Polar Vortex Highlights Natural Gas-fired Generation Vulnerabilities

Electric Light and Power ^ | 02/25/2014 | Teresa Hansen

[dickmc]

For many people in the U.S., me included, this winter has been miserable. The polar vortex, which I'm fairly certain was a term only meteorologists had heard before this winter, has wreaked havoc in much of the country. ... This type of weather affects few, if any, industries more than electricity providers.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is responsible for balancing the state's electricity supply and demand, reported an all-time high winter peak demand Jan. 7 and was required to issue an alert the day before when some 13,000 MW of generation--3,700 MW of forced outages caused by weather--were unavailable from midnight to 8 a.m. ERCOT brought all available electric generation online and deployed all demand response programs that it had contracted. Even with these measures, available generation capacity did not meet demand ...

Other independent system operators such as PJM and MISO experienced problems, too--some because coal plants that were heavily used have been retired. (Their owners can't afford to meet environmental regulations.)...

This brief summary is well worth reading. It appears the grid was in more trouble than commoonly known. There detailed article is here.

A much longer article covering the same thing in the same Magazine with respect to natural gas is is here.

Both are worth reading.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[chris37]

Polar Vortex!?

run, RUN, EVERYBODY RUN!!! MANBEARPIG IS COMING AND THE ONLY WAY TO STOP HIM IS TO ELECT MORE DEMOCRATS!!!!

[Steely Tom]

Global warming is making the Polar Vortex bigger and colder, right?

[Huskrrrr]

I’m more concerned with the BS Vortex in DC right now.

[hadaclueonce]

The article is about how america is stupid trying to replace coal with natural gas.

I agree.

Wind/solar are not the unicorn milk the progressives would like you to believe.

Do you like electricity? Tell your representative to shut down the EPA and leave it the states to regulate.

[nascarnation]

I'm fairly certain was a term only meteorologists had heard before this winter

FWIW Brian Wilkes a local tv weather guy here in Indy has used the term on air for at least 20 years. During the 1994 cold snap for sure.

[Chode]

i remember when it was called the Canadian Clipper, and the Siberian Express before that and simply COLD AIR MASS before that... polar vortex my achin azz, feh

[HereInTheHeartland]

Polar vortex. Old Indian word for winter.

[Wingy]

Geez folks! You gotta relax. We have windmills and solar to bail out those evil fossil fuel burners. Polar bears are cheering and the planet is getting over her fever. So relax, kick back and send a fat check to our Dear Leader to thank him for his foresight.

Do I need a /sarc tag?

[Cyber Liberty]

I read the article. It’s not because NG is inherently poor, it’s because the supply chains are incomplete. Properly done, the Natural Gas alternative can still work, but it would involve more and better infrastructure, which, as Keystone shows, the current crop in the Administration is loathe to allow.

It’s time to start following the coal money heading into Obastard’s pockets. There’s a payoff going on here.

[dickmc]

I wish we had an edit after posting!!!!

I do know that "commoonly" is "commonly" and that "is is" is redundant (unlike the former President Clinton). None the less the article is worth reading!! However, that is no excuse for mistakenly pushing 'Post' too soon. None the less, the mistakes take away from the interest of the article.

I apologize for the grammatical errors due to a premature button push!

[Cyber Liberty]

I always preferred “Blizzard.” It wasn’t always a tasty Dairy Queen treat.

[Cyber Liberty]

I hope you didn’t get any on you. I understand the cleaners will never get that out.

[KSCITYBOY]

Polar Vortex like global warming is just more made up b/s.

[Paine in the Neck]

MISO operates transmission lines. ERCOT depends heavily on wind but the "irregularity of wind, however, presents operational challenges for the ERCOT grid." PJM is a power company, apparently with too big a dependence on trendy, subsidy-sucking renewables. Thus the need for peak demand gas.

[thackney]

Most of these power plants are seldom used peaking units and, therefore, do not have firm natural gas supply contracts. They instead rely on interruptible gas supplies. Natural gas suppliers met their firm customers’ demand, but with heating demands for gas soaring, they could not meet demands of their interruptible supply agreements.

- - - - -

So the power plants used the cheapest gas rate available, interruptible, which means they have the lowest priority for supply.

If Gas Companies have more contracts for non-interruptible, the price difference is used to expand facilities to meet the demand. But the power companies, in order to get the cheapest rate, agreed to be cut off if needed.

[dickmc]

PJM is the Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland grid which is very well managed and at least in Pennsylvania has a fair amount of coal generation. You can read more about their operation at http://www.pjm.com/Default.aspx

[Chode]

i'll take the DQ version, i'm tired of all the globull warming this winter

[Cyber Liberty]

I like the Oreo/Snickers ones, but I’d prefer to wait until July. They’re life-savers here, we do Globull Warming every year. It’s a tourist attraction.