Posted on 02/06/2011 10:18:30 AM PST by dragnet2
Forget all the concern about al Qaeda terrorists using explosions to take out our power grid or foreign hackers disabling it from afar - in Texas a cold front can apparently do the job.
As the lights flickered and went dark across Texas on Wednesday in response to a state-mandated rolling blackout plan, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst was clearly irritated.
He wasn't the only one.
"This should not happen," Dewhurst told reporters on Wednesday.
Dewhurst said that cold weather knocked 50 of the 550 power plants in Texas offline. That, coupled with increased demand, turned out the lights.
"Lack of adequate winterization and preparation appear to be a major cause of the outages," Dewhurst said.
The plant managers and the parent companies might want to make a note in their day planners for next year - "WINTER CAN BE COLD!"
The fact that we weren't properly prepared for it - and because of that computers and equipment all over the state came to a screeching halt - is simply inexcusable.
(Excerpt) Read more at seguingazette.com ...
Mayhap there’s a bit of Texas envy there, too.
“Characterizing the weather this week as a “cold front” is ridiculous and ruins any credibility this writer might otherwise have had.”
You’re right. Any modern politically-connected media outlet worth their salt would know that the cause of these outages was simply a brief period of less global warming.
Nope it wasn’t me.
I find it kind of curious that you assumed that my previous post was directed at you though. Hmm.
Probably so. lol
lol....When it happened here some years ago, we were told it was because the state was a doomed 3rd world country....
BTW, I heard the Mexicans offered Texas electricity, when they brought over the extension cord, they brought the male end.
You can be grateful that they switched from NG engines to elec motors, like Obama’s Volt, will help save the planet by not spewing that EVIL CO2 into the atmosphere. If you think about it the Volt will suffer the same fate. I hate that the fool that buys one will get me to help him pay for it.
Oh well life in the Obama nation.
I wish the Pubbies would repeal every law passed by the enviro-wacko rats.
Speaking of the ice storm of 2009, the one that that worthless POS in the White House ignored and rediculed, there were people in Arkansas, Missouri, Western Tennessee, and Western Kentucky that were out for well over a week! The damage to transmission and distribution lines was enormous. I just drove through western KY 2 weeks ago, and you can still see wooded areas where countless trees were downed or are growing at a steep angle.
“The blackouts were due to winds dying down and the generation not meeting the forecast of wind generation during the Arctic blast.”
That is false. I don’t like it when Freepers post falsehoods.
I had company got stuck in Mt pleasant in the ice and snow for a day.
They were pretty ticked that we did not have snow plows and salt trucks to take care if this stuff.
The next day, it all melted and they got here fine.
I told them, we arent paying for all that. Its not the norm here.
Locally, they ran graders and front end loaders to clear the streets as best they could.
LOL!
You folks aren’t prepared to survive in those temperatures.
How are you heating your home?
I don’t blame you californicates for taking a shot when you have the opportunity. Texas screwed this one up.....still don’t think it equates to the disaster you are living in californication land.
I am without a link, but I read yesterday that some 12,000 MW of generating capacity were off line for maintenance before the event started (note that in areas with summer peaks, winter, late fall, and early spring are peak maintenance seasons). The article also noted some 7000 MW of generation was forced off line, or wasn’t available due to weather issues (burst pipes, unavailable gas, frozen sensors, etc.). That’s 17,000 unavailable out of their capacity (based on your figures) of 76,363 MW. That would put ERCOT below 60,000 MW. Figure in the typical availablity of wind, and that probably takez a little more out of the available mix.
Now, consider that they must operate with contingency reserves, and in an area the size of ERCOT, that reserve probably equals 2 or 3 single contingencies. Otherwise, the loss of a single large generating unit would likely cause a total blackout, after which it would be days before power was restored. So, figuring that they must have reserves for their 2 largest possible contingency events, the actual available generating capacity is reduced 2000-3000 more MW.
I don’t have exact load figures for Texas for this type of weather, but I think that it’s fairly obvious that it was more than the available resources. Otherwise, they would not have resorted to rolling blackouts to maintain the integrity of the grid.
I will note that some of the rolling blackouts might have been due to localized issues as well. For example, El Paso is not in ERCOT but in the Western Interconnection. While there was plenty of power available in the western interconnection to supply the needs of El Paso, the transmission capacity does not/did not exist to move the power from remote locations to El Paso. Consequently, El Paso had to resort to rolling blackouts as well until their local generating fleet could be restored to an adequate level.
I agree.
Double Stud...... sounds like a homosexual dwelling... not that there is anything wrong with that, ;)
Well, you do have Nazi Pelosi - that in itself is strong evidence against California. :-)
Did some work at a gas plant in North Texas many years ago. Much of of the equipment was more exposed than the plants up north. In fact that was part of the reason I was there - to get some instruments to read the temperature and turn on heaters when it got cold like this. The flip side is, exposed, they had less problem with the high summer heat. Doesn’t help that they canceled so many coal plants and are trying to rely more on wind. They also have a problem that they are on their own grid and are limited on the power they can bring in from other states.
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