Posted on 02/02/2011 5:54:36 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has ordered utilities to begin rotating outages to compensate for a generation shortage due high usage in extreme weather. Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of service designed to ease the load on the electric grid. To see recent reports on the grid load, click here.
The outages last anywhere from 10-45 minutes and the locations and durations are determined by the local utilities.
Critical need customers such as hospitals and nursing homes are generally not included It is not known at this time how long the need for rotating outages will last.
Consumers and businesses are urged to reduce their electricity use to the lowest level possible, including these steps:
See what happens when you let a horde of folks from Green Bay and Pittsburgh to come to town?
“We start getting some very minor brownout’s up here in Alaska when it gets down around that -40 range.”
That’s ‘cuz you’re using those old-fashioned gas and diesal engines. You need to switch over to electric cars that don’t need a block heater.
Anytime the power goes out I’m reminded of how much we depend on it for almost everything. We lead charmed lives most of the time, don’t we? I really feel for the utility workers that are out there in this cold fixing outages. And I’ve been worrying about the animals....
We are definitely blessed. I truly dread the day we have to deal with a real emergency. The tweets I’ve been seeing from Texans are embarrassing.
My husband is working out in it too.
Is the Texas grid that much different than northern states that cold weather affects it this much?
Or is this “the Big Lie” to get the population to accept rate increases through the use of induced shortages?
Is the Texas grid that much different than northern states that cold weather affects it this much?
Or is this “the Big Lie” to get the population to accept rate increases through the use of induced shortages?
I can’t really answer your question but the leftists on Twitter are jumping on the “it’s all about money” bandwagon.
I don’t see how rolling blackouts = more money for the power companies. Wouldn’t they be making more by keeping the electricity on?
At this point, I still believe the demand is simply outweighing the supply. It’s very cold in pretty much the whole state.
I conserve all of the time; but I can’t conserve on health issues.
The concept is known as "the Big Lie" and it's commonly used by regulated industries like utilities to raise rates. You induce a shortage, and then people won't complain when you ask to raise rates so that you can prevent another shortage. Water companies do it by draining reservoirs lower than they need to be. Then they have to ask people to conserve. Then they ask for rate hikes to expand their operations, using the shortages as proof they need to expand.
I don't know whether this is that or not. I'd understand if the power outages were caused by ice storms bringing down power lines. But to just say it's overloading the grid due to cold weather, when Northern States do just fine, raises questions.
Short term they get less money, but the subsequent rate hikes more than make up for that.
Just north of Houston and it was off from 0630 until past noon. Seems more prevalent when you don’t complain because it finally came back on after we finally got a call through. Just coincidence probably.
Oh, no, no, no. I wasn’t suggesting you needed to conserve. People like me who can tough it out should do so during this cold snap.
I just read that deregulation was passed here in 2002 and I saw several articles blaming it for our higher electricity rates.
I’m certainly not in a position to determine whether or not there really is a supply issue but this is from the Public Utilities Commission website:
A BLACK alert indicates that ERCOT has entered level 3 of its Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) and has initiated planned rolling outages in order to prevent an uncontrolled blackout. During a BLACK alert, customers need to reduce electricity consumption immediately to help reduce load.
What I DO know is that I would prefer rolling blackouts to total blackouts. So far, so good for us as we haven’t had any yet.
don’t give him any ideas...
I can answer that question. Someone posted up-thread that two coal plants have gone down. They froze over or something.
Doh! Can = can’t.
LOL I can tough it out; except I need the oxygen at least once every day.
It looks like there was a problem at 2 power plants.
” Burst water pipes at two coal-fired power plants forced them to shut down, triggering rolling power cuts across the state, the lieutenant governor said Wednesday.”
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Lt-Gov-Burst-water-pipes-led-to-power-outages-115127479.html
Busted Pipes causing power plants to go down would make sense.
But it doesn’t match what has been reported thatthe “grid was overloaded”.
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