Posted on 02/19/2021 4:14:05 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
As record-breaking cold swept across Texas this week, millions of people were left shivering in the dark as the state’s power grid failed to meet the surging demand for electricity, crippled by temperatures in the single digits.
So why does the power continue to work in places like Wisconsin, where bitter cold is a way of life? The reason is simple: Generators in the Upper Midwest are designed to work in frigid conditions, unlike those in Texas.
“We designed all our infrastructure for these bitter-cold temperatures,” said Paul Wilson, a professor of nuclear engineering at UW-Madison who studies electrical systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at madison.com ...
I’m not absolving Texas of the idiocy of having 25% of their grid coming from wind, but come on people. There is such a thing as ROI.
The Return On Investment of power generation equipment is far longer for equipment that costs more. Equipment that handles severe cold costs a lot more and Texas usually doesn’t get that kind of weather.
If you’d have just eliminated the freaking windmills (yeah, I know they are called turbines) they wouldn’t have had any problems. As it is the snowball rolled downhill and the fails cascaded.
It’s been reported Texas ordered their wind turbines without the cold weather equipment
It's my understanding that the roads only became safe today. Already too late, most of Texas already has their power back AFAIK.
3 days without power? I'm sorry, but every single American should already be prepared for - at the very minimum - a 3-day power outage. (Of course, I'm excluding the elderly and infirm, who should receive emergency aid)
People knew for almost a week that this thing was coming. What did they think was going to happen? The city/state/FedGov was going to swoop in and take care of their every need?
Do not overlook George Prescott BUSH.
The 2005 Texas Renewable Energy Act decreed that 25% of new generation had to be wind/solar. Bush era crap pushed by the green grifters and signed by Rick Perry. They are a return-on-investment joke as it is without the winterizing costs.
It ain't just a few windmills. It's 28 gigawatts, thousands of windmills in W. TX. Drive through there if you get the chance. 360 degree views of windmills as far as the eye can see. Last Monday, exactly 3 gigawatts were operational.
“Last time I checked, the Palo Verde Nuclear generating station in Arizona keeps running whether it’s 115 deg out (common in that area for about 4 months out of the year) or even when it’s freezing.”
Right - no blackouts/brownouts in the 24 years I’ve lived here.
Very excellent point, now that you make it.
It seems they could have trucked in generators - at least to distribution points - before the storm hit. Not that it’d have been easy, but there was several days notice that the storm was coming.
Get used what we had for weather 50 years ago
If you are going to build something, why not do it right. Make it withstand extremes because we will always have extreme weather patterns so might as well be prepared. Do it right the first time.
From what I’ve read there are cold weather options the folks in Alaska and Norther states had added to their windmills that Texas did not purchase that allows them to operate in sub-zero temps.
Having lived in Wisconsin and TX, I can tell you WI isn’t setup for prolonged 100+ heat. Tx is. Someone else said it: No one plans for prolonged conditions 2+ standard deviations away from the expected.
When I lived there, many friends has no AC, at all. We had AC for one bedroom. Makes it hard on the residents, but easy on the grid. Tx gets weeks at a time where the overnight low is > 90F.
Please see my previous comment. WI has had consecutive 100+ heat spells and the grid just laughed. If there were deaths, it was because negligent liberal big city Mayors didn't check on elderly residents who had bars on their windows due to crime.
I'm not here to bash TX, but pointing out that severe weather can happen anywhere and states and people need to be prepared. Even FL had frost in the past.
Aren’t Texas property taxes sky high already? If they have to weather harden everything, I imagine they’ll go up even further.
You’re right. TX gets more high temps than WI but WI prepares for both. Texas is reaping what it sowed.
Awhile ago the government had some promotional thing out about being prepared for 3-days (storms, earthquakes, etc.). I THINK they may have expanded the length a bit since it first came out.
Here in the Pacific Northwest I’m fairly prepared for the “Big One” (earthquake) and could last 3 weeks comfortably as long as my house is still standing (it should be).
The government can’t have everything in place to serve the relatively rare instances of an emergency. Of course they can try to do better and have better plans, but it all takes time in a crisis.
All that said, I still think that the EPA regulations against fossil fuel use in Texas and promotion of solar/wind did a lot to make Texas worse off during this cold snap.
What is the percent from each source?
They took systems down to “protect the grid”. It wasn’t generation failure, per se.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.