Posted on 02/28/2008 4:59:09 AM PST by Mikey_1962
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state.
The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan at 6:41 PM CST (0041 GMT), ERCOT said in a statement.
System operators curtailed power to interruptible customers to shave 1,100 megawatts of demand within 10 minutes, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers are generally large industrial customers who are paid to reduce power use when emergencies occur.
No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers were restored in about 90 minutes and the emergency was over in three hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
And you need reliable monitoring of the uphill lake, as we observed in the Taum Sauk reservoir disaster.
I’ve walked many such rows with hoe in hand. That was a lifetime ago, though. :)
I DON’T BELIEVE THERE WAS ANY ACCIDENT AT A NUCLEAR FACILITY!
However, that much power usually looks something like the examples below.
Okinawa Seawater Pumped Storage Power Plant
Tianhuangping pumped storage hydroelectric project
Mt. Elbert Pumped Storage Powerplant
Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station
You are right, it was a substation problem that led to the shutdown of the facility.
My fear is the “Global Slowing” caused by these wind farms.
Think about it, a fast wind is needed to turn the blades and then you have slow wind exiting the blades.
If we slow the wind down to make electricity then the Earth will stop rotating fast enough to keep spinning in orbit!
We are Doomed! DOOMED!
</ sarcasm off>
Not a lot of people know it, but the genesis of the modern so-called "environmentalist movement" can be traced to opposition to a power facility known as Storm King Mountain, in the Hudson River Valley. The "environmentalists" were not the greasy, dirty, pony-tailed hippie types you see today, but actually very wealthy landowners who had land with picturesque views of the Hudson Valley north of NYC. They opposed Storm Kind Mountain on the basis of "visual pollution", that is, transmission lines that would be strung across the valley from the generators to substations for downstate transmission, which would "ruin the view". Now, Storm King Mountain was not to be a coal-fired facility or a nuclear plant, but, tah dah, a pumped storage reservoir.
It is ironic because if you ask anyone today in New York state what Storm King Mountain was, almost all of them, including high-ranking political figures, will say it was a nuclear plant. Little do they realize that the opposition was mounted against that darling of "renewable" energy storage, a pumped storage reservoir. Then again, idiots abound in political circles and the general electorate, and the premise of democracy today seems to be that two idiots are smarter than one genius.
The capacity factor (percentage of generation compared to capability) from 2004 to 2006 is as follows:
Comanche Peak, Unit 2 - 95.41% Comanche Peak, Unit 1 - 94.33% U.S. capacity factors: A small gain to an already large number
http://www.ans.org/pubs/magazines/nn/docs/2007-5-3.pdf
TABLE I, 20042006 DER NET CAPACITY FACTORS OF INDIVIDUAL REACTORS
The capacity factor (percentage of generation compared to capability) from 2004 to 2006 is as follows:
Comanche Peak, Unit 2 - 95.41%
Comanche Peak, Unit 1 - 94.33%
U.S. capacity factors: A small gain to an already large number
http://www.ans.org/pubs/magazines/nn/docs/2007-5-3.pdf
TABLE I, 20042006 DER NET CAPACITY FACTORS OF INDIVIDUAL REACTORS
Thanks evidently I was wrong. I can always count on you guys to correct me these type of things.
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