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 ...
Outstanding posts and analogies @59
FRegards
Now Texans are shocked, SHOCKED! to discover that this means they sometimes freeze to death in the dark. The tiny violins are sobbing.
I don’t think anyone has elaborated on, or at least mentioned, the population growth in Texas. Those of us who live here, realize that it is a natural outgrowth of a good economy and quality of life, but it Texas needs to grow it’s infrastructure to meet ever-increasing needs.
This was a once-every-thirty-year storm. We lived through this storm, and also realize the fact that this was one of few weather events that affected nearly all of Texas!
It is a wake-up call, but I hope that those running this state realize that wind and solar are resources that can’t be managed on-demand.
Thank you… I know that’s a long post but I’ve never been one of those types who could adjust to a two or three sentence post, never mind the “BRB” kind of thing.
So thanks for looking at it...:)
“Green Energy” is “Green” alright. Somebody’s making a lot of “Green” off of it.
“But it seems that for whatever technical reason, Texas’ gas and nuclear plants also were not equipped to deal with historical cold weather.”
How often has Texas had weather like this?
I’m thinking if it’s a hundred year storm or a two or three hundred year storm, perhaps planning for it and spending money for something that may or may not happen, may not be wise. Of course when it does happen then there’s lots of quarterbacking. ie, does Maine plan for a heat wave of over a hundred degrees? Of course Maine can get electricity from sources outside the state so it’s probably a moot question.
Really? That’s about the dumbest response that one could give. Try again.
“The electricty mess here in Texas is due to unreliables™, CASE CLOSED.”
And having an isolated grid. I wonder if they will consider a couple of supply lines from the rest of the US now.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. And in layman’s terms :-)
You’re right, there are connections to Mexico and the US. At least one of the u.s. grids, I’m really wondering why they couldn’t get emergency electricity coming in.
They are dependent on heavily Federally subsidized unreliables™ too and don't have any reserve capacity for the same reasons.
Then you also know that it was the overload trips of plants in West Texas that caused the natural gas pumping station supplying fuel to other plants in Texas to shutdown, therefore creating an instant natural gas shortage shutting down more plants. ERCOT did a poor job of managing the dominos, but wind was the first domino to fall. If not for wind, the other ones would not have fallen.
Of course not.
You are most welcome. I admit that when I try to explain things in that level of detail, I am walking through it in my own head trying to understand it myself.
Hope it helps. It is batsh*t crazy, this subsidizing and pushing of green technology with absolutely no in depth analysis by the people pushing it.
In their eyes, just getting it in place is the goal, they don’t give a darn about what happens getting there.
“nuclear plants also were not equipped to deal with historical cold weather.”
I think that’s false. If anyone thinks it’s true then they need to explain in detail why cold weather shut the nuclear plants down.
One possible scenario is steam drum level indicators on the boilers freeze, giving false signals to the control computers. This erroneous information then causes shutdowns as the control system/operators react to to the bad information.
I’ve seen this happen on systems with 6 different instruments measuring the same level in a drum.
I’ve worked may long hours keeping a power plants running during extrema cold weather taking what would be considered to be extraordinary measures. This was on plants that were supposed to be build to handle the cold.
It’s not unusual at all.
ConservativeMind posted this link upthread:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3935712/posts?page=37#37
“According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the shutdown of the nuclear reactor was caused by a disruption in a feedwater pump to the reactor, and that caused the plant to trip automatically and shut down early Monday”
I want a root cause analysis.
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