Posted on 02/18/2021 8:47:37 AM PST by austinrepub
The story of how Texas was brought to its knees by crippling cold weather leaving millions without power is a complex one, yet entirely predictable and avoidable.
The details matter, so it is important to know the long story, but let’s start with the short version: For years, Texas’ grid operator (ERCOT) has overestimated the ability to maintain a reliable grid without a sufficient supply buffer, known as a “reserve margin.” That margin is the difference between demand for electricity and what the grid can produce. When demand exceeds production, you get blackouts. That buffer has been shrinking because reliable sources of energy have been retired, few reliable plants have been constructed, and the grid is depending more and more on weather-dependent renewable energy that repeatedly fails to perform when we need it most.
When wind and solar production predictably dropped as the winter storm hit, the buffer collapsed. ERCOT needed to execute a series of balancing measures that would have protected the grid. But it did not act soon enough, which caused many more gas and some coal power plants in the system to “trip.” (Think of it as a circuit breaker that triggers to prevent a fire or other emergency at your house when there is a system imbalance.) Other weather-related issues caused problems too but ERCOT’s failure to act sooner was a major factor.
(Excerpt) Read more at texaspolicy.com ...
I see that you are from Illinois.
Tells me all that I need to know.
Twenty percent more nuke. Be careful what you wish for. A few years ago I was involved in the struggle to keep Exelon (Illinois based) from taking over the local electrical companies in Maryland, DC and New Jersey. I did a lot of research and found that Exelon was loosing money, and wanted a larger customer base. Also they had 11 nuclear power plants that are due to expire and need to be decomissioned in the 2020s. I dread to think what we local ratepayers are going to be stuck with over the next decade and more since it already costs at least a $billion and usually more to decomission a nuke plant.
Does anyone have a link for how much installed solar capacity Texas has?
The posted article states 5,700 MW.
That sounds wrong.
Texas had 5,500 MW of solar capacity in 2019.
They had plans to expand that to 15,000 MW by the end of 2021.
Maybe COVID put the brakes on that plan?
On the other hand, it sounds like the article might be confusing output with capacity.
In any event, Texas has at least 37,700 MW of Green Energy capacity.
If Texas had built 37,700 MW of coal and nuclear capacity instead, they would have been EXPORTING electricity to neighboring states for the last two weeks!
BTTT
Well done!
Sorry, the basic math does not confirm that.
During the first week of cold weather, solar and wind peaked around 20,000 MW of output, and the natural gas minimum was around 5,000 MW.
During the second week of much colder temps, solar and wind crashed to 5,000 MW and natural gas zoomed to 40,000 MW.
Natural gas did not fail until Day 7 of record cold temperatures.
Texas has at least 37,700 MW of solar and wind capacity, but they produced just 10%-15% of capacity during extreme cold.
If Texas had built 37,700 MW of coal and nuclear instead, they would have been exporting electricity to neighboring states during the last seven days.
THIS MORNING, Saturday the 20th, on the weather channel global warming propaganda machine said that CLIMATE CHANGE was responsible for the power outages. If not for CLIMATE CHANGE, it would not have been this cold. The failure of 95% of the windmills was not their fault, it was TEXAS’ fault for NOT BEING PREPARED for BELOW ZERO WEATHER!!! When the hell has Texas had to deal with this kind of weather for this long???? By Tuesday, it will be in the 70’s in Dallas. THAT is kind of normal, not minus SEVEN!!! These pigs will stop at nothing to get their agenda of lies into the shows of lies.
Bump
The money spent on solar energy was more than enough to winterize other forms of energy production (nuclear, gas).
DoodleDawg’s link is also short on facts.
A little bit of reading earlier up this thread demonstrates why, after losing 9500 MW base power of coal, the combined generation system was unable to cope with the loss of power from wind and natural gas.
So, in case the other posts in this thread are not enough, here’s yet ANOTHER recent link that demonstrates the lack of facts from DoodleDawg:
From that chart it looks like if they hadn’t of taken some coal fired plants off line in the last few weeks, they would have had enough power.
They like to push windmills and solar when the weather is good, when they shut down coal plants.
Looks like Texas is beholden to the greenies much too much!
The OAC types aren’t smart enough to have good back up
Also because the back up is scary old fossil fuels.
Are you kidding? Do you guys ever take responsibility for ANYTHING or do you really believe your own silly talking.
I’ve read More articles on Texas’ courts and congress folk and cities making INSANE decisions.
You can say the cities aren’t part of TX if somehow that lie makes you feel better, but it is a lie.
Oh and you guys are just a few percentage points away from swing state territory.
You watch a coup happen twice and let your statues be torn down and did you rise up with that TOUGH TEXAN ATTITUDE?
No, you laid down and did nothing like republicans in every other state.
Except for that nonsensical bill about seceding which is kabuke theater at its best.
Wake up to reality
Excellent graph. Tells it all.
Here is a quote which appears to be from someone with real knowledge of at least one aspect of power failure:
“The main reason most power plants “froze up” and tripped off line, or failed to start up, can be traced to simple reasons. First, they do not operate their compressed/control air systems properly. They have failed to maintain their air dryer systems to save money, thus their air systems are full of water; when it freezes the control air systems fail, and the unit cannot run. Secondly, their trace heat systems, to keep water pipes from freezing, are also not maintained properly. The pipe heaters do not work, pipe insulation is removed, not replaced, etc. allowing the water in the pipes to freeze.
I know this having worked in Texas power plants. When attempting to fix air dryers, I was always shut down & told that they didn’t want to spend the money.”
This was a comment at: https://www.aol.com/news/power-failure-winter-storm-pushed-140438363-162726476.html
I have seen several references to a major freeze in 2011. Sounds like a possible effect from the approximately 11 year sunspot cycle which has a stronger 22 year cycle. Check your old weather records. I also remember years ago reading a novel with some terrible winter storm in Texas in the late 1800s. If the utilities are not going to respond and the voters are not going to make effective changes, then individual responsibility is another possibility. In the mid Atlantic area I have more than a month of food, and a week of water in gallon jugs. Also if a big storm might affect water supply I fill my bathtub to supply toilet flushes. Functioning fire places and wood stoves can help, and having one room that can be closed off and be kept warmer for an individual or the family is wise. Officials should be able to announce to the population, “We are facing an extreme (cold, heat, water shortage, wildfire, etc.) emergency, please immediately shut down to minimum heat, AC, water, etc. usage as soon as possible.” Because I am a low income retired person, I keep my thermostat at 55, and use electric heaters in those rooms where I am actually spending time—bedroom, bathroom, kitchen. When I empty a gallon milk or tea jug, I clean and fill with water. Why don’t more people do that instead of buying all those little water bottles by the dozen?
We need power plant engineers on that board Experts in coal, natural gas and nuclear generation and distribution.. Not a bunch of lefty bureaucrats. The woman from Michigan has a degree in economics. How could she possibly understand the complexities of power generation?? I imagine most of them have “credentials” like that.
Maybe take a Civics class?
I remember well driving out through Idaho, Montana and Wyoming on vacation when my wife and I still lived in Washingtonstan, communist bloc next to Canadastan and Oregonstan. We passed a windmill “farm” of about 50 of thing ugly things along the top of a small mountain range, in one of those three states, I forget now as it has been 20 plus years ago, but we passed these damned things and there were no more than 4 or 5 of the damned things working. Men were up on several of them working, I assumed trying to get them to work or run. But none of the damned things were working. Lots of luck there.
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