The Political Page, T+362 -- January 18, 2018 -- How's That Global Warming Working Out? Texas Shatters Winter Power Demand -- It's Cold Outside

We were told by Patrick Kennedy that our grandchildren would never see snow by 2010 or some such year. Don reminded me of that. Today, it is being reported that there is snow in all 50 states.

Texas: shatters record for winter power demand.

Texas has set a new record for winter power demand in the wake of a record-breaking cold snap that gripped the state on Tuesday night, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees 90 percent of the state's grid.
Power demand peaked between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Wednesday at 65,731 megawatts -- shattering the record of 62,855 megawatts hit earlier this month when another cold snap hit the state. In a news release, ERCOT said the state had sufficient power resources available to meet demand.
The spike in demand also affected wholesale power prices, which hit around $200 per megawatt hour across the state, according to ERCOT. The average wholesale price of power, which changes by the minute every day, is typically $25 per megawatt-hour. By 9:30 a.m., prices had dropped down to around $100 per megawatt-hour, except in South Texas.

Don't cry for Texas at $200/MWh. Those in New England are paying $500/MWh, and those in South Australia are paying $10,000/MWh (no typo). [Update: this was how bad it was last week in South Australia -- in two days they burned more money on electricity costs than it would have cost to build a new natural-gas fired plant.]

Our electricity bill here in the DFW area in December, 2017, was about 4X our normal monthly payment. 4x.

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