Mexico Cancels Offer to Send Electricity to Texas

abcnews.go.com ^ | 232011 | ABC

[Fresh Wind]

What about some undocumented electricity?

[dragnet2]

Rolling blackouts are a problem?

Well, when it happend in California a few years back, I was told the state was doomed and was a clear sign we lived in a 3rd world....

I dunno..

[dragnet2]

((Happened))

[dragnet2]

I gotta say with all the self congratulatory Texans on FR I’ve been having a bit of a chuckle about this. I do hope it warms up for y’all though and you get the lights back on.

Uh oh....

[Richard Kimball]

It wasn't long ago during a multi-state outage they were pounding their chests bragging about having their own grid...How's that working out for you now Texas?

We'll live. By keeping the state power grid separate, we were able to keep the Feds, for the most part, from regulating us. And it's going to work out fine.

[deport]

A little info for the thread albeit a day or two late..........

Showing the ERCOT boundaries [in blue] where the rolling blackouts occurred.

ERCOT in relation to the rest of the US as far as electric grids are concerned. Texas chose to remain instate with their grid with no major ties to other US grids to keep the FERC out of controlling the grid.

Power outages unlikely, but not impossible

begin snip

Wednesday’s rolling blackouts were not caused by a failure to predict demand accurately or to keep enough plants online, Doggett said, but by a widespread mechanical failure of more than 50 power generating units all over the state.

There was no single reason for the failures and no particular location, plant operator or type of power plant behind the problem, he said.

Re-evaluating procedures
Frozen water pipes burst in some instances, but many of the problems emerged as ice locked up equipment that sends signals to valves, pumps and other devices, Doggett said.

Most power plant operators in Texas winterize their plants to handle cold snaps, but it’s clear that more could be done, he said.

“We will be looking at whether tighter restrictions should be applied on those plants,” he said.

end snip.......

[freebird5850]

I just certainly hope people get foolish and start heating inappropriately... i.e. charcoal grills etc. Happens almost every year here in Wa State. I think 7 people died last year.

[Liberty Valance]

"Do you all sell oranges to individuals? I mean if I wanted a a half a bushel of oranges would you pack and ship them to me?"

No. Unless you were a neighbor who lives near the farm where we'd sell you a sack for $3 or give them to you free as a FRiend. The oranges/grapefruit are sold to local resellers and gift fruit packers/shippers. They pick it. We used to sell it by the ton to the juice companies until the 87 freeze which brought us down to this final small grove. The farm makes just enough money to pay the taxes on it now... thats about it. On the upside, it's also a great white wing dove family hunting habitat now. ;o)

[leapfrog0202]

I just certainly hope people get foolish and start heating inappropriately... i.e. charcoal grills etc. Happens almost every year here in Wa State. I think 7 people died last year.

____________________________

The radio & TV stations have been broadcasting warnings about charcoal grills, ovens etc. Essentially they’re begging people not to do things like that - I hope people listen!

[Doe Eyes]

Where is Texas Governor Rick Perry?

In California, not taking care of the problems in his state.

He probably thinks its Obama's problem.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

It is a problem caused by Obama’s failed energy policies.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/48745.html

[freebird5850]

I just certainly hope people DON’T get foolish. Sorry for the typo but I guess all understood my meaning.

[Doe Eyes]

It is a problem caused by Obama’s failed energy policies.

So you think the electricity shortages in Texas are due to Obama's resrictions on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig?

[dragnet2]

Where is Texas Governor Rick Perry? In California, not taking care of the problems in his state.

Gee, I hope he doesn't get broadside by a car full of drunken illegal aliens while here...

[Doe Eyes]

Gee, I hope he doesn't get broadside by a car full of drunken illegal aliens while here...

That would be a real tragedy for our state.

[Betis70]

>>Some of you smart alecks may enjoy making snarky comments, but the situation here in Texas is extremely unusual and it’s not fun.

There are a lot of heartless people on this site sometimes. Just be glad you don’t live in a blue state, otherwise entire threads would be plastered with stupid “schadenfreude” posts.

My brother is in New Mexico and I have a lot of family in Texas, so I know your houses/heating systems aren’t up to the task. Prayers for everyone affected.

[dragnet2]

Just be glad you don’t live in a blue state, otherwise you might have rolling blackouts.

Wow....I heard the exact same thing a few years back....

[Betis70]

Yeah, I was living in California when we had the rolling blackouts. Last week when we had 2 feet of snow followed by a 1.5 feet of snow I had FReepers in *California* putting up Schadenfreude posts. I mean WTF.

[dragnet2]

When CA had rolling blackouts about a some years back, many people here lined up laughing and barking the state was doomed, a 3rd world country full of Communist, and just having a big old laugh..... If it wasn't heavy usage it was people from the corrupt Texas company of ENRON manipulating supplies and jacking up rates...

But when the shoe is on the other foot, no one is supposed to say a word, and when someone does, they're labeled unkind and ruthless...

Interesting how this works.

[meyer]

Wednesday’s rolling blackouts were not caused by a failure to predict demand accurately or to keep enough plants online, Doggett said, but by a widespread mechanical failure of more than 50 power generating units all over the state.

There was no single reason for the failures and no particular location, plant operator or type of power plant behind the problem, he said.

I'm glad that you posted that. Being in the industry, I am familiar with these kinds of situations. Equipment fails all the time, but the level of redundancy in the industry makes most events go unnoticed. I remember a couple of years ago losing 2400 MW of generation at the same time - the eastern interconnection absorbed the hit, and the entity that lost the generation was able to bring on fast-start gas turbines and pumped-hydro generation to replace the enormous loss within 10 minutes.

The problem in this case is the quantity of failures, and the inability to get adequate recovery resources on line. From what I recall reading in other threads, a few coal-fired plants had problems and were taken off line or tripped off line. Then, many of the gas turbines that are used to recover from these events failed to start due to cold weather issues.

By the way, a few of the rolling blackouts were in areas of Texas that were not part of ERCOT - El Paso had issues, and they are actually in the Western Interconnection. But they are remote, with apparently inadequate tie connections to the rest of the interconnection so they were not able to garner sufficient resources to supply their customer demand.

The lessons in this event will undoubtedly surround winterizing equipment to a greater extent, not relying too much on uncontrollable resources like wind power (and I have no idea how effective wind generation was during these last few days). In addition, a couple of high-capacity DC ties to the eastern or western interconnection might be a result of this event.