Free Republic

The central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan suffered electrical power outages in major cities on Tuesday, according to authorities and residents, after a major power line in Kazakhstan was disconnected. The grids of the three ex-Soviet republics are interconnected, and via Kazakhstan are linked to the Russian power grid which they can use to cover unexpected shortages. But Kazakhstan's North-South power line, which links densely populated southern Kazakhstan and its two neighbours to major power stations in northern Kazakhstan and the Russian network, was disconnected on Tuesday morning due to "emergency imbalances" in the Central Asian part of...

Scientists are struggling to monitor an active volcano that erupted off the South Pacific island of Tonga at the weekend, after the explosion destroyed its sea-level crater and drowned its mass, obscuring it from satellites. The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kms (1,430 miles) away in New Zealand. “The concern at the moment is how little information we have and that’s scary,” said Janine Krippner, a New Zealand-based volcanologist with the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program. “When the vent is...

On May 7, 2021, during the peak of India's Delta Surge, The World Health Organization reported, "Uttar Pradesh (is) going the last mile to stop COVID-19." https://www.who.int/india/news/feature-stories/detail/uttar-pradesh-going-the-last-mile-to-stop-covid-19 The WHO noted, "Government teams are moving across 97,941 villages in 75 districts over five days in this activity which began May 5 in India's most populous state with a population of 230 million." The activity involved an aggressive house-to-house test and treat program with medicine kits. The WHO explained, "Each monitoring team has two members who visit homes in villages and remote hamlets to test everyone with symptoms of COVID-19 using Rapid...

Longtime vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a runaway bestseller on his hands with his blockbuster book skewering Dr. Anthony Fauci, no thanks to what his publisher calls a “total media blackout.” “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health” continued its reign Wednesday atop the Amazon and USA Today nonfiction bestseller lists and ranked fifth on The New York Times’ list of top-selling books. The book is flying off the shelves even though technology platforms refuse to carry its advertising. Mainstream media outlets won’t touch it, much to the...

USA Today is raising eyebrows for a report highlighting the "candidates of color" who made history in various election races on Tuesday but left out two of the night's biggest winners. Virginia rocked the political world with Glenn Youngkin leading the Republican ticket to victory in the commonwealth that President Biden won by ten points last year. The two other big winners were Winsome Sears, who will become Virginia's first woman of color lieutenant governor, and Jason Miyares, who will be the state's first Hispanic attorney general. However, neither of them was mentioned in USA Today's roundup of the diverse...

In a night of news coverage devoted to the racial undertones of the Virginia gubernatorial election, MSNBC failed to devote any significant coverage to the election of Republican lieutenant governor candidate Winsome Sears, who became the first black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia history. MSNBC's main political panel of commentators Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and Nicolle Wallace, who argued throughout Tuesday night's election coverage that Republicans ran a racist campaign in Virginia, did not mention Sears a single time as it watched returns come in. The 57-year-old Jamaican immigrant and Marine veteran ran at the top of the...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric said it may shut off power to about 44,000 customers in California beginning on Monday due to potentially dry, gusty winds that could raise the risk electrical equipment sparking fires. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of extreme fire danger starting late Sunday, when offshore winds are expected to develop across parts of northern and central California. The warning extends to late Tuesday and the strongest winds are expected on Monday. The high winds, combined with bone-dry vegetation caused by the drought, could increase the risk of trees falling...

There is no more electricity in the whole country after the two largest oil-powered power plants in Lebanon were forced to shut down due to a lack of fuel. The affected thermoelectric plants Zahrani and Deir Ammar power stations had been providing 40% of Lebanon’s electricity, according to their operator, Electricité Du Liban. The blackout could last a few days, as a Lebanese government official told Reuters. “The Lebanese power network completely stopped working at noon today, and it is unlikely that it will work until next Monday, or for several days.”

The energy crisis in Europe exposed the complexity of a transition to green energy: it is not happening overnight, and it cannot be done successfully with the old tricks. Energy systems, markets, and grids globally need fundamental changes to legislation, regulation, and oversight in order to accommodate 100-percent zero-emission sources. And even in that case, power systems need flexibility and backups in order to avert similar crises down the road as many parts of the world commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060. The current crisis in the UK is a cautionary tale about how not to rush to...

Industry leaders called for 'urgent action' after the National Grid warned electricity supplies would be 'tight'.. ... Latest sign of a grim winter outlook for UK with economy clobbered by rising inflation and supply chain issues.. The supply of electricity to Britain this winter will be 'tight' and there is a greater risk of blackouts, the National Grid warned today - as soaring energy prices leave families facing sky- high bills. ... Gas is in high demand due to the reopening of the global economy, colder temperatures, and reduced wind and solar output due to unfavourable conditions. ... Omni Energy...

Maybe it’s time to admit that the whole “green” energy push is one big farce Six months after a historic failure in the Texas power grid which collapsed when various “renewable” sources of electricity failed concurrently and dragged down the entire network, California – that liberal utopia powered by renewable power and/or unicorn flatulence – realizes it is about to get Enroned, and has made an urgent request for additional power supplies to avoid blackouts this summer, an extraordinary step after suffering from rolling outages less than a year ago. State energy officials asked the California Independent System Operator, which...

The Pacific Northwest is experiencing a multi-day heat wave that we said last week would be “historic.” The unrelenting triple-digit temperatures shattered records across the region and have stressed out power grids where rolling blackouts have been reported. Bloomberg reports Avista Corporation, which supplies electricity to 340,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers, triggered its first rolling blackout across its grid after it became overloaded Monday evening. Rotating outages first hit 9,300 customers late Monday and could expand as temperatures remain well above average through July 4. Avista was the first major utility to report rolling blackouts in the Northwest region,...

Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability – and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers.Last week, the state’s grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, issued a “flex alert” that asked the state’s consumers to reduce their power use “to reduce stress on the grid and avoid power outages.” CAISO’s warning of impending electricity shortages heralds another blackout-riddled summer at the same time California’s electricity prices are skyrocketing.In 2020, California’s electricity prices jumped by 7.5%, making it the biggest price increase of any state in the country last...

A large fire at an electrical substation for Puerto Rico’s new electricity provider, Luma Energy, knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of the island’s residents Thursday. At the height of the blackout, nearly 800,000 customers were without power, according to Luma. By midnight, roughly 60,000 customers were still in the dark. “The fire caused major blackouts across the entire island. The situation is under assessment and work is being done to restore the system,” LUMA Energy tweeted. Cyberattack at Luma The fire and blackout were not the only crises facing Luma on Thursday. Earlier that day, the company announced...

On Sunday, just hours after starting to run new, advanced centrifuges that can enrich uranium faster, Iran’s nuclear facility at Nantanz suffered what was termed a “suspicious” blackout. Speculation immediately began in the Israeli media that some kind of cyber attack had crippled the facility. It wouldn’t be the first time Nantanz had been targeted. In 2010, the Stuxnet worm wreaked havoc on the facility’s centrifuges, causing a huge drop in enriched uranium output. These new centrifuges could take the 20 percent enriched uranium that Iran already possesses and jack it up to bomb-grade levels (90 percent) in a matter...

Utility commission says repricing power markets too difficult, despite recommendation that overcharges during storm be reversed The Public Utility Commission of Texas on Friday signaled it didn’t intend to reverse $16 billion in electric overcharges that an independent market monitor had flagged as stemming from the state’s weeklong blackouts. Commission Chairman Arthur C. D’Andrea said it was too difficult to reprice the energy markets and involved too many uncertainties. “It is impossible to unscramble this sort of egg,” he said. Mr. D’Andrea said there were so many hedges and private transactions outside the view of the commission that taking a...

What’s behind the devastating power outages in Texas? Some say the problem was freezing natural gas pipelines; some say it’s because wind turbines froze or mismanagement by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). To find out what’s going on in Texas, I sat down with Jason Isaac, who predicted a power crisis in Texas months ago. He’s the director of Life:Powered, a national initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation seeking to “raise America’s energy IQ.” This is American Thought Leaders, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

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...

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is getting a lot of attention as millions of Texans remain without power while the state faces extreme cold. Meanwhile, ERCOT's recently elected chair and vice chair for the board of directors aren't feeling the chill like we are.

Why are millions of Americans in the nation’s most energy-rich state without power and heat for days amid extreme winter weather? “The people who have fallen short with regard to the power are the private power generation companies,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott explained. Ah, yes, blame private power companies . . . that are regulated by government. The Republican sounds like California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who lambasted private utilities for rolling blackouts during a heat wave last summer. Power grids should be able to withstand extreme weather. But in both these bellwether states, state and federal energy policies have...