Posted on 07/18/2022 9:07:28 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
As searing Texas heat drives power demand to record highs, the state’s grid operator is ordering plants to run at a historic pace, often forcing them to put off maintenance to keep cranking out electricity. That’s helped keep the lights on, for now, but the short-term focus is putting even more stress on a system that’s already stretched near the limit.
Twice in the past week, officials have called on Texans to limit electricity use during scorching afternoons as demand inched perilously close to overwhelming supply. Now, there are growing concerns over how long power plants can maintain the grueling pace as they run nonstop, according to Michele Richmond, executive director of Texas Competitive Power Advocates, a generator industry group.
“Things are going to break,” she said. “We have an aging fleet that’s being run harder than it’s ever been run.”
The situation underscores that the Texas grid is relying on short-term solutions for what’s poised to be a long-term problem. The state is contending with a population boom that’s driven demand higher. Crypto mining has also taken off in the past year, bringing with it the industry’s power-intensive operations. Meanwhile climate change has made extreme weather events that drive up electricity use more likely to occur and more severe - creating situations like a deadly February 2021 freeze that caused blackouts across the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at expressnews.com ...
No. I will not conserve power. Implement rolling blackouts if necessary. Reason why? ERCOT and related power companies are continuing to build Windmills which do not work in peak summer and peak winter weather when they are needed. They work fine (but very expensive) in spring and fall when they are not needed. Rolling blackouts would put pressure on this state to build more real power plants. Helping them avoid any major impact will enable them to continue to not provide the necessary energy when need in Texas.
I agree.
Chevron will sell California headquarters and move jobs to Texas (6.28.22)
Report: Californians Leaving for Texas So Rapidly, U-Haul Ran Out of Trucks (1.8.22)
Insights welcome.
Also, Trump's red tsunami of patriot supporters are reminded that they must vote twice this election year. Your first vote is to primary career RINO incumbents in federal and state governments. Your second vote is to replace outgoing Democrats and RINOs with Trump-endorsed patriot candidates.
Again, insights welcome.
Jane Long wrote: “Do you sell those, too???”
I’m retired. I don’t sell anything. But my stand-alone whole house generator was installed last week.
central_va wrote: “Who can afford the fuel for that?”
It’s a stand by generator and if the grid is down I’ll be happy to pay the fuel bill. BTW, its natural gas.
There is no “cheap” way to generate electricity in small amounts ( < 20 KVa ). Generating electricity efficiently and cheaply is a big boy, big toy thing.
Texas was always hot as hell in the summer.
Similar to the Big Valley of CA. Dozens of days over 100deg.
Every year.
Yet BOTH states, one red as hell the other blue as sin, can’t keep the lights on.
WTH is going on?
Ice Detention Centers staying cool with plenty of baby formulae?
The electric utility will only do things that are more profitable. They will only insulate natural gas lines IF the Public Utilities Commission makes them.
This same type of thing kept happening here in NH because Eversouce did not want to trim the trees around the power lines. It was fiscally better for them to wait until the trees break and cause an outage. Finally the PUC stepped in and made them trim the trees on a regular basis in the entire state.
We had been losing power at least once a year. Now, it is hardly ever. Of course, now almost everybody that lives outside of the cities has a standby generator.
Friggin EPA. Like every other alphabet agency, it desperately needs to be dissolved.
While there is plenty of blame to go around, heavy reliance on wind power and solar is the main problem. Since both power sources are not reliable during cold snaps and heat waves, their operators should have been forced to secure additional emergency backup generation for those times. Because the state and ERCOT did not insist on that, we are now stressing the conventional electric power generators.
At best neighborhoods of maybe 20 to 30 homes could operate a power plant somewhat cheaply. Still a huge cost investment. I keep saying electricity at $.10/KWH is the deal of the century.
More about how self sufficient they’ve always purported to be and me having seen people say that due to that, secession would be easier for TX than any other state.
“They want to blame it on everything except reliance on wind and solar power.“
What ever the politics and eco No s are, it has been hot as can be in tx over the past month. Highly unusual.
In NY where I grew up, we regularly had power outages. T storms knocked it out regularly. Learned to not rely on it. Did fine during the ice storm here. I’d never live in a house without a fireplace. Most of the old houses in NY near us had been wired for electricity after being built in late 1800s.
AC was running at 2 AM here that I noticed. That is freaky. I keep it at 80
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