Welcome to the 3rd World - Rolling Blackouts Continue

Hmm grew up in Texas, and I always heard blah blah Texas own its own grid...

Well, what a #ty grid.

Just wait till global warming increases all the cold weather and this is an everyday problem.

My truck wouldn't start today, I had to put the battery charger on it. We got two really cold weeks of weather which is going away tomorrow, and because there has been little snow, I have not used the plowtruck for a week......The sun is shining on the black truck, it should start in a few hours, I did have to brush two inches off of it to make it black again so the sun could do it's job. It is only five above zero F but the sun is warm.

3rd world indeed, as this sounds more like bad planning or execution than a problem with the energy sources, as North European countries have very cold weather and none of these problems, as far as I know, and have very high levels of renewable energy sources of electricity.

If the windmills do not freeze in Sweden why do they freeze in the US?

PS: Just curious, how much electricity is produced in the US by renewable energy systems?

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: ketsuko

The only green energy that's reliable today is hydro and nuclear.
Some day people will understand that.

From what I've seen, nuclear is blue energy.

Cherenkov radiation - Wikipedia

originally posted by: ketsuko
They've announced that the blackouts are over for the time being, but they still have an overwhelming number of people out of power. So many that the outage line is overwhelmed.

And they're saying they may have to start with the blackouts again this afternoon or during the evening because people might cook too much to make their dinners.

Power out again here, and on schedule too. We just had about and hours worth of power.
We should be back on in about an hour.

The problem is when the power comes back on everyone scrambled to cook, and turn up the heat because they don’t know when it’s going to go down again.

Or like with our situation we feel like we need to cram all we can in a hour. Charging phones and laptops, and letting the kids watch shows.

They say don’t run any major appliances and keep your thermostat no higher than 68. But seriously what percentage of Texans are going follow these guidelines. Californians are very obedient, but from what I have learned out here in Texas it’s kinda “the government said what? Na I’m fine.”

Just like in California, I never understood the logic behind this, it just driving behavior, bad behavior.
Feels like we are in a lab rat experiment.

originally posted by: marg6043
Greeny is trash, waste of money and still dependent on oil, is a lie, is no green in the green energy but waste of tax payers money.

It is been proven, but nobody listens.

I am in the south it is cold baby, but thankfully we got real energy no fake green one. Thank god.

I feel sorry for all those states that are now freezing and not heat to keep them warm.

Blame it on global warming.

Are you suggesting that 'the greenies' control the weather?

Chicago area: One Nuclear Power Plant.

This week:
12 below zero
14 inches of snow

No significant power outages.

Only 15 shootings.

originally posted by: ArMaP
3rd world indeed, as this sounds more like bad planning or execution than a problem with the energy sources, as North European countries have very cold weather and none of these problems, as far as I know, and have very high levels of renewable energy sources of electricity.

If the windmills do not freeze in Sweden why do they freeze in the US?

PS: Just curious, how much electricity is produced in the US by renewable energy systems?

The windmills may not be freezing, but if there are high winds, the blades are 'feathered' to prevent over-spin. Also there are environmental reasons where they stop or slow the windmills in high winds to prevent bird-strike issues.

Decentralized energy production is the only way forward for the future, just like decentralized government. Imagine if you or your neighborhood produced its own energy with a micro-reactor, built to supply power just to your immediate block. Much much safer long term.

a reply to: chr0naut

Then how they do it in, for example, Sweden? They also have strong winds.

The North Sea has many windfarms, and that's an area of very strong winds, so there must be a way of avoiding that problem.

a reply to: Subsonic

I think you can already do that in some places, even "exporting" your excess production to the grid.

a reply to: ArMaP

It's a matter of planning. How often does weather like that happen in Texas? Once every 40-ish years?

The electricity grid was designed to be in high demand during the summer, when Texans crank their air conditioning at home. But some of the energy sources that power the grid during the summer are offline during the winter. So when Texans stayed home during the storm on Sunday and demanded record amounts of electricity, the state’s energy system could not keep up.

Some of the energy sources powering the grid were knocked out by the inclement weather, most of which were facilities run by gas, coal or nuclear energy.

“Most of the plants that went offline during evening and morning today were fueled by one of those sources,” said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at ERCOT.

Wind turbines, which provide a much smaller source of energy for the state’s power grid, were iced over and also out of commission.

TexasTribune
They were iced over because they weren't running because they aren't needed under normal circumstances.
So you could keep them running producing like 3 times above need for the once in 40 years times it might be needed but...
who'd be paying for that?

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: chr0naut

Then how they do it in, for example, Sweden? They also have strong winds.

The North Sea has many windfarms, and that's an area of very strong winds, so there must be a way of avoiding that problem.

Could be that out at sea, there isn't the same problem of bird-strike, or that the blade feathering is proportional to wind speed, to ensure a consistent rotation?

I'll do some research.

a reply to: chr0naut

They were offline. No real mystery

a reply to: Peeple

I thought weather services were able to alert for the approach of such a storm at least 3 days in advance, does that mean those systems are not capable of being turned on when needed in an emergency like this?

Also, it looks like Texas is not the only one affected.

a reply to: ArMaP

There are two operating nuclear power plants in Texas.

Four reactors total.

Illinois, which has the most nuclear reactors (11) and the most nuclear generating capacity (11.6 gigawatts) among states, generated 54% of its in-state generation from nuclear power in 2019.

There's part of the problem. TX doesn't have the nuke infrastructure that other states have. We have seven reactors in SC and five across the border in NC. Given the size and population of TX compared to even the three other states mentioned, it looks like nuclear is highly under-represented in the marketplace. As for "green" technologies, it's not even close to meeting a peak demand situation like this one.

a reply to: ArMaP

They are up to about 23% in Texas, but as I mentioned, they also use natural gas, and those froze over as well.

Between them, you have about 63% of the state's power needs incapacitated.

Coal and nuclear could compensate, but they've been so reduced that at 18% and 11%, there's no way you can run those plants at enough capacity to begin to take up enough slack. You can't draw from your neighbors ... they all need extraordinary power too, and this goes all the way up to the Canadian border.

In a news release, ERCOT said the extreme weather led to "many generating units - across fuel types - to trip offline."

"Natural-gas-fired power plants generated 40% of Texas’s electricity in 2020, according to Ercot," WSJ reports, while "wind turbines were second at 23%, followed by coal at 18% and nuclear at 11%."

So the issue is that Texas put too many eggs into unreliable baskets. Sure, in Texas they usually work, but what happens when they don't? Texas becomes California. This is why diversity in your power generation is a good thing.

a reply to: ArMaP

I'm sure FP&L, NextEra, Duke, Southern Company, TVA, etc. are all selling excess load if possible to these areas. Now can TX and other states afford the mark-up on the load sells? That's a good question.

a reply to: ArMaP

There's no office or anyone handling any real-time on demand adjustments.
And the problem wouldn't have been as big if the other facilities
Re-quote

Some of the energy sources powering the grid were knocked out by the inclement weather, most of which were facilities run by gas, coal or nuclear energy.

“Most of the plants that went offline during evening and morning today were fueled by one of those sources,” said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at ERCOT.

Would have been built for those temperatures which they weren't because Texas.

a reply to: Hypntick

That doesn't answer my question: how do other countries do it?
That's why this looks more like bad planning/execution that a problem of what kind of energy source is used.