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Frozen wind turbines in Texas caused some conservative state politicians to declare Tuesday that the state was relying too much on renewable energy. But in reality, the wind power was expected to make up only a fraction of what the state had planned for during the winter.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas projected that 80% of the grid's winter capacity, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power.

This is further supported by the ERCOT's Preliminary Report on Causes of Generator Outages and Derates During the February 2021 Extreme Cold Weather Event, linked above in Post #53 (https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=46615&p=1195890#post1195890).

:iagree::iagree::yeahthat::iagree::yeahthat:

I'm going to be writing my Rep and Sen asking what can be done to investigate this securitization scam. It's absolutely ridiculous that the OCC approved ONG's and OG&E's requests and now OK residents are just screwed for decades because of poor operating procedures (of upstream companies, to be clear, not ONG and OG&E, the problem lies with the providers that they use, but ONG and OG&E are the ones we interact with and (in a perfect world) have control over).

What is really most called for is regulation of energy providers to ensure that there is a continuity of operations in cold weather. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

What is really most called for is regulation of energy providers to ensure that there is a continuity of operations in cold weather. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

:yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::iagree::iagree::iag ree::please::please::please:

It's absolutely insane that the spot market for natural gas can be so completely unregulated. Can you imagine if gasoline jumped up to $300/gal for a few days? That would *never* *ever* happen again, there'd be so much legislation and regulation put around that in about a week...

Did some looking into it...

https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-nerc-staff-review-2021-winter-freeze-recommend-standards-improvements

Seems the FERC is cooperating with providers and has determined it best to ask that generators pretty please winterize better and that the federal government should compensate them for it.

Did some looking into it...

https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-nerc-staff-review-2021-winter-freeze-recommend-standards-improvements

Seems the FERC is cooperating with providers and has determined it best to ask that generators pretty please winterize better and that the federal government should compensate them for it.

So basically BAU, nothing will happen and the next deep freeze in a few years (which *will* happen) will wreak similar havoc and there'll be securitization, pt. 2 and customers will get screwed (and/or die) *again*.

So basically BAU, nothing will happen and the next deep freeze in a few years (which *will* happen) will wreak similar havoc and there'll be securitization, pt. 2 and customers will get screwed (and/or die) *again*.

lol yeah 100 year freezes happen all the time i'm sure it will be just another couple of year

What is really most called for is regulation of energy providers to ensure that there is a continuity of operations in cold weather. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

It's called heat tracing. It keeps the pipes warm during hard freezes.

A lot of companies spent a lot of money on it in 2021. I have friends here and 2021 was a massive year for them. https://www.neoinsulation.com/
Market is responding, for as upset as people are about getting stuck with a bill, a lot of companies are upset they missed the revenue.

lol yeah 100 year freezes happen all the time i'm sure it will be just another couple of year

"100 year" events actually are happening more regularly every year. Climate Change is a real thing and political affiliation doesn't change that fact. Severe Weather is something we can expect to have happen more regularly. Climate Change is not just "global warming". I'm not going to get in to a big debate on that here, but suffice to say that Oklahoma itself has had its own share of multiple "100 year" events within the last few years.

https://www.southwestledger.news/news/ex-legislator-says-corporation-commission-vote-ong-2021-storm-bonds-was-invalid

Well that's not going anywhere. That story id a shot in the dark using a formality to make a massive claim. I dont think that the Supreme Court is going to use a matter of meeting procedure to reverse this.

Another increase coming I guess

17548

Another increase coming I guess

17548
I'm on the averaging plan and my bills have already gone up almost 35% in the last year. I thought that was to cover operating and infrastructure costs. I'm not going to scream about 2 bucks a month but damn.

I don't like how they word these rate increases. ONG and OGE both use words like "[ourcompany] has invested $XX million into the system infrastructure for (whatever reasons...)" Is all that money they are investing from our monthly bills? Therefore why would they need to "recoup" their "investment" from what I would consider to be the stakeholders, all of the people depending on the utility service? I don't understand how our current setup with OGE/ONG having monopolies. Would it be better for the citizens if there were more companies to buy utilities from or if our municipalities would control the utilities? There is nothing I can do about OGE/ONG rates going up, I cannot choose a competitor, I cannot disconnect service.

I'm on the averaging plan and my bills have already gone up almost 35% in the last year. I thought that was to cover operating and infrastructure costs. I'm not going to scream about 2 bucks a month but damn.

the bill goings up in the past year has mostly had to do with the actually cost of nat gas ..

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2022/07/15/oklahoma-first-winter-storm-bonds-set-interest-rates-higher-than-expected/65373458007/

It's definitely not a good time PR wise as they come off of the debacle we discussed earlier. Anyone else seen the TV commercials about that gas deal during the winter? I'm sort of surprised they were that blunt about it.

OG&E, not ONG, but might as well lump both slimeballs in with each other...

OG&E ratepayer-backed bonds to pay for last year's cold snap are now hundreds of millions more than estimated (https://tulsaworld.com/business/local/og-e-ratepayer-backed-bonds-to-pay-for-last-years-cold-snap-are-now-hundreds/article_71746616-06df-11ed-844b-bb5946ba478b.html)

OG&E, not ONG, but might as well lump both slimeballs in with each other...

OG&E ratepayer-backed bonds to pay for last year's cold snap are now hundreds of millions more than estimated (https://tulsaworld.com/business/local/og-e-ratepayer-backed-bonds-to-pay-for-last-years-cold-snap-are-now-hundreds/article_71746616-06df-11ed-844b-bb5946ba478b.html)

Because our lovely state government kept dragging its feet, due to stupid citizens who thought them fighting it would keep it from being approved. By the time it was approved and all the paperwork drawn up, the interest rates in this country had rebounded.

This isn't OG&Es fault. No business in the world doesn't pass increased costs to customers, from the most progressive, socially-liberal to the most fiscally and socially-conservative. Even if they knew it would.be bad, they didn't know how bad, or how their infrastructure would hold up, since they couldn't test it against anything that cold.

But I get it, any time a company tries to recoup costs incurred, they are greedy. But then if they went bankrupt, people would call them a failed business.

Because our lovely state government kept dragging its feet, due to stupid citizens who thought them fighting it would keep it from being approved. By the time it was approved and all the paperwork drawn up, the interest rates in this country had rebounded.

This isn't OG&Es fault. No business in the world doesn't pass increased costs to customers, from the most progressive, socially-liberal to the most fiscally and socially-conservative. Even if they knew it would.be bad, they didn't know how bad, or how their infrastructure would hold up, since they couldn't test it against anything that cold.

But I get it, any time a company tries to recoup costs incurred, they are greedy. But then if they went bankrupt, people would call them a failed business.

The energy industry is broken (from the consumer's viewpoint) - the whole thing (however many multipliers of the regular price they bought at) that led up to the higher energy costs that both had to pay is wrong and the securitization that both did is wrong. No, I don't know how else they should've done it, I'm not a C-suite executive, but what they're doing to every single customer for the way the energy industry failed is not good, and keep in mind that OG&E and ONG are still probably making pretty good profits. Public utilities should not be for-profit.

https://journalrecord.com/2022/05/05/oge-energy-reports-279-5m-in-earnings/

Based on their earnings (OG&E), they aren't hurting.

https://www.thelostogle.com/2022/08/16/corporation-commissioner-bob-anthony-has-gone-rogue/

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/opinion/2022/08/19/its-time-for-a-moratorium-on-all-utility-rate-hikes/65406837007/