A map showing the location where power plants went out unexpectedly on the morning of Fed. 2, 2011.
Posted on 02/15/2011 4:46:25 AM PST by thackney
Texas’ main electric grid operator has already begun to make changes in how it will handle situations like the Feb. 2 power emergency that led to rolling blackouts through much of the state, according to the organization’s CEO.
An e-mail alert system designed to warn of escalating problems didn’t reach all the parties that it should have in time, partly because the emergency came to a head overnight, said Electric Reliability Council of Texas CEO Trip Doggett in a presentation to the ERCOT board of directors today. You can look at the presentation here.
The warning system now includes more automation, with messages being sent directly from ERCOT’s control room instead of through third parties.
An improved communication plan is also being developed that will use social media to spread information, set up a phone bank so more ERCOT staff can field media calls, include the potential for real-time radio and TV interviews during emergencies, and add real-time grid data in an easy-to-find location on ERCOT’s web site.
The e-mails will also include phone calls to cell phones and home phone numbers that won’t stop until the receiver answers and acknowledges the message.
Marcie Zlotnik, an ERCOT board member who is also COO of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said she felt comfortable with how ERCOT’s staff handled the emergency and averted a statewide blackout that could have taken days to recover from.
But Zlotnik said she’s comfortable only because of the level of information she has access to as a board member.
“When people aren’t informed, as was the case for most of the people out there, perception is all that matters, and the perception is that there was a ton of confusion and ERCOT didn’t know what it was doing,” Zlotnik said.
The Feb. 2 emergency was sparked by the unprecedented failure of dozens of power plants as subfreezing weather hit most of the state, Doggett said. Most of the failures – some 50 plants with 8,000 megawatts of generating capacity – happened in the early morning hours.
Between 5:08 a.m. and 5:43 a.m. emergency status of the grid jumped three levels, leading to the call for rolling blackouts. That rapid escalation made it hard for officials to warn the media or other public officials of the rolling blackouts in advance.
ERCOT has asked the operators of the power plants that went down unexpectedly over the course of the power emergency to allow it to publicly release the names of the power plants. On Monday afternoon ERCOT was still sorting the responses from the operators, but Doggett shared a few more details.
While 8,000 megawatts of power was the peak outage, over the course of the day 82 power plants with a combined generating capacity of 11,000 megawatts went offline.
About 40 percent of the downed plants were coal-fired power plants, 59 percent gas units and 1 percent wind power.
There was no clear pattern in the age of the power plants being a factor, Doggett said, or in location as plants failed throughout the state. A map showing the rough location of power plants that went down shows a cluster of plants around Houston, a line of them through Central Texas and another line across North Texas.
While some natural gas fired power plants had problems with fuel supplies due to the cold, Doggett said the emergency wasn’t caused by gas curtailment issues. He said wind power units and nuclear power plants produced at levels they were expected to.
Many of the plant shutdowns were due to the failure of equipment that monitors different aspects of the power plants, such as temperatures, pressures and water levels, as well as the failure of some control systems.
A number of operators reported pneumatic lines with some water in them froze, disrupting operations.
Another common problem was the failure of a device called a drum level transmitter, which reads the levels of steam and water in power plant boilers. The piping between drum and a switch the device controls typically is wrapped with heated tape and insulated, but the high winds that accompanied the cold may have been too much for even those precautions.
A number of ERCOT board members seemed surprised to learn that information about how power plants prepare for cold weather is considered confidential data that is not readily shared.
“I cannot imagine any reason why that would be confidential,” said board member Alton Patton. “There’s no real-time information involved there.”
ERCOT vice chair Michehl Gent echoed that concern.
“If you think you need to have data, then ask for it,” Gent said to ERCOT staffers. “We’ll back you up on it.”
Review of February 2, 2011 Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) Event
http://www.ercot.com/content/meetings/board/keydocs/2011/0214/Review_of_February_2,_2011_EEA_Event.pdf
Blackouts: Federal agency begins investigation
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/02/14/blackouts-federal-agency-begins-investigation/
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it is beginning an investigation into the Feb. 2 power outages in Texas and other Western states.
FERC said it will look into the causes of the disruptions and look for ways to prevent them from happening again, but did not characterize the probe as an enforcement investigation.
“Any decisions on whether to initiate enforcement investigations will be made later,” FERC said in a statement.
FERC generally doesn’t have jurisdiction over Texas’ power grid because it is largely contained within the state’s borders. But FERC cited authority under the Natural Gas Act and the Natural Gas Policy Act, as well as its role overseeing the North American Electric Reliability Corp. which also is investigating the power blackouts.
Two Texas Senate committees that are looking into the power emergency have scheduled a joint hearing Tuesday. The Texas Public Utility Commission’s independent market monitor also is investigating.
On Tuesday, Texas lawmakers will begin their probes into the power emergency that led to rolling blackouts earlier this month.
The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will hold the joint hearing at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 15 in Austin. They will hear from power and gas regulators and companies. The hearing schedule can be found here, or you can look at it below. A link to a live webcast of the hearing should appear on this page shortly after 8:30 a.m.
It’s interesting to note natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy will have a representative there, as well as natural gas supplier Atmos Energy, to address the contribution of a cold-induced slowdown in gas production and the role of state rules that require shifting gas supplies away from power plants to residential customers under certain emergency circumstances.
Several other investigations are in the works, including one from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and the Texas Public Utility Commission’s independent market monitor.
Power plant operators who had units crash unexpectedly have been asked by ERCOT to waive the standard 60-day confidentiality rule on outage information. Those waivers were received Friday and are being processed by ERCOT legal staff today, a spokeswoman said. If that information is released we will include it here on FuelFix.
Speakers invited to address the joint Texas Senate Natural Resources/Business and Commerce committees hearings about the Feb. 2 power emergency:
Panel 1
•Barry Smitherman, Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas
•Trip Doggett, President and CEO, Electric Reliability Council of Texas
•Michael Williams, Commissioner, Railroad Commission of Texas
•Bryan Shaw, Chairman, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
•Sheri Givens, Public Counsel, Office of Public Utility Counsel
Panel 2
•David Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Luminant
•Ned Ross, Director, Government Affairs, Direct Energy
•John Ragan, Regional President, NRG
Panel 3
•Brenda J. Pulis, Senior Vice President of Operations, Oncor
•Wade Smith, President and Chief Operating Officer, AEP Texas
•Larry Weis, General Manager, Austin Energy
Panel 4
•Dick Erskine, President, Atmos Pipeline Company
•Scott Doyle, Division Vice President, Texas Operations, Centerpoint Energy
•Steve Turk, Vice President of Operations, Southern Division, Chesapeake Energy
Uh, guys, you GOTTA keep that instrument air DRY. I know it's a bit difficult in high humidity Texas (and even more so in higher humidity Louisiana, where I hail from), but the maintanance HAS to be done (as y'all now know!).
Looks like we’ve got another Doggett in charge.................
At the hearings ERCOT should explain why after narrowly averting similar rolling blackouts in February 2008 changes weren’t made to prevent the problem from happening again. Note the crisis in 2008 was triggered by a weather front that shut down the states wind turbines during a cold snap that increased demand.
Looks like the nuclear ones stayed up.. hint hint.
Paper pushing, finger pointing, conferences, meetings, hearings, wash, rinse, repeat, dry....what a bureaucratic delight. It’ll all come down to “human error” which will require more regulation, plus the obligatory increase in funding, higher energy prices and additional bureaucrats. Problem solved.
Many of the plant shutdowns were due to the failure of equipment that monitors different aspects of the power plants, such as temperatures, pressures and water levels, as well as the failure of some control systems.
***A number of operators reported pneumatic lines with some water in them froze, disrupting operations.***
When you are monitoring your drum leved and instead of numbers you see this *****. you know you are in deep doo-doo.
Sensing water lines will freeze, moisture in the air lines will freeze, you loose control and often have to trip the unit to protect the turbine-generator.
If you loose your auxiliary emergency (incoming) power during these freezeups the plant lines will begin to freeze and break. They you have major problems!
Been there done that.
***Uh, guys, you GOTTA keep that instrument air DRY.***
True! And when those air dryers fail, due to wore out dessicants, and you get any moisture past them you are in deep trouble.
But then it’s like an old song..(modified)..
The window she is broken and the cold is coming in.
If someone doesn’t fix it I’ll be froze clear to my skin.
But if we wait a day or two the cold will go away.
And we don’t need no window on such a sunny day!
***Looks like the nuclear ones stayed up.. hint hint.***
Backin the 1960s there was a massive cold spell in the midwest that caused the failure of many coal-fired and gas fired power plants. It was reported that the Nukes continued to operate with out any problems. Not long after the Leftists went on an anti-nuke binge.
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