California's blackouts present an example of what not to do

The Hill ^ | 9/07/20 | Jakob Puckett

[Libloather]

Two weeks ago, millions of Californians faced hours-long electricity blackouts for several days. This wasn’t an accident, though - there weren’t any trees falling on wires, and there were no wildfires jeopardizing power plants. The reality? California did this to itself. The state’s recent energy woes are the result of policies that have put them in a precarious place, and the rest of the country should pay attention.

The cause of California’s problem was simple: There wasn’t enough electricity to meet everyone’s needs. With more people staying indoors to avoid the coronavirus and a heat wave sweeping the region, electricity demand spiked.

Right now, California relies on wind and solar power for roughly a third of its electricity. Just when people needed electricity the most, the sun stopped shining, the wind stopped blowing - and over 1,200 megawatts of electricity suddenly became unavailable. Admittedly, some of this shortage was due to an unexpected malfunction in some natural gas plants, but much of it was from wind and solar going M.I.A.

Since the sun sets each day, this was expected for solar power. Every night, the disappearing sun takes with it thousands of megawatts of electricity, and it’s a problem that solar plants in California have had for years. Of course, the state has always been able to force other plants to ramp up production quickly to compensate. It’s an expensive strain on the entire system, but it gets consumers through the night. And, in this case, the wind that usually blows through the night simply stopped blowing, removing 1,000 megawatts of electricity — enough to power nearly a million homes.

Here’s the rub: Neither the setting sun nor the calm weather would have been a problem if the state had had sufficient backup power.

[Libloather]

That New Green Scam should fix everything.

[VTenigma]

Here’s the rub: Neither the setting sun nor the calm weather would have been a problem if the state had had sufficient backup power.

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Here’s the rub: Neither the setting sun nor the calm weather would have been a problem if the state had had sufficient BASELOAD power. /fixed

[antidemoncrat]

“California’s blackouts present an example of what not to do”

The same can be said about their fires. For years the environmentalists persuaded the politicians to prohibit clearing brush and even dead trees from the country side. Now the state is on fire and where are the environmentalists taking credit for that?

[twister881]

I’ve lived in California for 43+ years, most of my adult life. When it was a decently-run Republican state, we had none of this nonsense. It’s in the last 20 years, as California has become a deep blue, largely one party state, with its own idiotic Green New Deal (100% renewable power generation by 2035), that the flex alerts, stage 3 emergencies, and rolling blackouts have occurred.

In the last five years, the ‘RATS have retired 9 Gigawatts of reliable, plentiful, relatively inexpensive, clean natural gas power generation. They intend to shut down the state’s last remaining 2 GW nuclear power plant in 2025. All of it means that things are only going to get worse.

I’ve complained to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Independent System Operator (CAISO), and my local power company. Next is my assemblyman, state senator, and the knothead Regressive governor. Am not holding my breath.

Thanks, Gov. Moonbeam 2.0 and Donald Trump, Jr.’s girlfriend’s ex-husband for turning the Golden Bear State into a third world sh*thole. It will take a Trump-style revolution to save it.

Coda: A backup power generator is on my Christmas list.

[Bon of Babble]

I’ve lived in California all of my life and watched it descend into a 3rd world welfare state where illegals are welcome and felons are released onto the streets to “stop prison overcrowding.”

I’m lucky enough to live in a town that has its own power plant and actually sells excess power to a larger, local municipality.

My brother recently put solar panels on his two homes and installed back-up generators. This is what I think I’m going to do. It was 115 here yesterday, husband is disabled and I fear the a/c and/or electricity going off.

Better to be off the grid.

[super7man]

My neighbor was so satisfied with security provided by the solar power panels, recently installed, that he would be just fine if the power went off.

I told him that if the power goes off, his solar panels would quit generating because of the way they are hooked up (no battery storage).

He was shocked and did not believe me. He called the people who installed the system. He now has $25,000 worth of despair and is talking about a propane fired generator. ;o)

[catnipman]

"A backup power generator is on my Christmas list."

here's a FR thread about whole-house gensets:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3533486/posts?page=72

take a look at this natural gas one:

http://www.centralmainediesel.com/order/Honda-16kw-Propane-Generator.asp?page=H04599

i got the 2-wire autostart option; seems like the low-pressure regulator and hose is now an option even though the pic shows it as part of the whole setup

here's a pic how i set mine up:

[twister881]

Thanks much for the helpful information.