Heat Wave In Texas, California -- July 23, 2018

If Texas hit 73,000 MW, it would be a new record. So, how did Texas do today?

Yup, set a new record and no hysteria about the grid failing. Just good ol' American "know-how" and a "can-do" attitude. Whoo-hoo!

California, meanwhile, sending out the alarm, "not enough electricity! Save energy! The sky is falling!" And was the sky falling? You be the judge:

From what I can tell, Texas set a new "demand" record and didn't miss a beat. California didn't even come close to setting a record.

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Lawrence of Arabia -- The DVD

I have just watched the desert scene in which the camels start dying after 20 days without water.

Sort of puts things into perspective.

104 degrees in Texas, and I don't need air conditioning. Ceiling fans, keeping windows draped, having a ground floor apartment, swimming during hottest part of the day, etc., etc, one can survive without air conditioning. Not particularly pleasant, but not particularly difficult.

I forget now, which summer it was, but about three years ago, I went the entire south Texas summer (we lived in San Antonio then where it is even hotter than the DFW area) with no air conditioning just to prove it could be done.

By the way, I'm seeing things in "Lawrence of Arabia" I had not "caught" before and this must be the tenth time I've watched it.

Cool Water, Hank Williams
From nine of the worst power outages in US history:

#7. Southwest Blackout of (2011)  -- human error

This blackout is considered to be the largest in California?s history.

It occurred mainly because of the state’s dependence on power imports from Arizona at the time.

At the end of their summer season that year, the continued hot weather caused California’s engineering schedule to conflict with planned outages (for maintenance).

This then left the grid vulnerable to human error.

A technician switched major equipment, which caused the power to fail for around 12 hours and affect 2.7 million Americans.

The impact to restaurants and grocery stores was devastating. Due to the length of time the power was out they were forced to throw away food at an estimated cost of $12 to $18 million. Several sewage pumping stations also failed, causing the potential for unsafe water in many areas.

Since this time, diesel generators were installed at 5 pumping stations.

Had Hillary and Elon been in charge, the solution would have been windmills and batteries.