Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #41Good grief, @Isailedaway . That's horrible.
I sent my State Senator and Abbott a strong message on the bad handling of the way we generate power in this state.
We have absolutely no reason to beg to keep our people warm.
"If the Union is dissolved, I shall return to my native State, and share the miseries of the people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none" Robert E. Lee, February 1861 following hearing of Texas secession.
The Political Making of a Texas Power OutageHow bad energy policy led to rolling blackouts in the freezing Lone Star State. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-politic...age-11613518653 WSJ Opinion: The Progressive Push to Redefine 'Our Democracy' Wonder Land: When progressives single out threats to "our democracy," what they mean is their democracy. Images: Everett Collection/AFP/Getty
By The Editorial Board
Feb. 16, 2021 6:37 pm ET
Why are millions of Americans in the nation’s most energy-rich state without power and heat for days amid extreme winter weather? “The people who have fallen short with regard to the power are the private power generation companies,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott explained. Ah, yes, blame private power companies . . . that are regulated by government.
The Republican sounds like California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who lambasted private utilities for rolling blackouts during a heat wave last summer. Power grids should be able to withstand extreme weather. But in both these bellwether states, state and federal energy policies have created market distortions and reduced grid reliability.
Mr. Abbott blamed his state’s extensive power outages on generators freezing early Monday morning, noting “this includes the natural gas & coal generators.” But frigid temperatures and icy conditions have descended on most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas handle them while other states did?
The problem is Texas’s overreliance on wind power that has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of wind turbines froze last week, causing wind’s share of electricity to plunge to 8% from 42%. Power prices in the wholesale market spiked, and grid regulators on Friday warned of rolling blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators ramped up to cover the supply gap but couldn’t meet the surging demand for electricity—which half of households rely on for heating—even as many families powered up their gas furnaces. Then some gas wells and pipelines froze.
In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid. Baseload power is needed to stabilize grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there’s not enough baseload power, the grid gets unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid relies on intermittent renewables like wind and solar, the more baseload power is needed to back them up.
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"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Nine times Dallas has recorded daily snowfalls of 4 inches or more since 1940, but this week’s may be the first to be attributed to man-made climate change.
You ask, How do we know climate change is responsible? Answer: Shut up, denier.
Likewise because the weather inflicted painful blackouts on millions of voters, politicians hinted that market manipulation by energy traders may play a role. These manipulators will never be found. But shut up about that too.
Folks in the Northeast accustomed to weeklong outages may be surprised when Texans mostly have their power back in hours. Hundreds of downed power lines aren’t the problem as they are elsewhere. Texas winter blackouts come wholesale when generating plants trip offline due to conditions that will quickly be remedied when temperatures return to the 50s and 60s this weekend.
In fact, Texas has plenty of generation to keep its system from cracking even under summer air-conditioning demand, and more than enough in principle for a winter cold snap. Texas’ grid operator pledged to get to the bottom of why 34,000 megawatts nevertheless dropped offline, but we already know the answer because the same thing happened in 2011 and 1989.
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SUBSCRIBESIGN IN
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Quote: EdJames wrote in post #25How do people know that they are having a "rolling blackout?" (Versus a power outage?)
Do they send a text message or something to inform you?
@EdJames No notification. The power goes out and then it comes back 15-45 minutes later. So far, we've had 6 or more. But the house has remained at 68.
Ahhh, thanks... I was wondering....
What is really odd with us and Entergy, is that in the past there would be a ton of text messages... some of them inaccurate (and often contradictory...), but they would send messages....
"We note that power is off at {your location}..."
"We estimate that power will be restored at {your location} in N hours (or by N <A,P>M)...."
"Good news... power has been restored at {your location}.... be sure to check your circuit breakers if you still do not have power...."
---
While the messages were often spurious, and it is always a joy to be informed that a text message <re-,>reporting the outage is from an "Invalid User" sent from the phone number on record for numerous years, at least there was a channel of communication...
From the beginning of the 17 hour outage that started on Sunday at 11PM, through the 13 hour outage that ended on Tuesday evening, there was absolutely no communication....
nothing...
I marvel at how @Sanguine was able to keep the Entergy people on the line for hours on both Monday and Tuesday... (if it were me calling, the call would have been terminated within minutes by either party...)
Oooppps, power just went out again.... I need to go fire up the generator and switch the cables....
Anyway, long story short: she got results on both days... maybe she already posted about this ongoing saga later in the thread.... I'll be back later.... once we are restored.... again....
I will "circle back" (thanks Jen Psaki!!) and read/respond to the posts from earlier in the thread soon... Yes, I am living dangerously now... using the battery on my laptop and the (backup) Verizon cellular connection to the Internet...
The good news is:
- it is 29.5 degrees F here now.... so the livestock should be in high heaven (as compared to when it was -1 degrees F early on Tuesday morning)...
- the generator (which I wrapped in a quilted moving blanket and Dollar General vinyl table cloth earlier) started up like a charm... despite having a shortened pull cable since it broke yesterday morning when I was starting it at -1 degrees F...
- I didn't fall and hit the ground walking on the firmly glazed ice surface that the currently falling freezing rain is gracing all of our walking paths that we walked down into the snow... from whenever it was that the snow fell....
- thanks to a trip to town earlier on Tuesday, we have 30 gallons of gasoline in place for the generator.... should get us through this "interesting" period of time since we are only burning about 5 gallons every 10 hours with the relatively light load that we are drawing....
- I was able to remove about 5 inches of ash from the bottom of the wood stove before re-lighting it a few hours ago... it is now burning nice 5" diameter logs like a champ and it is a toasty 64 degrees F in here at the moment...
- all of the livestock has thus far weathered the coldest nights.... and should be A-OK for the rest of the ride....
- while the power was back on for about 10 hours, the pump should have filled the pressure tank up again, so we should be able to draw out enough water for the day....
- there is still plenty of snow on the ground to scoop up and melt in pots on the woodstove to keep the livestock warm and hydrated....
- we are Texans regardless of what the temperatures fall to....
The bad news, until we #TEXIT, the FedGov still sucks and is crimping our style and lives.... Big Time.....
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent people.” ― George Orwell
Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #36According to the lady at the energy company I spoke to earlier, they have reports of people dying in the cold. I guess it's not at all surprising.
My mom in Austin was without power or food all day yesterday in her assisted living home.
My brother went over there and jerked her out of the facility and she spent the night with him and finally got some food.
She was as good as dead otherwise.
Thank God that your brother was able to go and get her...
Interestingly, the citizens of Austin seem to be getting hit by these "rolling" blackouts as much as the rest of us.... I wonder if it will wake any of them up.... at least a little bit...
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent people.” ― George Orwell
Forty percent of Austin residents are without power, and up to a total of four million Texas residents are suffering under extreme cold conditions as the state power grid is overwhelmed. Making matters worse, a shortage of natural gas combined with failures of most wind turbines due to ice and freezing temperatures have dropped power generation.
QuoteTEXAS – Nearly 200,000 Austin Energy customers woke up without power Monday and were not expected to get it back until Tuesday — possibly late in the day — because of a so-called rotating power outage that didn’t rotate, leaving parts of the city in the cold and dark.
The outages began in the middle of the night, leaving swaths of neighborhoods without electricity, as already freezing temperatures dropped into single digits during an extraordinary winter storm that has raised questions about the city of Austin’s and the state’s ability to handle such an event. (read more)
The Houston Chronicle reports: […] “Natural gas supplies for electric generation are already strained in the winter, the peak season for gas used for heating, adding pressure to supplies used to generate electricity.”
-- excerpt, rest at link above --
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent people.” ― George Orwell
Farting around with green energy that doesn't work when you really need it instead of focusing on things that have been proven to work has put us in this situation. And all the excuse-making and diversions are not ever going to change that fact!
Day 422 of the siege. Icicles and snow surround us. Food supplies are still adequate and spirits are still high. We are preparing our meagre weapons for the next assault. I pray our friends and families are safe back in civilization, and we promise to maintain and continue on....
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Quote: Tinker wrote in post #54Farting around with green energy that doesn't work when you really need it instead of focusing on things that have been proven to work has put us in this situation. And all the excuse-making and diversions are not ever going to change that fact!
I don't think it's just that, Tinker. We normally use much more power in the summer here, and the power suppliers make accomodations for that. In the winter they shut much of that down to adjust for the usually much lighter winter usage. Even with this monster storm predicted, for some time, they apparently did not turn back on that extra power producing capacity. I can't even begin to understand who made those decisions and why.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Quote: EdJames wrote in post #53Up To 4 Million Texans Without Power as Electricity Grid Collapses and Wind Turbines Fail
That picture of the iced up wind turbine shows something I hadn't considered. The gear set in a turbine doesn't need to be icebound to halt its output. If the wings ice up even a little, lift is disrupted.
It's also worth noting, now that I started thinking about lift and wind power, that I am a hypocrite of the highest order.
Here I am whining about the cold when I know in my aching bones if I were on an unheated sailboat in the middle of a deadly cold lake at these temperatures, I'd be happy.
Worse, I would be both happy and extremely uncomfortable, my very joie de vivre itself the embodiment of hypocrisy. Happy and uncomfortable, how ridiculous.
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie The sea route to the Orient for which so many died Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones
Stan Rogers, the soul of the Maritimes, "Northwest Passage."
Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #36According to the lady at the energy company I spoke to earlier, they have reports of people dying in the cold. I guess it's not at all surprising.
My mom in Austin was without power or food all day yesterday in her assisted living home.
My brother went over there and jerked her out of the facility and she spent the night with him and finally got some food.
She was as good as dead otherwise.
There will be many elderly dead in their homes without power, water, medication refills, empty oxygen tanks. This is horrifying. Glad your mom is safe. @Isailedaway
Quote: Tinker wrote in post #54Farting around with green energy that doesn't work when you really need it instead of focusing on things that have been proven to work has put us in this situation. And all the excuse-making and diversions are not ever going to change that fact!
I don't think it's just that, Tinker. We normally use much more power in the summer here, and the power suppliers make accomodations for that. In the winter they shut much of that down to adjust for the usually much lighter winter usage. Even with this monster storm predicted, for some time, they apparently did not turn back on that extra power producing capacity. I can't even begin to understand who made those decisions and why.
Abbott appointees made that decision. Approved by the Texas Senate.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Unfrozen Cave Water Cooler
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Tue Feb 16, 2021 7:45 pm (Last edited: Tue Feb 16, 2021 7:46 pm)
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