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This is more or less exactly the scenario that played out in Texas this week, Feb 14-19 2021. All the players (gov, regulators, power generators) decided that it was too expensive to weatherize the network for a 0.1% chance event.

Yet... here we are. Entirely predictable.

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> weatherize the network for a 0.1% chance event.

The last one such event (also with blackouts) happened in 2011 and was generally called "1 in 10 years cold snap."[0]

Not weatherizing for 0.1% chance can be acceptable, not doing for 10% is not.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/us/05storm.html

It’s how capitalism works nowadays: I win or you lose. As long as everything is going well, like normal weather or excessive growth of house prices, the capital owners make a lot of money. But when something predictable goes wrong, the bill is left to the consumers and tax payers.

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