Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency

Reuters ^

[Sub-Driver]

Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:11pm EST

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state.

The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan at 6:41 PM CST (0041 GMT), ERCOT said in a statement.

System operators curtailed power to interruptible customers to shave 1,100 megawatts of demand within 10 minutes, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers are generally large industrial customers who are paid to reduce power use when emergencies occur.

No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers were restored in about 90 minutes and the emergency was over in three hours.

ERCOT said the grid's frequency dropped suddenly when wind production fell from more than 1,700 megawatts, before the event, to 300 MW when the emergency was declared.

In addition, ERCOT said multiple power suppliers fell below the amount of power they were scheduled to produce on Tuesday. That, coupled with the loss of wind generated in West Texas, created problems moving power to the west from North Texas.

[AdamSelene235]

If you are going to have to build a real power plant anyway to back the stupid thing up, why in the hell would you build such a monstrosity in the first place unless you just like wasting resources?

[DBrow]

I’d provide the “backup” by producing H2, and using that medium to transport the stored energy to the point where it’s used, when it’s needed.

Then I don’t need a second plant, I could have a factory with a H fuel cell to buy the H2.

[AdamSelene235]

So you would compensate for investing in a markedly inferior power generation technology with an imaginary, unproven technology.

When America devolves into a 3rd world society, don't complain.

[DBrow]

Nuclear power is inferior?

Or did you mean wind?

Hydrogen is not unproven, nor unheard of; there are several companies selling H fuel cells and there are several installations in the US (small scale power plants, backups, and demo setups).

There is a company selling cryo power backup for computers, doing quite well, their thing is LN2 superconducting magnets, they store energy in the intense magnetic field.

There’s lots of stuff going on with energy.

What are your preferences for energy?

I think that we’ll need lots of solutions for the future, nuclear, wind, oil, domestic coal, hydro, small-scale solar. None of them perfect, some better than others, but not too many eggs in any one basket.

Wind don’t matter, the military won’t allow offshore windmills because it masses up their land-based over-the-horizon radars.