Grumpy, are you staying warm?

[Grumpy Goat]

Up here the main reason for a power lose in the winter is ice or wet snow bringing down lines.
Cold does not seem to overload the electric grid because not many heat with electric.
In town most use natural gas, and in the country most use propane.
Electric heat is expensive in our area.

Electric air conditioning in the summer costs us more than natural gas heat in the winter.
Jan gas bill was $58 and electric was $86.
July gas bill was $16 and electric was $143.

Oops ... I forgot to answer one of your questions. Our furnace is natural gas but the blower needs electricity so if there is no power then there is no blower and the gas furnace won't fire up.

In Canada I also had natural gas in one house and electric radiant heat in the others. Similarly to your situation, only a major freezing rain even that brings down trees, power lines, transformers could threaten the power supply in winter. There is no power supply issue at any other time. Maybe because a lot of power transmission is done underground (no power lines). As for generation in Canada - hydro or nuclear. As far as I know there are no windmills and no coal plants.

Here in Houston, if there is a summer storm you could lose power! Heck there could be a storm somewhere else and we could lose power. I can categorically state that the power situation in Houston is the most shitty power service I have ever come across in my life, aside from the old country where I was born (Guyana) where there were often rolling blackouts due to shortages of diesel to run the power generators.

On the other hand Texas likes to tout that it is the "energy capital of the world" ... well after this it is the laughing stock of the world when it comes to energy, and heads should roll over this. Yes, the weather paid a huge role but we can't control the weather, so smart people who are not so damned greedy over profits need to make the smart decisions to stockpile power, etc.