and just exactly what... does being cold out have to do with anything??? my car runs at 20below zero... no problems
this smells
Posted on 02/03/2011 2:43:48 PM PST by NorwegianViking
Houston, February 3, 2011 — Federal regulators will investigate why about 50 electricity generating units in Texas failed during the past week's snowstorms.
The power plant failures caused demand to exceed available power, leading the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to order planned rolling blackouts that affected hundreds of thousands of people.
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. told reporters that they will investigate the adequacy of current cold weather preparations and safeguards used by plant operators in Texas.
It is not unusual for power plants in the northern U.S. to be more thoroughly weatherized against the cold than plants in the South — whereas Southern power facilities are typically better equipped to handle summer heat.
The more than 50 power units that went offline or ran at impaired capacity levels represented about 7,000 MW of generating capacity. The plants became unable to operate Wednesday when snowstorms hit and temperatures dropped below freezing.
ERCOT operates the power grid for 22 million Texas customers, representing 85 percent of the state's electric load and 75 percent of the state's land area.
What happened, somebody hit the wrong button.
Rick Perry is a RINO idiot. The Texas GOP has too many open border RINOs.
Somebody accidentally ran an old ENRON program.
I wonder if these plants are already in phase with the US grid?
Buddy of mine told me a story of some knucklehead putting a LCRA dam generator online that was extremely out of phase. The generator exploded. The electrical surges must have been spectacular.
But the stadium for the Super Bowl was not affected....hmmmm
Not enough heat trace.
Mexico cancels offer to send electricity to Texas
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/7411539.html
“Somebody accidentally ran an old ENRON program.”
LOL
and just exactly what... does being cold out have to do with anything??? my car runs at 20below zero... no problems
this smells
I don't think so yet, but it is scheduled to be completed by 2013. http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/project-to-connect-grids-raises-questions/
"$2 billion project could connect all three grids (eastern, western, and Texas) as soon as 2013. They would meet near Clovis, N.M., just west of the Texas border. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given a preliminary go-ahead to the proposal, known as Tres Amigas, which doubles as the name of the company running it. The federal commission's chairman has praised it as a "prime example of the creativity and pioneering thinking that our country needs."
When I went to the store about an hour ago, the salesclerk said that he had heard that Mexico City was expecting snow. Thanks for the update about Mexico holding off on the power. This is one terrible cold storm.
You are most likely correct. Happen here in Florida several years ago. All of the instrument lines froze, shutting down the units. You cannot get all of the moisture out of the instrument lines, so you heat trace them.
Up “North” the units are inside building, while down “South” they save money by leaving part or all of the units outside. You need more heat tracing for the winter months.
OK, frantic, tell us what Rick being a RINO has to do with the power shortage during this exceptional cold snap? Kinda reaching ain’t ya?
Time for a North American grid, right now we have peacemeal grids in place, time to tie in the whole system
I prefer piecemeal or a limited connection at most. If something happens in the Northeast, I’d rather their blackout not extend into WV. We have blackouts from storms locally due to lines going down. We’ve never had a blackout rsulting from something outside the state. Lets leave it that way.
The state is a net energy exporter of natural gas and electricity besides coal. I’d like the Northeast to roll their own so to speak.
“Time for a North American grid, right now we have peacemeal grids in place, time to tie in the whole system”
Not if you live in Texas. In the future, who knows, you may need a passport to go to other ‘states’.
The half-assed open market/government department organization managed to under-estimate demand and over-estimate supply, and feed the supplier/generators the wrong info.
I can promise you there are many, many sweaty brows staring at load management screens tonight. And the many tie-wearing suits they report to are checking the "Help wanted" section of the unAmerican Statesman.
Placing all electricity in one power grid, might put us at risk for an EMP attack that would take out electricity everywhere in the U.S.
National Energy Grid Threatened by EMP Attack: "Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapons pose a serious and growing threat to our national security. Rogue nations and terrorists are working to develop EMP devices to attack the United States and other developed nations. These include North Korea, Iran and China. Once North Korea and Iran have missiles capable of reaching the U.S., they can use an EMP burst over our nation to destroy us."--http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010081911397/us/homeland-security/national-energy-grid-threatened-by-emp-attack.html
140 MW power plant is a real dinky, small generating unit so I am guessing that it will turn out to less that entire power plants or trains were knocked offline but instead were running at reduced capacity because of something limiting. What could limit power plant capacity that is also used directly for home and business heating and such? Why in Texas that would be natural gas.
So, my fearless prediction is that the root cause will generally be determined to be a shortage in natural gas supply and less so on power plant break down. I may be proven wrong but it would surprise me very much if a lack of winterization of power plant hardware was much of a factor.
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