Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Love to know how all the folks with no power in Texas feel about their teslas this week?
Shouldn't be a problem if the car is well charged. In fact, it maybe good to use it to power some of your essentials off. It can run my home router and cable modem possibly for a whole week.
Texas Governor Abbott blamed his state’s extensive power outages on generators freezing early Monday morning, noting “this includes the natural gas & coal generators.” But frigid temperatures and icy conditions have descended on most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas handle them while other states did?
The problem is Texas’s overreliance on wind power that has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of wind turbines froze last week, causing wind’s share of electricity to plunge to 8% from 42%. Power prices in the wholesale market spiked, and grid regulators on Friday warned of rolling blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators ramped up to cover the supply gap but couldn’t meet the surging demand for electricity—which half of households rely on for heating—even as many families powered up their gas furnaces. Then some gas wells and pipelines froze.
In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid. Baseload power is needed to stabilize grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there’s not enough baseload power, the grid gets unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid relies on intermittent renewables like wind and solar, the more baseload power is needed to back them up.
But politicians & government regulators who control most every move of power generators & grid operators don’t care about grid reliability until the power goes out. And for three decades politicians from both parties have pushed subsidies for renewables that have made the grid less stable.
So we have governments that:
Dictate an increased reliance on fundamentally unreliable wind & solar power
Prevent the development of baseload power generation via fossil fuels & nuclear energy
Provide subsidies to people to consume even more electricity by switching to EVs which, of course, increases the load on the grid
... and then they wonder why the power goes out.
We have a long way to go before we're ready for mass deployment of EVs.
Why are there fewer people without power in Oklahoma versus Texas? Texas has a far higher population spread out over a much larger land area. Look at the size of Oklahoma then look at the size of Texas. Texas is easily 3 times the size of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is not tied to the Texas Grid. That's why.
US power grid has not been upgraded for decades. The failures are just proof that power is not being distributed properly. Our Federal government have not spent any money upgrading the infrastructure while allowing utility companies to reap the benefits of solar. Utility companies now make money on services rather than on consumption. Because laws passed forbid them from jacking up prices but they slap on all sorts of service fees.
The Feds don't own the power grids, they just regulate them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RationalExpectations
It appears we have 3 grids: The West, The East, and Texas (someone correct me if I'm wrong). It is the Texas grid that has suffered a disastrous failure.
Correct. Texas decided under FDR to ahve a separate grid so the Feds wouldn't regulate power in Texas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RationalExpectations
Texas Governor Abbott blamed his state’s extensive power outages on generators freezing early Monday morning, noting “this includes the natural gas & coal generators.” But frigid temperatures and icy conditions have descended on most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas handle them while other states did?
The problem is Texas’s overreliance on wind power that has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of wind turbines froze last week, causing wind’s share of electricity to plunge to 8% from 42%. Power prices in the wholesale market spiked, and grid regulators on Friday warned of rolling blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators ramped up to cover the supply gap but couldn’t meet the surging demand for electricity—which half of households rely on for heating—even as many families powered up their gas furnaces. Then some gas wells and pipelines froze.
In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid. Baseload power is needed to stabilize grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there’s not enough baseload power, the grid gets unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid relies on intermittent renewables like wind and solar, the more baseload power is needed to back them up.
But politicians & government regulators who control most every move of power generators & grid operators don’t care about grid reliability until the power goes out. And for three decades politicians from both parties have pushed subsidies for renewables that have made the grid less stable.
So we have governments that:
Dictate an increased reliance on fundamentally unreliable wind & solar power
Prevent the development of baseload power generation via fossil fuels & nuclear energy
Provide subsidies to people to consume even more electricity by switching to EVs which, of course, increases the load on the grid
... and then they wonder why the power goes out.
We have a long way to go before we're ready for mass deployment of EVs.
Most of what you wrote there is utter bull feces. Winter power in Texas is not 42% wind. Total demand was predicted to be something like 60GW, with 5GW from wind, with actual wind power cut in half. Over half of the natural gas capacity is currently unavailable, and a quarter of the nuclear power is down. Some NG plants are frozen up, others are unable to get enough gas to operate due to wells and gas plants freezing. Get your facts straight.
Texas Governor Abbott blamed his state’s extensive power outages on generators freezing early Monday morning, noting “this includes the natural gas & coal generators.” But frigid temperatures and icy conditions have descended on most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas handle them while other states did?
The problem is Texas’s overreliance on wind power that has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of wind turbines froze last week, causing wind’s share of electricity to plunge to 8% from 42%. Power prices in the wholesale market spiked, and grid regulators on Friday warned of rolling blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators ramped up to cover the supply gap but couldn’t meet the surging demand for electricity—which half of households rely on for heating—even as many families powered up their gas furnaces. Then some gas wells and pipelines froze.
In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid. Baseload power is needed to stabilize grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there’s not enough baseload power, the grid gets unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid relies on intermittent renewables like wind and solar, the more baseload power is needed to back them up.
But politicians & government regulators who control most every move of power generators & grid operators don’t care about grid reliability until the power goes out. And for three decades politicians from both parties have pushed subsidies for renewables that have made the grid less stable.
So we have governments that:
Dictate an increased reliance on fundamentally unreliable wind & solar power
Prevent the development of baseload power generation via fossil fuels & nuclear energy
Provide subsidies to people to consume even more electricity by switching to EVs which, of course, increases the load on the grid
... and then they wonder why the power goes out.
We have a long way to go before we're ready for mass deployment of EVs.
I have seen some Texas politicians blaming wind turbines, but the people at ERCOT - who should know, and the energy analysts in the state tell a very different story. Outages are occurring in power plants of all types. The wind turbines have actually lost less of their capacity than the coal, nuclear and natural gas plants. The natural gas plants have had the biggest problems.
For example... "It’s estimated that about 80% of the grid’s capacity, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power. Only 7% of ERCOT’s forecasted winter capacity, or 6 gigawatts, was expected to come from various wind power sources across the state.
Woodfin said Tuesday that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, are offline and that 30 gigawatts of thermal sources, which include gas, coal and nuclear energy, are offline.
'It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been primarily due to issues on the natural gas system,' Woodfin said during a Tuesday call with reporters."
The Feds don't own the power grids, they just regulate them.
Correct. Texas decided under FDR to ahve a separate grid so the Feds wouldn't regulate power in Texas.
Most of what you wrote there is utter bull feces. Winter power in Texas is not 42% wind. Total demand was predicted to be something like 60GW, with 5GW from wind, with actual wind power cut in half. Over half of the natural gas capacity is currently unavailable, and a quarter of the nuclear power is down. Some NG plants are frozen up, others are unable to get enough gas to operate due to wells and gas plants freezing. Get your facts straight.
There are all kinds of conflicting reports relating to the reasons why Texas has lost power for such a long time. In reality, you are reinforcing the comments of the poster you are responding to as follows: he is correct in relation to the politics involved in wind and solar power generation. The politicians in charge of the State sat on their laurels and did not prepare for future natural events such as what is now happening in Texas.
There are all kinds of conflicting reports relating to the reasons why Texas has lost power for such a long time. In reality, you are reinforcing the comments of the poster you are responding to as follows: he is correct in relation to the politics involved in wind and solar power generation. The politicians in charge of the State sat on their laurels and did not prepare for future natural events such as what is now happening in Texas.
It gets even more interesting. Renewable energy is having a difficult time around the world this week.
Here's a short video about Germany's wind and solar power generators being shut down by the unusually cold weather they had.
Texas Governor Abbott blamed his state’s extensive power outages on generators freezing early Monday morning, noting “this includes the natural gas & coal generators.” But frigid temperatures and icy conditions have descended on most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas handle them while other states did?
The problem is Texas’s overreliance on wind power that has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of wind turbines froze last week, causing wind’s share of electricity to plunge to 8% from 42%. Power prices in the wholesale market spiked, and grid regulators on Friday warned of rolling blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators ramped up to cover the supply gap but couldn’t meet the surging demand for electricity—which half of households rely on for heating—even as many families powered up their gas furnaces. Then some gas wells and pipelines froze.
In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid. Baseload power is needed to stabilize grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there’s not enough baseload power, the grid gets unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid relies on intermittent renewables like wind and solar, the more baseload power is needed to back them up.
But politicians & government regulators who control most every move of power generators & grid operators don’t care about grid reliability until the power goes out. And for three decades politicians from both parties have pushed subsidies for renewables that have made the grid less stable.
So we have governments that:
Dictate an increased reliance on fundamentally unreliable wind & solar power
Prevent the development of baseload power generation via fossil fuels & nuclear energy
Provide subsidies to people to consume even more electricity by switching to EVs which, of course, increases the load on the grid
... and then they wonder why the power goes out.
We have a long way to go before we're ready for mass deployment of EVs.
There's a lot of incorrect information in here.
The majority of our power in the winter comes from coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Texas often outsources power generation to Mexico during times of excess heat.
The real issue here was that Texas failed to weatherize their power plants. This was called out 10 years ago when we had the same issue due to cold weather... and we had much less wind power back then.
This has been known for at least 30 years with the most recent assessments being in 2010 and 2014. This is a known issue in Texas.
There are roughly 10 Independent System Operators/Regional Transmission Organizations in the USA. Unlike Texas, the others follow federal rules designed to keep their systems reliable and stable. One important safety valve is having an extra 15% power load available beyond the predicted usage for the day. Texas does not follow this rule. In other regions there are dual fuel plants to help with the extra capacity requirement and/or multiple plants that do not run full capacity. Having this extra capacity available does cost money. This planning also allows the ISO/RTOs to easily share power with other ISO/RTOs to fulfill the 15% requirement. Some of the ISO/RTOs also work with Canadian ISO/RTOs.
The other issue is the requirement to weatherize generating equipment. As mentioned, this has been a known issue in Texas for years.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Texas Isn't alone.
