"ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said that the grid operator is projecting Texas will need to nearly double the current capacity of 85 gigawatts to 150 gigawatts by 2030. This huge uptick in projected demand, he said, is driven in large part by rapid expansion of new Bitcoin mining facilities and AI data centers that suck up tons of electricity. "
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-grid-heat-summer-doug-lewin/
Could we focus on keeping people's power on during extreme temperatures and natural disasters?
I have gone through power outages like once a year here. Does this happen in other U. S. cities?
@bicmay @ai6yr if you can afford it, solar PV and a battery is a really good way to avoid a power outage no matter where you are. In February this year in Melbourne, Australia there was a major power outage due to a storm. Power was out for days for some. But our home switched to battery power and everything just continued to run. The neighbours were wondering how my automatic garage door still opened. There was also a huge spike in wholesale power prices, due to the outage, which because of the electricity supplier I’m with turned out to be a super-profitable time to sell some of the power from solar PV and stored in the battery, back to the grid. We made $166 in a single day from selling electricity. Unfortunately a large tree came down in our backyard due to the storm and took out a fence. So we did not end the day in profit. But the fact that we could continue unaffected when the grid is down was very reassuring. I cant imagine the amount of food that would have spoiled across the city in an event like that.
