. They haven’t caught on so maybe they’re not as efficient as I would expect.

Heat pump water heater.

Do on demand hot water heaters work well during the winter in cold climates? I thought there was an issue with the temp of the incoming water and how many degrees an on demand unit can raise the temp.

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Tesla is asking its customers in Texas to avoid charging their electric vehicles during peak times in order to prevent overtaxing the state’s power grid. The alerts come as Texas’ grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT, is calling on residents to conserve electricity during the recent heatwave, as the system is being pushed to near-emergency conditions.

Tesla sent an alert to customers’ in-car screens advising them to avoid charging their vehicles from 3PM–8PM. “A heat wave is expected to impact the grid in Texas over the next few days,” the alert reads, according to Electrek. “The grid operator recommends to avoid charging during peak hours between 3pm and 8pm, if possible, to help statewide efforts to manage demand.”

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Tesla owners aren’t the only ones being asked to help conserve energy. Bitcoin miners in Texas are also winding down some of their operations in response to the spiking temperatures.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/...atwave-off-peak-grid