Posted on 12/27/2022 7:20:29 AM PST by karpov
As temperatures plunged this weekend, Americans in much of the country were told to turn down their thermostats and avoid using large appliances to prevent rolling blackouts. The cascading grid stress came at an awful time but was all too predictable to anyone paying attention.
The interconnected U.S. grid is supposed to be a source of resilience, but the government’s force-fed green energy transition is creating systemic vulnerabilities that politicians don’t want to acknowledge. Utilities and grid operators weren’t prepared for the surge in demand for natural gas and electricity to heat homes, which occurred as gas supply shortages and icy temperatures forced many power plants off-line.
The PJM Interconnection, which provides electricity to 65 million people across 13 eastern states, usually has surplus power that it exports to neighboring grids experiencing shortages, but this time it was caught short. Gas plants in the region couldn’t get enough fuel, which for public-health reasons is prioritized for heating.
Coal and nuclear plants can’t ramp up like gas-fired plants to meet surges in demand, so PJM ordered some businesses to curtail power usage and urged households to do the same through Christmas morning. Rolling blackouts were narrowly averted as some generators switched to burning oil. Americans in the southeast weren’t so lucky.
The Tennessee Valley Authority and Duke Energy in the Carolinas ordered rolling blackouts as demand for heating surged. Two-thirds of the South relies on electricity for heating. While gas-power generation doubled in the TVA and tripled in the Carolinas, this wasn’t enough to keep the lights on and homes heated.
The climate lobby wants to force all homes and buildings to shift to electric heating even though it is less efficient than gas furnaces in frigid weather. When temperatures fall below freezing, heat pumps consume more and more power.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Good, stupid should hurt.
Stupid people voted in by other stupid people who then create stupid laws. What a joy democracy is.
“Good, stupid should hurt”.
So when your power goes out, you will look in the mirror and blame yourself for your misery?
The effing white liberal ‘elites’ who are causing this disaster have backup generators for their own mansions. Anyone who thinks John Kerry or Al Gore had to suffer is nuts.
“So when your power goes out, you will look in the mirror and blame yourself for your misery?”
When stupid hurts, we all suffer. The motivation will then be to “educate” the morons who bring this misery.
Sooner or later, it’s going to hurt us all, and hurt us bad. A generator may ease the pain.
This is really good for stand by generator sales. Which in turn is also good for fuel stabilizer sales because of the Ethanol in most gasoline.
I would not own a house in NH without a stand by generator. The biggest issue is the reluctance by the electric companies to trim or take down trees around the power lines.
It costs money to have the tree service companies to take down dead and dying trees. Plus there are too many home owners that do not want the power company to cut down that beautiful tree in front of their house.
NH & ME are the most forested states in the country as a percentage. Yet, when a town forest is proposed to be cut there are still people who protest it. There was even a guy they caught spiking trees in this town owned forest.
I bet there were a lot of people in Buffalo just recently who were very glad they had a Natural gas line running into their house. Instead of just relying on electric.
Effing white liberal 'elites' AND multimillionaire DC "public servants" (who are causing this disaster) have backup generators for their own mansions. Anyone who thinks John Kerry, Al Gore, Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi had to suffer - or even put on a sweater - is nuts.
“Good, stupid should hurt.”
Problem is, stupid people hurt me. All the time.
Except that many gas appliance will not operate without electricity.
Hopefully they'll save the day and help pass a law mandating warm homes and outlawing people getting cold. It would be a good follow-up to mandating the end to ICE vehicles in 2035
Unfortunately, policies hurt all, but those responsible for those policies don’t usually suffer the consequences of their policies.
How you gonna run the electrics that operate the furnace and blower motor? Yeah, a generator will do that, but you still have to keep it running and keep it from being stolen by the gibsmedats crowd.
.....Utilities and grid operators weren’t prepared for the surge in demand for natural gas and electricity to heat homes”......
So when will Biden give our utilities companies to upgrade our Electric Grid rather than to Ukraine and other countries need?????
Exactly.
In California the wealthy have (quiet) generators and solar panels as well on their homes - which are very very expensive for the “average” middle class family. Their homes are also surrounded by gates in already gated communities with 24-hour security guards.
Of course, we in California have suffered through rolling blackouts for several years now - with no fix in sight. I live in a medium-sized city that has its own power generators but even we were told during the last 12-day heat wave to NOT plug in EVs or use large appliances as the grid was overloaded. I got several, separate alerts strictly about EVs. The alerts were coming every few hours during the height of the heat.
The answer is always for US to curtail our use of electricity, not to upgrade the system - or to stop building massive apartment and condo complexes on the edge of town. Guess they won’t tax the already shaky electrical grid Never mind we have no water either - but that is another issue.
I keep thinking GOD is telling us all something:
Want to end fossil fuels?
GOD responds: (Hold Muh Beer)
HERE IS A REAL WINTER FOR YOU ALL
The open burners on top can be lit with a long match.
I guess I am showing my age. When I grew up in WNY we had a gas range in the kitchen.
We lit there burners with a match when the electricity was out.
You could also light the pilot light for the oven with a match.
I remember as a kid(1970s) sitting in the kitchen in front of the oven during a power outage.
My dad made coffee on the stove with an old percolator coffee pot. Dinner was pancakes and sausage.
We slept in sleeping bags in the family room because it had a fireplace.
Now, if we lose power, I pull out the Honda Generator and we can use everything other than the washer & dryer. My daughter has a propane backup generator that turns on by itself. It has a direct line from their underground propane tank. They can run their house for two weeks on a full tank.
People aren’t voting this in.
Mail in voting is a tool used to cheat elections.
Question. If Ca, WA, OR were really blue, why would one side need to cheat? If they were really blue, those states should welcome election transparency. Sure, bring in voter ID.... we have nothing to hide, we’re loud and proud statists.... take as many looks under the hood as you like!.... but they do the opposite. Now why is that??
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