Free Republic

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Saturday that the outage was being investigated as a "criminal occurrence." The vandalism appeared to be intentional, but the motive is unknown at this time. A massive power outage is being reported in Moore County. A Duke Energy outage map Saturday evening showed 37,998 customers without power in Moore County; The Randolph Electric Membership Corporation also reported nearly 3,000 customers without power in the southern part of the county. As of Sunday at 8 a.m. 38,890 people are without power, according to a Duke Energy outage map. WRAL viewers began calling in to report...

Many Californians right now are no doubt feeling the whipsaws of conflicting government policies. Not a month ago, they learned that the state will ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, mandating that all new passenger cars and trucks sold in the state must be electric vehicles (EVs). Then, in a dizzying about-face, residents were asked not to charge their EVs to conserve energy as California’s electrical grid was pushed to the limit due to a punishing heatwave. A recent Newsweek headline perfectly summarizes the apparent absurdity of it all:Click to enlarge Today, about 1% of our vehicles are...

California residents were asked to voluntarily conserve power again Friday as a heat wave baking the U.S. West strained the state’s energy grid and raised the possibility of rotating outages. As temperatures spiked on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an emergency proclamation that suspended certain permitting requirements, allowing power plants to ramp up operations if necessary to meet the demand for electricity. The proclamation cited the “extreme heat peril” facing the state this week. The California Independent System Operator, which runs the energy grid, issued a Flex Alert for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. During those hours, people are urged...

Correcting the record is important since assigning the wrong reasons for Texas’s electric blackouts will lead to the wrong solutions.hen the lights went out in Texas earlier this year, corporate media and the left swiftly developed a narrative and stuck to it: Texas failed because it didn’t regulate enough and it wasn’t part of the national grid.This storyline also claimed a lack of electricity from wind and solar had nothing to do with the disaster that claimed almost 60 lives. Instead, the blackouts were the failure of normally reliable thermal power—natural gas, coal, and nuclear—due to a reluctance to spend...

Reuters) - California's electric grid operator has forecast power supplies will be tight this summer due to below average hydropower production and reduced generation, according to an assessment released on Wednesday. The California Independent System Operator (ISO), the grid operator, said the system's capacity to serve consumers will be tight in high-load periods in the summer months, especially during the evenings of hot days when solar power dissipates.

This week's 60 Minutes broadcast should make everyone afraid, very afraid, of the real, looming specter of cyberwarfare attacks. As I recently blogged, government agencies are already going full-bore to come up with guidelines to protect federal networks. So when an Admiral goes on national television to say hackers have the ability to take down our power grid, he's doing it to deliver a warning. I was actually poised to turn off the segment, which I happened upon by accident following Sunday's last-minute Giants loss. Half-expecting the usual security for dummies piece, I was surprised to see an unusually detailed...

The National Wind Technology Center sits at the foot of the Rockies just south of Boulder. Although within sight of Denver, the swell of the land hides the city, making you feel as if you’re in the middle of nowhere. The site is well chosen. Generally you need good proximity to mountains to take advantage of wind energy. The best sites in America are in the High Sierras, the Rockies, and the Appalachian Mountains. The other “Saudi Arabia of wind” is the upper Midwest, where the Dakotas, western Minnesota, and northwest Iowa catch the jet stream barreling down from Canada....

August 14, 2003 Statement from the Department of Energy WASHINGTON, DC -- The Department of Energy, coordinated by Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow, has initiated its protocol for contingency situations.  DOE is working with appropriate agencies including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as well as entities such as the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) to assess the situation. Media Contact(s): Jeanne Lopatto, 202-586-4940 Corry Schiermeyer, 202-586-5806 Number: R-03-182 http://www.energy.gov/engine/content.do?PUBLIC_ID=13991&BT_CODE=PR_PRESSRELEASES&TT_CODE=PRESSRELEASE *** No. 03-102 August 14, 2003 NRC MONITORING SITUATION INVOLVING MULTIPLE NUCLEAR PLANTS...