Houstonians Roast Without Air Conditioning In Post-Beryl Outages

CenterPoint Energy, the electricity supplier for 
Houston and environs, is under fire for taking too
long to restore power after Hurricane Beryl 
hit the region this past Monday. 

 While we've been dealing with our own huge  problems here in Vermont from former Hurricane Beryl, the area around Houston is stewing in soupy hot air without air conditioning. 

At least for many. 

Something like nearly 1 million homes and businesses remained without power as of Friday, more than four days after winds from Hurricane Beryl took down a seemingly uncountable number of power lines, poles and trees. 

Right after the storm, 2.7 million homes and businesses in the Houston metro were without power. Up to half a million might not have power back by Monday. The slow pace of utility repairs have angered residents amid typical Houston heat and humidity.

CenterPoint Energy, the main power supply for Houston and environs is facing plenty of criticism that they were ill prepared for the storm and is not doing enough now to restore power.  

High temperatures around Houston are in the low 90s to mid 90s, with temperatures only falling to the upper 70s for lows.  .

 This is actually fairly typical for July days in the area. Still, the National Weather Service office in Houston issued a heat advisory because the widespread lack of air conditioning is endangering peoples' health. It didn't help Wednesday that the air was dirty: An air quality alert was also in effect. 

On Friday, thunderstorms were providing ever so slightly cooler conditions in Houston, but it was still terribly humid. And lightning strikes threatened new power outages. Then  the heat comes roaring back.

Already, nine people have died in Texas and Louisiana from the effects of Beryl - their lives ended by falling trees, drowning while trapped in cars, or whose medical devices conked out along with the electricity. 

The lack of air conditioning could easily mean additional deaths, if it hasn't already.  The more days the elderly and vulnerable are exposed to high heat and humidity without relief, the more endangered they become. 

Already, two people have died in Harris County, which is home to Houston because of carbon monoxide poisoning from gas-powered generators, CNN reports.

Amid all this, CenterPoint doesn't exactly have a great reputation. It's regarded by many as unreliable 

"Its grid, according to data collected by the firm Whisker Labs, which tracks power outages through devices in ratepayer homes, is one of the most unstable in the United States despite Houston's hurricane-prone Gulf Coast location. Whisker found that even before the storm hit Monday, outages in CenterPoint's service territory were happening at more than twice the national average," the Washington Post reported. 

Calls for CenterPoint to do a better job are one of the few bipartisan issues Texans can agree. 

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, traveling in Asia, released a statement calling for an investigation as to why Houston keeps having these big power outages. 

Meanwhile, Democratic Houston Mayor John Whitmire said, "We demand that they do better."

CenterPoint disputes that allegation, saying they restored power quickly to a million or so customers after the storm. The utility says it also has a "resiliency plan:

Per WaPo again:

"CenterPoint this year presented regulators with a sweeping $2 billion 'resiliency' plan aimed at shoring up the power grid against extreme weather. The plan, which calls for upgrading poles and wires, deploying technologies to reroute power when lines go down and burying some lines is lumbering through the approval process."

Houston and Texas as a whole has been beset with big power outages in recent years. About a million people around Houston lost power during and after a May derecho.  Houston was also hit hard by power outages when a deep freeze caused power to fail statewide.  

It's also the start of hurricane season. There's no reason why another hurricane can't hit Houston this year. Especially given that it is still expected to be an extraordinarily busy season. 

EV's And Winter: Are They Ready For A Northern Prime Time?

Electric vehicles still don't do super great in winter, but
they're better than you'd expect. 

 We're heading toward an era of electric vehicles, or EVs. Gasoline powered cars and trucks might go the way of the dinosaurs before you'd think. 

California has already passed a law that would ban gas powered vehicles starting in 2035. This is especially important because other states usually follow California's lead when it comes to auto emissions. 

We're headed toward EVs because they are better at preventing the release of greenhouse gases the contribute to climate change. 

But here's an important question for those of us living in the Great White North, since winter hasn't exactly been repealed yet:  How well do they work in the winter?

The short answer is not great, but passable, given the current technology. 

As the Washington Post notes:

"Lithium-ion batteries perform more sluggishly in cold temperatures, cutting into an electric car's range when temperatures drop close to freezing. (For what it's worth, gas powered cars also don't perform perfectly in the cold."

Yeah, but gas powered vehicles at this point do better than EVs. At least in general and until smart people make EVs last a long time without a charge in any weather. un 

There's two major winter problems with EVs.  One is, the lithium-ion batteries perform best at around the same temperature humans do - around 70 degrees. 

The other problem comes into play if you're stuck in a big winter traffic jam in an EV. When it's cold, gas powered vehicles can redirect wasted heat from the engine into the passenger space to keep people warm. 

This is a function of the inefficiency of gas powered cars. They produce all kinds of heat that usually doesn't  do much good.  That's part of the climate problem with traditional vehicles. They emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And they emit more than they should, because of the inefficiency of the internal combustion engine.

However, as WaPo reports, EVs are efficient, which actually could be a problem during a January Arctic cold snap:

"According to the Department of Energy, EVs  use over 75 percent of their energy to propel the car. That means there isn't much waste heat available. Instead, many EVs warm their passengers through electric resistance heating (essentially heating a wire and blowing air over it.

Cabin heating accounts for the lion's share of what drains the EV battery in cold temperatures. According to a 2019 study from AAA that tested five different EVs in 20-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, on average the cars lost 41 percent of their range with the cabin heater on. With the cabin heater off, however, they lost only about 12 percent of their range."

If you're a wimp like me, you don't want to sit in a car on your commute to work freezing your butt off. You also want to get to work without the battery in your EV dying halfway there. 

But then there's a more dangerous aspect to this.

If you're stranded in a blizzard on some highway, you'll get colder much faster in an EV than you would in a gas powered car, assuming you have a full tank of gas.

Plus, if the snow drifts are cleared and you can move on again, but have run out of gas, a good Samaritan with a five gallon jug of gasoline can get you started so you could make it to the next gas station. 

 How do you recharge an EV in the middle of nowhere if it runs out of juice? The news on this is better than you'd expect. 

Here's an example: On January 3, 2021, a quick hitting, intense snowstorm trapped thousands of vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia  for more than 24 hours. 

That calamity got people thinking about EVs and winter storm emergencies. As Wapo pointed out: 

"After the Virginia highway debacle, many EV owners, YouTubers and journalists tested their electric cars in freezing temperatures to see what would happen. One journalist for Car and Driver found that, at subfreezing temperatures, his Tesla Model 3 with a resistance heater could keep the cabin warmed to 65 degrees Fahrenheit for a maximum of 45 hours. That number could rise to 50 or 60 hours with a heat pump."

So maybe the winter safety technology with EVs is better than the old fart writing this post realized.  

Here's another factoid: The nation with the highest number of EVs per capita is Norway. It's a lovely country, but not exactly a tropical paradise. Those Norwegians seem to do pretty well with their EVs in the icy dark of a Scandinavian winter.  

Many EVs come equipped with heat pumps. They're more efficient because they move heat to where it's wanted, instead of creating heat that then has to be moved. In cold weather, EVs with heat pumps have nearly double the range of similar vehicles that don't have heat pumps. 

If you live in a usually cold place like Vermont and are considering buying an EV, make sure a heat pump comes standard. 

I guess it's like a lot of things in life. With EVs, you have to plan your range, your trip, and hope that the technology improves while remaining affordable. 

So far, this winter has been kind to Vermonters with Evs. It's been warm, and it hasn't snowed a lot, thanks in part to the climate change brought to us in part by all those gasoline-fired cars and trucks. 

However, climate change isn't nearly enough to cancel winter. we have plenty of subzero days ahead. If not this winter, then in future winters. 

EVs are perfect, even in Vermont, for people who don't need to do a lot of driving, don't have to do a lot of planning and don't need to drive a rugged vehicle. 

I'm absolutely sure EVs are in my future. Due to the nature of one of my jobs, involving unpredictable trips and heavy loads in the bed of my pickup truck, I'm still not sure I'm ready for a winter with an EV.

I'm confident that they're making EV pickup trucks that are getting better and better at withstanding Vermont's rugged winters and roads.   I hope they become good enough soon to satisfy even the people who are toughest on their trucks.