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‘A complete bungle’: Texas’ energy pride goes out with cold
The Associated Press ^ | February 17, 2021 | By PAUL J. WEBER

Posted on 02/17/2021 4:25:52 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

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To: Jane Long

So glad to hear you are OK, hope your family is as well, and those blessings continue. Please take care, thanks.


141 posted on 02/17/2021 6:52:38 AM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: DesertRhino

***And coal fired plants wouldn’t miss a beat, never did.***

Every winter, after an ice storm, we had feeders clogged with ice tripping off the pulverizing mills. We hated winter because of this. It was a struggle to keep the units on line after an ice or snow storm.

I retired as a Control Center operator in 2008 and still have nightmares about mills tripping off due to ice.


142 posted on 02/17/2021 6:53:31 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: cymbeline

Not just steam turbines. Gas turbines are derated to meet NOx limits. Allowing them to burn rich raises the temp of the burn increasing output also the colder air at the intake is more dense high mass flow and more fuel.means more power but also more.NOx and particulates the waiver ups output 15% or more


143 posted on 02/17/2021 6:56:25 AM PST by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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To: cymbeline

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pollution-limit-waived-texas-power-194004318.html


144 posted on 02/17/2021 6:57:11 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Call on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Have some meetings. Write a letter. Focus like a laser. Make sure this never happens again.


145 posted on 02/17/2021 6:58:02 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew (No audit. No peace.)
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To: bert

***It was extremely cold and the fuel gelled and the engine would not run***

I remember two instances of fuel problems from the 1980s.

One in which summer time Diesel fuel was sold in winter and lines gelled up.

Then Winter time gasoline sold in summer and the cars all vapor locked.


146 posted on 02/17/2021 6:58:14 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: The Pack Knight

>>The truth is that foreign immigrants don’t vote much, and the average person who chooses to move to Texas from out of state tends to be more conservative than the average Texan. They’re keeping Texas red.

The vietnamese immigrants (thirty+ years in America) I work with voted Trump.

And Trump had support from Hispanics along the border.


147 posted on 02/17/2021 6:59:41 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Call on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: DoodleDawg

Yes, Of course he did but they aren’t working in Texas, now, are they?


148 posted on 02/17/2021 7:06:22 AM PST by Shady (WHO MURDERED ASHLI BABBITT? )
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To: servantboy777

Wind only accounts for 10% of Texas power generation during the winter, and only about half of that went offline. Most of the power that went down was gas.

I’m with you on wind and solar generally, but that’s not what caused this outage. The problem was that no lessons were learned from 2011 and our gas and other plants were not prepared to operate on freezing temperatures, or to deal with gas supply shortages.


149 posted on 02/17/2021 7:07:15 AM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: Shady
Yes, Of course he did but they aren’t working in Texas, now, are they?

And whose fault is that? Wind turbines work fine in countries like Canada, Norway, and Sweden with much worse winters.

150 posted on 02/17/2021 7:13:35 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: hinckley buzzard

Seems to me that wind and solar have not been pulling their weight in regards to grid reliability. What good are those systems if power cannot be stored for later use?

Battery technology is getting better every year. What is the battery storage capacity of wind, as it exists today in TX?


151 posted on 02/17/2021 7:15:28 AM PST by Fury
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To: OldGoatCPO

I have a gas stove, a wood fireplace, and an indoor-safe propane heater

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/mr-heater-portable-buddy-heater-2150699?cm_mmc=organic_feed-_-GoogleShopping-_-Product-_-2150699

Always have multiple backups.


152 posted on 02/17/2021 7:22:16 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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To: rollo tomasi

I’ve learned over the years that there is no dearth of rotten “republicans”. However, the underlying premise of the global warming hoax is a democrat feature. That’s what has led to windmills, solar panels, electric cars etc.


153 posted on 02/17/2021 7:29:54 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: DoodleDawg
>P<>I

So you find people suffering funny...what an idiot you are!!!

154 posted on 02/17/2021 7:31:28 AM PST by ontap
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To: cymbeline
"What is ‘winterizing a power plant’?"

Insulating and/or heat-tracing lines. About a simple a fix as it gets. I worked for Dow Chemical in Louisiana for years, and all chem. plants are so winterized...they can't afford outages.

155 posted on 02/17/2021 7:33:10 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (Sick to Death of Surrender Monkeys!)
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To: deport

“Only way to turn Texas blue...” (!!)

Okay, but seriously. I’m from Michigan, home of “kinda cold” temperatures (it’s currently 2F). But then we insulate our house well (and therefore our piping), and try to have contingency plans for power outages - like fireplaces/generators.

Let us know what we can do to help, Texas!

I had an uncle that moved from here to Montana, where -30 isn’t out of the norm. We asked him how he handles the cold: “Just another layer of clothes”...

As far as how you got to this point other than a big arse cold snap? Here’s an example to see if you can locate some accountability in your situation. We had a long time dam that broke back in spring of 2020. It’s still going through the courts to figure out what went wrong other than “a lot of rain”, but it was a privately held dam before some local counties “bought out” the owner in 2018 or so. IIRC, there were conflicting regulations that tied the owners hands from doing some updates (couldn’t legally sell the electricity?). So he kept the water level low to prevent issues with it failing.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-forsmark/2020/05/22/ignoring-warnings-mich-ag-sued-to-raise-lake-level-ahead-of-dam-break-to-protect-mussels-n418055

“Three weeks before the 96-year-old dam failed this week amid heavy rains and caused the worst flood in Midland history, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued its owner, alleging it illegally lowered Wixom Lake in 2018 and 2019, killing “thousands if not millions, of freshwater mussels.””

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-regulators-moved-fast-dangerous-dam-protect-mussels

“How we got to the point where environmental issues trumped public safety, I don’t know,” said David Kepler, a resident who lives off nearby Sanford Lake and is president of the Four Lakes Task Force, an association largely consisting of waterfront property owners that was in the process of buying the Edenville Dam and three others before this week’s flood.”

So it almost sounds like the owner was out regulated (over a number of years) from doing anything to fix the dam. Toss in a lawyer suing them for keeping the water level too low. The Michigan AG was Dana Nessel (brought in by the 2018 election with governor Gretchen Whitmer and secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, all three rumored S0rus acquaintences?). The same AG that threatened legal sanctions against lawyers questioning the 2020 election

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3919159/posts

I don’t know Texas as well as you folks do, but maybe do some chasin’ to see who’d been working against expanding your grid...


156 posted on 02/17/2021 7:36:20 AM PST by Uber-Eng (Northern Texan at heart...Help me save Michigan!!!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

From what I’ve been reading, and the information is sparse, the “rolling blackouts” aren’t rolling in many areas - some utilities have just dumped a certain amount of load and left it off instead of rotating the outages so that all might share the burden.

This is not acceptable, of course. The purpose of rolling blackouts is to save the overall grid from collapse, but you have to do your part as a utility/provider. You’re required to have a plan and to follow it as best as you can during these events.

There’s going to be a lot of unravelling going on after the fact, and some entities are going to have some serious issues. This isn’t the state government’s thing - this falls on the power industry in TX.


157 posted on 02/17/2021 7:42:28 AM PST by meyer (I swear to protect and defend the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic!)
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To: Levy78

I believe you.


158 posted on 02/17/2021 7:47:41 AM PST by caww
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To: JD_UTDallas

Bullcrap. This happened in the 1970s and 80s too. Coal plants never stopped.


159 posted on 02/17/2021 7:50:13 AM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. .... )
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To: meyer

I expect generators to be sold out the rest of the year.


160 posted on 02/17/2021 7:51:29 AM PST by Shadylake
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