Posted on 02/14/2021 1:55:46 PM PST by george76
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas emphasized the need for people to reduce energy use...
As temperatures dropped to near-record lows Sunday, electricity operators warned that demand could overwhelm the state’s power grid and force rotating power outages.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, emphasized the need for Texans to reduce energy consumption.
“We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas ... At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines
...
If power reserves fell too much, an energy emergency alert might be necessary, allowing ERCOT to implement rotating power outages to save energy.
....
The Public Utility Commission of Texas urged Texans turn their thermostats down to 68 degrees or lower, close shades and blinds to cut down on the amount of heat loss through windows, turn off and unplug non-essentials appliances and lighting, and avoid using large appliances such as washers and dryers.
“The lowest temperatures Texas has seen in decades necessitate a shared response across the state, from households to factories,” PUC chair DeAnn Walker said in a written statement. “Along with the tools ERCOT uses to maintain the reliability of the grid, common-sense conservation also plays a critical role in our state’s endurance of this challenge.”
The water heater temperature should also be lowered, Atmos Energy reminded folks in a tip-sheet published Saturday. Up to 25 percent of energy consumed in the home can come from the water heater, according to the Dallas-based utility company. The maximum temperature should be at 120 degrees
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
That’s insulting and degrading for Texas to have to have a rolling blackout. If that happens, they need to run the state house in Austin out on a rail. There is absolutely no excuse for an energy rich state that’s relatively capitalist to run low on electricity.
____________________________________________________________
Absolutely!
And a large number of manufacturing facilities with THEIR OWN generating capacity have LAARS agreements with the state that dump the manufacturing plant’s load(cut off production) and feed it to the Texas grid. We’re about 50 miles from a few generating plants here, one being nuclear. ERCOT LAARS page: http://www.ercot.com/services/programs/load/laar
We’re rural here on co-op power(VERY GOOD). Our recent hurricane experiences(Harvey and others), let us know a VIP lives and is served by our leg as multiple poles taken down were repaired with a day or two of a near- tornado taking them down. Not sure they’ll rotate us off-line especially with a ton of generating capacity within a 50 mile radius of our home(In My Back Yard out here, oil and gas wells too). Wouldn’t be good for folks with water wells that run water to prevent pipe freezing.
......been getting Conserve!, Conserve!, Conserve! emails all day from my provider which is a conservative and well run co-0p.
Suppose to get down to 6 tonight. 17 degrees now. Was 28 when I got up this morning.
Tomorrow night is going to be the pipe buster.
Hub has been draining our pipes on these constant cold temps. When teeth are brushed, showers taken, kitchen cleaned then he’ll go out to the street and turn the water off at the meter then off to bed and wait until it’s safe to turn it back on tomorrow or Tuesday morn....this is rarer than hens teeth to have this kind of weather here in the great country of Texas.......what a pain. I don’t know how you northerners do it. I guess we’re spoiled.......sigh
I think it is more of a question of the blades becoming unbalanced. Ice forms on the blades. Some of the ice comes off but it is not evenly distributed. The blades can be a couple of hundred feet long, even small differences in weight out near the tip could lead to unbalanced load and bearing failure.
Can we run smudge pots in the wind farms to keep the turbines warm?
I think they insulate their pipes better. We are all Minnesotans now.
Why don’t just hit it with a big hammer?
Lignite...cheap and abundant. Can’t be used for anything else but power generation. It’s the ideal fuel for making electricity.
Natural gas is FAR too valuable for home and commercial heating. It should NEVER be used for making electricity. But the insane “climate emergency” kooks want to use natural gas for electricity as well as wind and solar. The loonies in California are now forcing natural gas combined cycle generating plants to shut down and they are banning new natural gas hookups for new houses.
The earth is going into a solar MINIMUM. We should not even be thinking of global warming. Humans, and nature, can survive quite well in warmer temperatures, but FOOD does not grow in the cold/short growing seasons.
They should be planning for survival in an ice age. As stated solar and wind power will NOT work well.
A lot of Texans were lecturing Californians for the very same issues.
*** So summer of 2019 we were without power ( and AC ) for 18 hours in August ***
Funny you should mention that as I remember that hot windless incident. I went to ERCOT then to look at their stats. Wind power being generated was zip, nada, nothing.
Stupidity has consequences- for us peasants.
Quite true! But my point was that even with the thermostat, electronic pilot ignition, and the fan, a gas heater puts far, far less strain on the grid.
And even given those you could run a forced air heater off a portable generator, an all electric forced air heater, not so much...
I don’t seem to hear about wind turbines freezing up where I live up north, but maybe the northern models come with defrosters installed. A bigger problem up here is dead calm wind with light snow, like right now. No solar either.
🙄
This Texan suggested, to Californians, to buy a whole house generator.
***How many windmills and solar panels does it take to charge one car per day?***
And will those electric car batteries hold a charge in this type of weather?
We still don't have much in the way of 4" immigrants these days.
How about blocking sales to CA?
An individual 90 meter rotor span turbine near me puts out 3 million watts at full tilt, so quite a few Teslas. But on a day like today with calm air, zero watts, zero Teslas.
Actually negative output because it is using energy for monitoring, control, and possibly heating.
My plan if the power goes out is to seal off a couple of rooms, crack some windows, and fire up my butane stoves. Just stocked up on fuel, in case of an ice storm, which can knock out power for many days.
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.