Posted on 02/20/2021 4:12:59 AM PST by Kaslin
How would your family, and a hundred thousand other families, like to be stuck in your cars for days at minus 16 degrees?
The death toll would be huge. It almost happened in New England in 1989.
And in Texas this week.
I was part of the 1989 Freeze and have some hopefully interesting insights.
In 1989, the weather just before Christmas was terrible. Cold temperature records were set from Texas to New England.
That year, I was responsible for a midcontinent gas gathering system that normally produced about 500 million cubic feet (MMCFD) of natural gas a day. That could supply up to 2 million New England homes. During the 1989 Freeze, we produced 30 MMCFD, roughly a 95% decline. Similar results were happening throughout the Oil Patch. Supply cratered.
Meanwhile, demand for natural gas was exploding, almost literally (more on that below). While the midcontinent temperatures were low enough to freeze gas wells, New England had dangerous arctic temperatures of minus 16 degrees. This created huge natural gas demand for home heating in a major New England town.
The city ultimately weathered that crisis through luck.
Several years later, I was fortunate enough to get to know some of the city's gas utility personnel who were operating the gas grid during the Freeze. They gave me invaluable insights into what really happened. (I promised the operators I would not name the city.)
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Why not replace your two gasoline generators with ONE large NG generator? (Or, a propane, if you can’t get NG.)
Our NG, whole house generator worked lake a champ during the (thankfully short) time our power was out.
That’s the thing that really keeps me from getting a gasoline generator. It just doesn’t last very not, especially during the summer heat.
“choose to live somewhere ...”
your post is an endorsement for global warming, something I also endorse.
I profusely thanked him during our conversation, and said he was the type of far-thinking individual we needed on the commission.
I believe he was re-elected.
WOW...
Very insightful article.
My goal in life is to learn something new every day.
This story paints a very clear picture as to what happened.
So, propane or diesel is the way to go.
Lot of the small generators are dual fuel, will run on either gasoline or propane.
Oil furnace and large oil tank are useless without power to run it.
*********
Seems people forget that many things impact power for the user. Just
having some type back up system isn’t worth a dime if the overall
supply grid has taken a fall.
Major freezing/icing impacts many portions of the overall grid from
generation to transmission to local distribution. These all can be
impacted and if one fails to a large degree it impacts the rest.
Major freezing also impacts many other areas such as transportation,
local business operation, emergency services, etc. etc.
Use gas to run compressor stations too.
Gas (as in natural or propane) stoves burn clean other wise you’d be dead cooking.
Sounds like you have a good plan. Better than .ost of your fellow Texans.
As for gas, my generator runs on LP gas same as my home heat.
I have 3 - 100 gallon tanks.
After going 8 days without power thanks to Hurricane Sandy I vowed to get better prepared. I’ve gone 2 days “without” power, using my generator.
My neighbors soon followed my lead after seeing me the only one with lights on.
I do hope you stay safe and that everyone without power soon gets it back. It is not fun!!!
Their renewable energy sources froze like those windmills.
Oxygen in natural pipelines is incredibly dangerous. Whole city blocks could be destroyed in an air/gas explosion.
You'll like this... ping
That’s why this oil customer has a gasoline/propane operated generator.
Oxygen in natural pipelines is incredibly dangerous. Whole city blocks could be destroyed in an air/gas explosion.
What's really going on... ping
Are you talking about one of those 'whole house' generators? If so, what brand do you like?
Worth reading ping...
Politicians think they can shutdown or throttle back natural gas production and use solar or wind..... with the idea of then kicking natural gas on at the coldest days when most needed.... so stupid. Anyone who has worked in NG operations knows when it is down in cold weather it takes time and a lot of extra manpower to get it back up. Dumb dumb politicians talking and legislating stupidly
“After the gas was shut off:
The houses without gas would rapidly lose heat and quickly become unlivable.
Anyone who had any kind of electric space heater would plug it in.
That would blow the electric grid.
An electric utility call confirmed a sudden, albeit short-lived, increase in electric load for space heaters would probably blow the already critically strained electric grid.
The electric grid in areas well beyond the gas shutoff area probably would be blown also.
Widespread blackouts would impact not only shut off gas customers. It would kill the electric blowers in furnaces that could still get gas. How many? No way of knowing.
Lots and lots of people are in the cold and in the dark.
Many would probably get in their cars for heat and try to ...-———————————————
ping
Lived in MA for my first 20 years, then hurricaneville FL for 25 years and now MO for 10 years including two years of heat wave with temps up around 110 for weeks and below zero for a week this year.
I’ve never lost power for days on end unless there was physical damage to power lines.
Never experienced a man made outage which is what TX is.
Not a space heater to be found in stores here right now because they sold them all but we’ve got electricity.
Guess TX didn’t just import a bunch of Californians but also the Cali state of mind for power generation.
Differential pressures in gas systems IS a thing.
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