Posted on 02/20/2021 4:12:59 AM PST by Kaslin
He's pointing out that the gas infrastructure was similarly overwhelmed in Texas, although the root cause was different.
In Texas, he says it was the failure of the wind system to sustain its supply of electricity, which caused rolling blackouts, which caused people to turn to gas, which caused the gas infrastructure to become overwhelmed.
He's suggesting that if the wind system had not failed, the demand would not have shifted to gas to keep homes heated, which would have kept the gas systems intact.
-PJ
What’s more telling is that the information he presents doesn’t support any claim about the inefficiency and unreliability of wind power at all ... because he cites a compelling example where wind power played no role whatsoever in a potentially catastrophic power grid failure. This is sort of like me claiming that playing baseball causes long-term head injuries, while citing evidence from studies involving FOOTBALL players to make my point.
My power was out for 14 hours, and I immediately turned on my gas fireplace and used the gas stove for cooking, so I can attest to shifting my demand to gas for heating.
From a flawed analogy standpoint, it would be more like saying that transporting oil in trucks is more dangerous than piping it, and then citing failure to maintain training courses for tanker truck drivers as the cause.
-PJ
We don’t have natural gas where I live ... so I’ll have to go with propane or diesel... I should have done this years ago...
Do you lose power, often?
Our primary reason for getting one, is that we do....especially during hurricane season.
It was a bonus, during this ice storm.
Bad winds tend to knock our power out, as well.
“Also, this is TEXAS - winterizing like we live in Minnesota doesn’t come natural.”
Nor does driving 55 mph on 4” of snow, while eating your fast food lunch. 😄
My plan is NOT to run the Central AC/Heat unit off the system, but to buy a small high efficiency ductless unit that would only be used in a power shortage. One that would not use much power.
In summer Hurricane season one room would be cool - and it would take the edge off other rooms. Same for winter... Kids are grown up so I don’t need to heat or cool the whole house in an emergency situation.
Propane is great for power outage ride-out.
Propane generator, furnace, stove, water heater, dryer, fireplace, outside bbq. Only need electrical for fridge, sump, well, lighting, washer.
Keep the pig full.
Not that often but often enough... Like you it’s mostly Hurricanes...
Usually I go stay with friends and family - who have whole house generators and live inland. But with the pandemic and God Only Knows what new variants of COVID coming down the pike - I’d like to just ride out the next few hurricanes at home.
Wouldn’t your propane, whole house/stand by generator keep all of the other things running...even if they’re gas and/or electric?
It really is nice.
We hosted family, during this ice storm, who’d lost power and water.
Everyone is on a boil water notice, now :-(
We aren’t, as we are on well water.
You are so blessed. Or as they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...”
“Wouldn’t your propane, whole house/stand by generator keep all of the other things running...even if they’re gas and/or electric?”
Yep, if you want to spend out the $6,000 + for one (installed).
With those propane-powered appliances, the electric footprint is much smaller, so a much smaller (propane) generator is needed (unless you want to run AC, too).
Well, septic, no sump, propane, generator — going off-grid for some time is easy peasy.
Don’t debase yourself with oil, get propane instead.
“Don’t debase yourself with oil,”
Well, I’m gonna go with COAL!
I’ll heat with coal PLUS make me a coal-fired, steam-powered, whole-house electric generator!
How about THAT? 😁
One of my many responsibilities working for two utilities up north was end of day balancing.
Utilities are allowed a very small reserve margin. On extreme days, pipeline will call Critical Time minimizing flexibility (draw) on a daily and hourly basis. The utility’s gas controllers (heroes in my estimation).will pack the line (distribution system) to meet hourly requirements. If utility customers’, aka end users’, suppliers do not nominate what is actually being used the utility will have to make up the difference. That difference will come from utility owned storage or storage services purchased from pipelines.
Utilities are governed by local Public Utility Commissions (PUC).
Pipelines are governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
The hot air rising, cold air dropping octopus. 🙂
That’s where my Dad snuck smokes when he was a teen, on coal duty.
See it’s burning gas now, like most that still exist.
We had one with just the bonnet as a deer camp barn heater, long ago.
Memories.
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