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:
Those left shivering or hungry during the outages wish to thank the environazis for blocking the construction of new power generating facilities that would mitigate these blackouts.
"The inability to construct new facilities, whether coal- or gas fired, hydro-powered or nuclear," said, John Doe, a member of the New Power Coalition, "has created this situation and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it will only get worse in the future."
Same here in western Houston, power back on after 15 minutes.
“Imagine having 50 new nuclear plants that the stimulus dollars could have started building. We would have needed to ban lawsuits by the greenies.”
Imagine telling the greenies to shove it and everytime they file a lawsuit, a countersuit is filed for 3 times the amount.
If we tie radical leftwing groups up in court, we bleed them and take away their funding.
Reagan beat the soviets by bankrupting them. It is time for Americans to grow a pair and stop the greenies, ACLU and other leftwing groups.
... or the union city employees throw temper tantrums and refuse to plow the streets essentially murdering people because emergency personnel can’t get to them.
I'm sure in the colder parts that's true, but still needs electricity to push the air. But further south it would not make sense to have gas with a short heating season.
Doesn’t matter. Without electricity you can’t run the fan so the heat will not come on.
I haven’t noticed any at our work at 35th and Loop 1. I hope it doesn’t hit in Lago. Wife unit will not be happy.
The cat, who usually insists on helping me type, won't leave her warm bed. Last night, one of the dogs was so cold she had dug under a blanket and was walking around with it. The only good thing I can say about this non-global warming event is it's keeping the dogs in the house instead of chasing after the skunk that's been hanging around the past week.
What I meant was that if most use gas for heat, you wouldn’t expect any surge in electric usage in cold conditions.
This tells me a lot of folks are using resistance electric heat.
Time for Icy Hot at your house. Put it on your feet and lower back. No, I am not kidding.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas ensures a reliable electric grid and efficient electricity markets.
Wonder, based on the above on their site, where these historic loads are coming from? They didn’t just suddenly appear.
One could also wonder why those of us up north enduring temperatures well below zero are not suffering like outages.
There is base load and their is peak load, and both need to be up to the task at hand.
If not, it is blackout time, when conditions are not ideal for said blackout.
My guess is a lot of folks use electric resistance heat and also folks plugging in electric space heaters.
That’s why I asked the question about nat gas earlier in the thread.
Here in Indiana, the highest peak loads come in the summer with A/C. The plant I worked at had to trim usage on hot summer afternoons because we were one of the major consumers of electricity. There never was any issue in winter because most heat is from nat gas.
I wish we had natural gas lines in our area. A lot of people have propane tanks in their yards. We have natural gas at work, and the buildings have electric water and office heaters.
Why? Because the GOV contracts call for electric heaters since some areas of the country DO NOT have natural gas.
That and probably a lot of vehicles are being plugged in.
We start getting some very minor brownout’s up here in Alaska when it gets down around that -40 range.
Brrrr, I swear it's colder now than it was at 6 am. The official weather says it's 18 degrees! The garbage truck is just now here so they're running an hour or two behind time today.
Because most people are home rather than at school/work they are using more power: watching TV, using computers, kids using video games, etc. Almost all school districts are closed in and around DFW because the roads are too icy.
Do you really think there are many vehicles in Texas with block heaters?
Because most people are home rather than at school/work they are using more power: watching TV, using computers, kids using video games, etc. Almost all school districts are closed in and around DFW because the roads are too icy.
Haven’t had the rolling black out here in town in Bertram yet, but my parents are 3 miles out of town and lost theirs for 30 minutes or so. We are on PEC as well.
Our neighbor had his dog sprayed by a skunk. He got home from the vet (fearing a rabid skunk) at 3 AM and had to bathe the dog. I noticed Pepe Le Pu has not been real lucky crossing the roads lately.
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