Posted on 02/16/2021 4:58:45 PM PST by karpov
Why are millions of Americans in the nation’s most energy-rich state without power and heat for days amid extreme winter weather? “The people who have fallen short with regard to the power are the private power generation companies,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott explained. Ah, yes, blame private power companies . . . that are regulated by government.
The Republican sounds like California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who lambasted private utilities for rolling blackouts during a heat wave last summer. Power grids should be able to withstand extreme weather. But in both these bellwether states, state and federal energy policies have created market distortions and reduced grid reliability.
Mr. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I’m not an engineer in any scientific field. However, wouldn’t it make sense, in our zeal to adopt green renewable energy, to maintain backup power in fossil fuel plants? Wouldn’t it also be beneficial if Texas were connected to the rest of the nation’s power grid?
Maybe I’m missing something.
Deep in the Heart of Texas, a Chinese Wind Farm Raises Eyebrows
"The developer, GH America Energy, a subsidiary of Guanghui Energy Company, a firm owned by a former Chinese army officer and the richest person in China’s embattled Xinjiang province, declined requests to comment for this story. A Treasury Department spokeswoman declined to comment, citing policy preventing the agency from talking publicly about individual CFIUS cases."
"Under CFIUS law, the United States can put the project under review at any time if there are new developments at the site, or if the Chinese-owned company does not notify it of changes. In the meantime, members of Congress and local officials fear the foreign company could interfere with the air base, sully the pristine wilderness, burrow into the electrical grid, or even use the project as a platform for Chinese government-directed espionage."
Bring on the Mr. Fusions.
I throw out a lot of mass that could be recycled into local energy....
This is absurd. We need to build nukes and get over our fright.
Too many politicians have sold their soul by joining the ‘green revolution’ in order to appear they are ‘woke’.
Too many politicians do not consider the true economics when the Federal Government gives them ‘free money’ to subsidize the solar and wind generators.
Even conservative politicians buy into ‘free’ grant money from Washington DC.
End result in Texas is an electrical grid where 20% or more of the supply comes from wind turbines.
Mother Nature just gave the ‘woke crowd’ a major wake-up call.
T Boone Pickens and his hedge fund sold green snake oil to then Governor Rick Perry and his AG at the time, Abbott. Here’s his commercials.They pushed to end coal plants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bOug1d20c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_3RV5SLS-I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ30c8IZQR8
It’s full of predictions that we cannot escape foreign oil. Trump proved all these idiots wrong.
The article is a pile of right wing drivel. It is a pack of lies. Wind generators underperformed by a little, the real problem was the natural gas plants. The key is to use heavy fuel oil in the gas plants when gas isn’t available - this is what they do in the north.
“””Wouldn’t it also be beneficial if Texas were connected to the rest of the nation’s power grid?”””
Texas is connected. But when the base supply within Texas gets shutdown, the national grid cannot supply that shortfall.
There’s no need to connect the grids. That presents other issues.
Yeah, they should have more of a baseline production. That’s the problem with going heavily to wind. This is the great thing about nuclear. It’s great for baseline running.
NO connecting Texas to the grid. And Texas never had an issue until the wind and solar came in. Before that, if the lines were up, the power was up.
This is republican grifters, Pickens, Perry, Abbott, Bush, etc cynically using the democrat climate scare to further enrich themselves and screw Texas.
I understand that Texas had 25GW capacity of wind. They expected 9GW production for this season and are currently producing under 2GW.
You’re spot-on. Renewables should be part of the generation portfolio but mandates that upset prudent balanced management is just government meddling and must end.
“Maybe I’m missing something.”
You are. There are several “grids” (proper term is In terconnections).
There is no National interconnect.
Texas is unique in that almost the entire state, and no one else, is on the Texas interconnect.
There are typically a few high voltage DC lines connecting one interconnect to another for “just in case” but they are not used on a regular basis.
Interconnects may be international, BTW. I am in the southern tier of upstate NY, and am on the Quebec Interconnect.
They are connected. Demand drove the price too high and then availability too low to make up for the loss.
“Renewables should be part of the generation portfolio”
Why, exactly? They are the most inefficient, costly, and unreliable of all energy sources. These are all documented facts.
My numbers are for today were 7GW wind forecast and 4 or 5 showed up... even less of an issue yesterday. The gas plants couldn’t buy gas and couldn’t run. They might have accounted for 15GW missing, approximately
Wind is sh!t. It’s useless in a polar vortex, when frigid masses of air sit still. Stupid wind shuts down at -20 and starts sucking power from the grid. We shut down too much baseload coal in the last 10-20 years. We in the baseload generation industry aren’t surprised this day came.
BTW We in the north do not use heavy oil in gas plants, I don’t have any idea where you got that information.
“In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid.”
That is the absolute truth.
“The gas plants couldn’t buy gas “
That is why gas was not to be used for electrical generation. Again the fact this situation happen is no surprise to me an many others who have spent many years in baseload generation. It’s 40 for me. Progressive policies are regressive, in this case we are back to blackouts. Yay!
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