There’s a saying in the lone star state “Don’t Mess with Texas” which actually started out as an anti-littering campaign but has become sort of a slogan for the rugged, no-nonsense way of life that people have there. Now with dead wind turbines littering the state, the focus on deploying unreliable renewable energy in the name of “saving the planet” has literally “messed with Texas” in a huge way.
Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a massive deep freeze across the state locked up wind turbine generators, creating an electricity generation crisis.
Wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of energy in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies last year, behind natural gas, which represented 45%, according to Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) figures.
ERCOT reports today the spot price for electricity in Texas is currently a stunning $9000 per MegaWatt-hour. Even in the high demand summer months, $100 per MW-hr would be high.
At the same time the freezing temperatures were driving electricity demand to record levels, ERCOT reported while calling on consumers and businesses to reduce their electricity use as much as possible Sunday, Feb. 14 through Tuesday, Feb. 16.
“We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas,” said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness. “At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units. We are asking Texans to take some simple, safe steps to lower their energy use during this time.”
Source: http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/225151
A graphic provided by ERCOT shows the huge gap between electricity supply and demand today:
Capacity is expected to fall short of demand by as much as 20,000 megawatts today, while the National Weather Service in Dallas predicts record low temperatures between -6° F to 3° F for Monday night.
A map from poweroutage.us is showing the scope of power outages in Texas shows that about 75% of the state is experiencing power outages in varying percentages with a significant portion having no power at all:
At the moment, ERCOT is placing rolling power outages in effect to prevent a complete collapse of the power grid saying:
“ERCOT has issued an EEA level 3 because electric demand is very high right now, and supplies can’t keep up. Reserves have dropped below 1,000 MW and are not expected to recover within 30 minutes; as a result, ERCOT has ordered transmission companies to reduce demand on the system.
This is typically done through rotating outages, which are controlled, temporary interruptions of electric service. This type of demand reduction is only used as a last resort to preserve the reliability of the electric system as a whole.”
Source: http://www.ercot.com/eea_info/show/26464
It is sad and ironic that in a state known for its huge petroleum and natural gas resources, the lack of reliability of wind power has brought the state to its knees in a time of crisis, not unlike that which California experienced in 2020 during record heat where wind and solar power could not keep up with demand and was near collapse.
The folly of chasing renewable energy as a means of mitigating “climate change” is making itself abundantly clear today in Texas. When will politicians wake up and realize that renewable energy almost always equates to unreliable energy?
This massive snow/ice storm has shutdown large sections of the US.
This is bad PR for the CAGW crowd. Record cold and winter snow/ice storms Europe/UK/Canada/US this winter.
And rotating blackouts because wind farms can be destroyed by ice and wind storms.
Sudden appearance of new patterns of weather that lock ot create massive amounts of snow and ice…. that correlate with the change to the sun….. And other stuff that is happening to the earth besides temperature change.
We were living through a Dansgaard-Oeschger event. These are strange event where the Northern Hemisphere warms for 20 or 30 years and then abruptly cools. The sun is driving the show. And then there is a Heinrich event when there is an abrupt change to temperature and other stuff.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56058372
In a statement on Sunday night, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Texas, which authorises US agencies to co-ordinate disaster relief in the state.
Rotating power outages have been initiated by the state’s power grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot), early on Monday, to reduce demand on the electricity system.
“Traffic lights and other infrastructure may be temporarily without power,”
It has also issued a level-three energy emergency alert, urging consumers to reduce electricity use.
Nearly 120 car accidents were reported on Sunday, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña tweeted.
Hundreds of flights in and out of the state have also been cancelled.
The weather has already proved deadly. On Thursday, icy roads led to a massive crash involving more than 100 vehicles in Fort Worth, killing six people and leaving dozens more needing hospital treatment.
Massive winter storm triggers chaos across the country (US)
https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/power-outages-approached-1-million-as-storms-swamp-us/899860
The most unrelenting winter weather pattern in decades unleashed brutally unseasonable cold and record snowfall deep into Texas, sparked harrowing scenes on roadways across the middle of the country and left millions of customers without power over the weekend. The coast-to-coast weather system caused particular chaos across Texas, where rolling blackouts left people in the dark and without electricity amid teeth-chattering temperatures.
Heavily populated cities were in the throes of punishing cold on Monday morning. In Dallas, the thermometer read 7 degrees with an AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature of -19. To the north in Oklahoma City, conditions were even more brutal with the mercury at -7 and an AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature of -35. Across the state of Texas, more than 2.6 million customers were without power amid the sub-freezing temps and wintry precipitation.
But the Greenies have already been grooming the plebs to regard extreme cold as caused by Gorbal Warming.
It will be interesting to check monthly satellite global temperature in 2021. A drop, in global temperature, that stays down, kills the ‘Greens’, Climate Emergency, paradigm/reset.
Because the planet did warm 1996/1997, the AGW crowd were able to extrapolate the rise and spin away the pause.
It is not possible to spin away a cooling planet, that has significantly more serious weather events. Canada and the US were covered by 2 mile thick ice sheets 20,000 years ago.
People have no idea what the US is like to live in, when the sun changes so that there is dropping temperatures, and persistent weather patterns that produce, year after year, massive snow storms and ice storms every winter.
A drop in temperature, coupled with a persistent pattern that bring and holds Arctic air deep into the. US …. …….which then produces ice and snow storm when it hits, warm moist Gulf and Atlantic ocean air.
A large driver of the New York city underground transportation was to enable the New York city to operate during snow storms.
During the glacial cycle, New York city is one center of the glacial build-up.
The Greens cannot hide global cooling. The warming in the last 30 years was 100% solar driven. This is not a normal solar cycle. Something else is happening to the sun. Sunspot size and magnetic field strength has dropped year by year.
The sun is now producing tiny short lived spores most of which are not visible using simple optical observations. Sunspot groups use to have a lifetime of roughly 22 days so it was not unusual to see the same sunspot group twice because of solar rotation. Now sunspot groups last for a week or two, if they are visible. Now roughly 70% of new sunspot groups are so weak they are not visible.
But I don’t understand, a temperature 2 degrees less than our Texas average for this time of year is supposed to be a good thing.
The temperature today is 2 degrees less than average – CHECK
Lots of wind generation in place – CHECK
Whew, we dodged a bullet here in Texas
BTW – how many in Texas are going to have a climate related deaths vs covid related deaths over this weather front (you know, CO poisonings, fires, hypothermias)…just wondering.
Now, I’m going to put on my galoshes, scamper up my ladder and pull the snow off my solar panels here in the north east (Western NY)…AGAIN
…Long live the Donald, the most effective President without the comportment of a choirboy FOR America (not the swamp) – notwithstanding Washington
Actually, temps are about 50F below average, not 2, for this time of year in Texas.
Yep that is less than 2 degrees
Tough to swim the Rio Grande for the next few weeks. A coincidence?
I would prefer another method to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Of course, freezing cold can be very effective but, having people die of hypothermia seems a bit harsh… Maybe I’m getting soft. 🙂
— well, if the Rio freezes over, it will be real easy to get across!
Play some music and get some ice skates. Maybe equip everyone like hockey players and see who wind between CBP and the Illegals. Set up some stands and the Leftists can peacefully protest while the Alt Right holds an insurrection. 🙂
I think I saw that in the documentary “The Day after Tomorrow”.
As I recall, they wrote off everyone in canada
Thank a lot Dennis quade
After they get their vaccinations and stimulus checks, I understand that a lot of the illegals are planning on heading home! They say the job prospects in the US are getting limited with the Xiden Regime destroying so many good paying, blue collar jobs!
I received this message from my son in the Houston, Texas area along with photos of a snow-covered parking lot and cars and their apartment house. They have issued a wind chill warning for the first time in their history. Here is his message….and it fits right in with what this article states and what we “Climate REALISTS” have been warning will happen ever since the insanity of installing Bird Choppers and Bird Fryers began.
It is not a hurricane but a severe cold snap like this in a place not accustomed to cold brings high risk.
These are the conditions that give rise to actions that make life more secure. I expect there will be questions raised about the need for energy security. Nothing gives energy security like a few million tonnes of coal in a big shed near a power station.
Anthony, your article is entirely misleading, if not downright false. I live in Texas again, near my hometown of Houston. The Texas grid has, as frequently shouted by the anti-wind crowd, 100 percent backup for wind-turbine generation capacity. That is a requirement, since wind is somewhat intermittent.
This state has plenty of other power plants, and they run just fine when the wind does not blow. This happens on a regular basis each summer when the load typically peaks.
The problem now, in Texas, is the lack of sufficient natural gas due to the unprecedented deep cold over the entire state. The natural gas suppliers curtailed gas to selected power plants, so that homes, like mine, can still keep the heat on.
Please, understand the facts about renewable power sources, such as wind. They are never meant to run in freezing rain, ice storms, and such. The fact is, as ERCOT also stated today, that only half of the wind turbine generators are out of commission. The operating wind turbines are performing better than expected, and are producing 2,854 MW as I am writing this. Real-Time System Conditions (ercot.com)
By the way, an earlier Texas cold snap, in January 1973, also had power generation issues due to a lack of natural gas supply. I remember it well, as the lack of electricity back then delayed the start of university classes for two weeks in January. State officials closed universities and government buildings for the duration.
Curtailing power plants due to a gas shortage is nothing new in Texas. What IS new is the unprecented cold, the extent and duration during a period of so-called global warming. Cold temperature records are falling this week all across the state.
Please, get the facts straight.
Roger Sowell
How do you heat a house with natural gas without electricity? Don’t modern furnaces have electric igniters? Isn’t electricity required for the blower to distribute the hot air throughout the house?
What about this article: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AF066
or this: https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/energy-emergency-texas-power-provider-warns-rotating-outages-cold-weather-tests-limits-grid
Maybe, as Willis says, you should quote the exact words you have a problem with.
When I bought my house in Sutton NH, its primary heat had been a wood pellet stove, but humidity in the basement killed it and the owners were relying on two unvented propane space heaters with gas pilot lights. Ran fine without power.
I bought a CO2 meter before the house inspection in January, the house was at 2000 ppm CO2. After I moved in it got up to 3000 in one cold spell.
Now has a mini-split system (that shuts down at -20C – yikes!) and a direct vented Rinnai “wall furnace”. And an electric space heater for the bedroom, but we haven’t gotten that cold yet. Cooking dinner on the propane range can get up to 1500 to 2000 ppm CO2. Closing the bedroom at night (recommended by firemen) makes for 1200 ppm by morning.
If you have a pilot light, you’re in good shape. Just need some way to circulate the air. Wood stoves can be great, as long as you have wood. We laid in 5 cords, minimum, every winter for the stove. Heated the house great. And when the power went out, we ‘camped out’ near it. But, most modern gas furnaces have electric igniters and the fan needs to run before it’ll light up. So, if you have a modern gas furnace, no electricity can mean no heat.
We have a better solution. After studying this climate change business thoroughly, we moved to Florida after selling our NH house back in 2016.
SMC, the homes without electricity are experiencing rolling blackouts, from a few minutes to several hours. Some are without power for longer periods, depending on the cause of the outage.
Heating a home without electricity is addressed elsewhere. My home has a gas fireplace. It also has a gas water heater (no electricity required).
The exact problem, as I stated above, is the wind turbines freezing up had very little to do with the power grid problems, while the deep and prolonged cold air caused a natural gas shortage. That fact was in the quote in the original post.
The Texas grid infrastructure is inadequate for task, any way you slice it.
This event is not unprecedented, in recent past, not just in 1973, as you mentioned.
How much money spent chasing the Green dream could have been spent on upgrades to infrastructure as needed?
2,854 MWs? That will only supply a tiny fraction of Texans’ needs.
The Texas grid is more than adequate for the task, excepting for highly unusual situations. We do that in a modern society; spend the money wisely on those problems that have high impact and reasonable probability of occurring.
“…excepting for highly unusual situations.”
That’s quite a qualifier, considering the Texas grid can’t deliver reliable energy to customers when it’s needed most, when failure to deliver can mean the deaths of people.
And as far as spending money wisely is concerned, how wise was it to spend over $30 Billion for the wind generators, which now are delivering less than 10% of their promised power?
Could that money have been spent “more wisely” to ensure something like this didn’t happen, since such events are not unprecedented?
You mean like WASTING BILLIONS on wind and solar to meet a greenie agenda feel-good.. rather than boosting reliable COAL fired energy systems and protecting gas lines from cold ?
Why did the Republicans allow themselves to be CONNED by the AGW farce..
That is the real question that should be asked.
Roger,
What is the point of wind and solar farms if they need 100% backup? If you had a car that was unreliable, the answer is not to tow around a reliable backup car that you could use when the primary failed – you would just get rid of the unreliable and keep the reliable backup. Besides, the long term goal is to replace all the fossil fuel (and nuclear) generation and replace them with wind and solar. Can you imagine what trouble Texas would be in today if that had already been done? And don’t reply “battery backup” because that is the equivalent of unicorn farts.
“Besides, the long term goal is to replace all the fossil fuel (and nuclear) generation and replace them with wind and solar. Can you imagine what trouble Texas would be in today if that had already been done?”
I can. Texans would be screwed right now if all they had were unreliables to supply their electricity. Texas politicians should wake up and smell the coffee.
Unicorn farts very high in methane. Much better than batteries
What is the point of a nuclear plant, if it needs 100 percent backup? They require such backup on a regular basis, and not just for planned outages for refueling. The fact is that every power plant requires backup.
An additional point in favor of solar and wind, as I have posted before here on WUWT, is the substantial decrease in use of natural gas. Reduced demand for gas produces a lower price for natural gas. Many diverse economic sectors benefit from lower gas prices. For countries that rely on expensive imported LNG, renewables give an improved balance sheet. For countries that rely on gas pipelines from hostile countries, renewables give security of supply. All of this is well-known and discussed in the literature.
I disagree that wind and solar are the long-term goal. In my view, ultimately, ocean-current generating systems will be developed and optimized. Until those fill the world’s energy needs, the ocean-current turbines will serve to follow the load.
All intermittent generating sources require some fill-in supply, the only questions are economic. Pumped storage hydroelectric is a popular but scarce technology, Grid-scale storage via batteries is not “unicorn farts” as you so in-elegantly put it, but is serious and sound strategy. I commend to your reading the many factual articles on grid-scale energy storage. For example, NREL has a recent publication that has substantial points in its favor. Also, MIT has a patented pumped storage system for the ocean.
Yes but not on a 1:1 basis like wind and solar. If I absolutely need a minimum of ten nuclear generators, I should build eleven so I have backup. Wind and solar have to be matched watt for watt with backup.
I don’t see how Rogers missed this distinction, as well as several other reasons that vwind is of little use.
He didn’t miss it.
His purpose is to defend wind.
Like a good lawyer, he will only present those “facts” that support his case.
Patents are cheap. Call me when someone actually spends their own money to build one of those things.
“Cheaper natural gas” at the expense of practically stranded capital assets. Economics really isn’t your thing. Then again you claim that every nuke plant nearly melts down every year.
WOW we have another inveterate leftist LIAR
Modules are refueled on a rotation basis, they KNOW when this is going to happen
The REAL ISSUE is bowing to the anti-science, anti-CO2 greenie agenda, ..
wasting huge amounts of money on unreliable wind and solar…
… while actually shutting-down rather than boosting the RELIABLE infrastructure of COAL FIRED POWER
Apparently, you are blissfully ignorant of just how frequently US nuclear power plant reactors go offline, unplanned. Their record is dismal, with one reactor every three weeks.
You could look it up.
You’re right. It is the fact that the gas production infrastructure can’t handle the cold very well. But instead of throwing billions of dollars preparing for a warmer world, we should be investing billions in preparing for a colder world.
Exactly right, because a colder world is what we are heading for!
Exactly. Only the stupidest of generals point all their heavy guns in the same direction. For the Earth’s political class to do the equivalent with “global warming” is sheer folly.
The whole mission of clime science should be predicting when the Holocene ends. Nothing else matters.
So are you saying that Texas is NOT having power outages due to limited capacity to supply needed power? Obviously having 100% back up of wind is inadequate if the alternate generation depends on real-time supply of a needed commodity. A coal plant with a coal pile would not be off line for inadequate fuel supplies.
Actually, coal power has serious limitations, as has been well-documented.
But, my message is that the current grid issues in Texas are due to limited capacity to supply natural gas. There are also other issues, such as a lack of adequate preparation for bitterly cold weather.
Coal bad. Natural gas bad. Wind good. Solar good. SolarWinds twice good.
So if my car won’t run, and the fuel tank in my spouse’s car is empty, there’s really no issue with my car. The issue is with a limited capacity to deliver fuel to the engine in my spouse’s car. Got it.
PLUS ERRATIC and UNRELIABLE wind, that FAILED when needed.. FROZEN SOLID.
Increasing gas supply availability can be done
WIND is a non-entity, waiting for the trash heap.
Coal power kept the lights on during the bomb cyclone of 2018 when wind utterly failed.
https://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analysis/details?id=2594
Roger you are quite a piece of work. They must be paying you really well.
More deliberate LIES..
Gas was the only thing keeping the grid even partially functional
Coal was flat chat all through the event, there is just TOO LITTLE OF IT.
But don’t let FACT get in the way of your slimy leftist socialist LIES.
Roger:
What you state is a liability with gas: it’s not economical to store significant fuel on site. When demand exceeds supply or pipeline capacity, natural gas plants drop offline. This is one major advantage of coal, which can store weeks or even months of fuel right at the plant. It’s an even bigger advantage of nuclear, where an entire year’s worth of fuel can be delivered in a couple of truckloads.
It seems that all the disaster models are run exclusively in the “what happens when the world gets 2 degrees warmer?” mode. Not enough time is spent modeling what will happen if a large region used to temperate weather hits an extended spell of 50 degrees colder than normal.
Now we know: demand for electricity and natural gas go up with not enough gas to keep the generating plants running, and half the wind turbines freeze up.
Alan,
REmember, the models predict a *mid-range* temperature, not an average temp. When the mid-range goes up it is impossible to tell if it from increased Tmax or increased Tmin. Of course the alarmists want you to believe it is Tmax and we are all going to die. It’s really nuts.
That’s awesome that wind is producing 2,854 Megawatts. If I read the chart correctly, the state’s current demand is 45,068 Megawatts.
Yeah, that’s awesome. Texas has a wind power total nameplate capacity of 30,000MW.
Figure roughly $1W. price, that’s $30 Billion cost.
That’s not so awesome, for delivering less than 10% of what was touted, when it’s really needed.
And I wonder just how much those 2,854 Megawatts cost. Including the $ value of the subsidies (those are still paid by somebody).
How do wind and solar cost compare to fossil fuels and nuclear?
(Include the dollar value of subsidies/tax breaks for both. Subtract carbon taxes.)
Hard to put a dollar value on reliability.
You are correct Roger, Oklahoma has a natural gas problem also: http://oklahoman.com/article/5682411/natural-gas-shortages-could-require-blackouts-if-conservation-efforts-dont-work
All the more reason to ban frakking and new pipelines.
I love it that you are stalking me
Its you that is constantly seeking attention with dumb idiotic statements.
Oh boy, now Fred joins Mark in a tag-team stalk. I love it more!
bethan is actually stupid enough to believe that responding to someone’s post, is an example of stalking.
I guess it just goes to show how self centered she is.
Not surprising, in another thread he/she/it was stupid enough to think posting in a public forum is a private conversation. Clearly poor, deluded Bethan doesn’t understand how public internet forums work.
What I don’t understand is why bethan456 thinks it’s a good idea to post using an actual email address. Unless it’s not actually hers, which is just mean to the person it really belongs to.
Of course you do, trolls always love it when they’re getting attention
You keep using that word, but it’s quite obvious you don’t know what it means.
Regardless, I find it interesting how once again, you try to distract rather than deal with the issue at hand. Is it possible that for the nth time, you know that what you have stated is completely wrong, but you can’t admit it.
Obviously you didn’t read the link I posted. It’s clear that Oklahoma is experiencing the same problems as Texas is with it’s electric supply, and they don’t have as much wind in their supply mix. What I posted is far from wrong Mark, the supply of natural gas can’t meet demand in BOTH Texas and Oklahoma.
The problem with Oklahoma natural gas is the lines at the wells are freezing up and the processing plants are freezing up so the supply is reduced.
Oklahoma is a member of a 17-State power grid (Southwest something-or-other) and the whole grid is having trouble because of the very high demand which is caused by the very cold temperatures.
The grid is in a little better shape tonight than it was earlier today when 10,000 Tulsa home owners power was cut for about an hour in a temporary blackout.
I believe that is the only deliberate temporary blackout they have imposed, and the authorities said not long ago that the situation had improved, but they wanted everyone to reduce their electrical usage as much as possible for the next two days, as they could not rule out more rolling blackouts.
I don’t know the situation in the other 16 States as far as rolling blackouts are concerned, but I assume some are taking place since we had one here in Oklahoma.
Everyone should cut back as much as possible. It might save you a blackout.
I don’t know what percentage of Oklahoma’s electricty production is windmills, but I’m sure they are all frozen up like the ones in Texas.
The Oklahoma legilature stopped the payment of subsidies for windmills about a year ago saying if the subsidies were to continue, it would bankrupt Oklahoma. So no State subsidies for windmills in Oklahoma. I assume they still get federal subsidies.
Say a little prayer for all the farmers out there. All those animals need care no matter how cold it gets. The cows are having their babies about now. The chickens need to be watered every morning whether you have one, or 500 of them. And on and on.
Btw, one step Oklahoma has taken is to shut down all the casinos! 🙂 They also are cutting back electricity for other large users in the State.
About one more night of really extreme cold temperatures around this area, and then they will moderate and in about four or five days we will think it is summer time again, it will be so much warmer comparitively.
Yeah, I’m getting a propane whole-house generator. I see the utility of one now. I used to get out and cut and burn wood in this kind of weather and situation, but I think it’s time to improve my survival technology.
I bet whole-house generators and Ford F-150 hybrid pickups will be selling like hotcakes! I may get one of each. 🙂
-18c in Tulsa tonight
-38 c a few days ago in calgary
No problems here, everyone on gas heat, mostly gas generation
Why do gas lines freeze up down there?
Honest question Tom.
not sure if the effect is the same on huge gas units but my beekeeper friend used LPG bottles and even in hot aussie weather theyd go frosty when he was running it on full bore open to run the seperator, theyd go icy all around the outlets n joins to connectors
Only a rookie tries to use one of those propane camp stoves in very cold weather. The fuel freezes up and won’t gas, even when your up there in lower pressure well above the tree line. One needs a camp stove that uses white gas. MSR ( Mountain Safety Research) makes the best IMO.
Mine outlasted 8 1/2 years of tough duty when I was an SF soldier on mountain teams. It has been to the three highest peaks in Europe and many others.
Funny thing though, some of it’s toughest duty wasn’t in the Alps, or the Dolomites, or the Rockies, but in the rather smaller mountains of the Green mountain range in Vermont. The cold in that part of the world is more biting, it hurts more for what ever reason, and when one goes 15 days living out of a Rucksack and being chased, constantly moving on skies day after day, with 80 lb on your back and it never gets up to 0 deg. F the whole time and wind chill gets down to -30 Deg. F at night? Well, that kind of duty, though it is not real war, still does an excellent job of separating the men from the boys, and the reliable tough equipment from that which is not.
“Why do gas lines freeze up down there?”
That I don’t know, but obviously this problem can be prevented in some way since your gas lines are not freezing and your temperatures are much colder than here.
That will be one of the questions that will need to be answered after this is all over.
And I think someone upthread was hinting that windmills were the equivalent of natural gas power because both were having trouble in Oklahoma and Texas because of the freezing weather, but as Calgary shows, the freezing problems with natural gas can be fixed, whereas the windmills freezing up cannot be fixed. So the reliability is not really equal between natural gas and windmills.
Say a little prayer for all the farmers out there. All those animals need care no matter how cold it gets. The cows are having their babies about now. The chickens need to be watered every morning whether you have one, or 500 of them. And on and on.
indeed!
the wildlife/ birds etc chances are grim indeed
some farms have onfarm propane for heating etc but even that’d be running low with high use to keep pigs chooks etc even barely warm in this savage weather
Cattle will be dying / in crisis id guess, dairy herds in trouble too.
pretty nasty for many more than humans
I agree that the supply of natural gas isn’t enough. Which is why I recommended both more frakking and more pipelines.
Gee, it’s almost as if basic physics is beyond your intellectual capacities.
Obviously clueless bethy didn’t read its own link
normally SPP has 32% wind, currently down to 12%
A FAILURE TO SUPPLY from wind,
….. as coal and gas have to take up slack of the awol wind..
wind…desertion in time of need..
so often the way.
Where did I mention anything about fracking Mr. Mark?
Do you support fracking?
bethan, I know that following more than one conversation at a time is beyond your limited mental capabilities, but I never said that you said anything about frakking.
I said that frakking and more pipelines would be a solution to the problem of their not being enough natural gas to go around.
Educate yourself Mr. MarkW, in weather like this the moisture in a natural gas pipeline FREEZES, and blocks the flow. More pipelines don’t resolve this issue, and neither does fracking.
Please provide links to where you ‘learned’ the issue is with frozen/blocked pipelines.
This is funny, bethan telling others to educate themselves.
Where did you get the crazy idea that there are measurable amounts of water in natural gas pipelines.
Beyond that, I’m not surprised to find out that you aren’t aware that most natural gas pipelines are buried, below the frost line.
Anyway, the solution is to have coal power plants, since coal can be stockpiled.
BTW, much of the problem is that consumers are demanding more gas than the system can supply. More pipes and more wells would definitely help with that problem.
bethan, will we ever find a subject in which you aren’t both incredibly ignorant, and unaware of that ignorance?
Low -30s to -40s in Alberta for the last week
Predominately gas generation, mostly home gas heating
No freezing that I have ever heard of
Poor bethany, asking others to do what she has NEVER been able to do itself.
Well, something resolves the issue because as the comments above point out, Calgary Canada is a lot colder than Oklahoma, yet Calgary’s gas lines are currently supplying all the natural gas Calgary needs. No shortages because of freezing pipes there. Calgary is going to have to take Oklahoma to school.
Its what bethany does for a living….
.. attention-seeking and distraction.
All the while feeling absolutely certain that she is more educated and smarter than everyone else here.
And FAILING UTTERLY and COMPLETELY
Yes, many states do
Because they failed to plan
Planning means 100% backup of intermittent power
That means having enough gas supply for home heating AND generation in a cold snap.
Elementary exercise
If these states had no wind installed would they now have enough gas supply now?
Yes of course, because it was planned for
I have not looked at the source or demand.
But, Roger, if you take the time to look you will likely find that the natural gas cannot reasonably be diverted away from the residential use, and as such the gas powered electric generation (as back-up to the failed wind/solar) cannot be utilized in full.
If gas powered electric generation was used initially, as a primary source, then the gas infrastructure would be there (regardless of your experience and example of what happened 47 years ago).
Check it and tell me I am wrong and I will give you a big plus.
(and then we can agree that your post is not “entirely misleading, if not downright false.”)
“This state has plenty of other power plants, and they run just fine when the wind does not blow. This happens on a regular basis each summer when the load typically peaks”
If TX has enough other power plants for when wind and solar don’t work, they why even bother with the wind and solar? That’s just a load on the taxpayers with no benefit.
There is nothing a nuclear grid can do that cannot be done worse and at far greater expense by adding intermittent renewable energy to it.
As I replied to an earlier comment, every kWh produced by wind and solar decreases the demand for, and price of, natural gas. That is a huge benefit to electricity prices that are based in some part on natural gas. That is also a huge benefit to all those economic sectors that consume natural gas. Farmers who buy ammonia-based fertilizer come to mind. The last time I looked, almost every one eats food that is grown on a farm.
Also, renewable generating sources reduce natural gas imports, which can improve a country’s foreign exchange balance.
My electricity prices shot up with the arrival of solar and wind. [California]
The theory is that renewables reduce fossil fuel usage. The problem is, it isn’t true. Since they need 100% backup, and that back up has to be kept in hot standby, the reduction in fossil fuel usage ranges between none and very little.
Roger,
Outright lie (you can call it exaggeration if you want to but it is not true, so a lie).
Wind and solar were/are subsidized directly and indirectly by all other sources.
Would you also represent the glazer (that pays the kids to go around breaking windows) & then claim that the economic benefit is such that your client should be rewarded, rather than prosecuted?
Scumbag.
Roger is now defining himself as a OUT AND OUT LIAR in every respect.
Imagine if they had a lot of coal fired power plants with weeks of coal piled up next to the power station. I can.
But you need to be using that coal. It does go “off” eventually.
Also, “cold start” and constant up and down in temperatures causes increased metal fatigue
Best is to keep that COAL-FIRED power humming away at about 70% rated capacity with a constant through-put of recently mined coal, keep say 6-8 weeks of coal in stockpile
RELIABILITY, and room to push extra if needed.
Maggie Thatcher had 2 years of coal stockpiled in time for the miners strikes of the 1970s
Mexico is going back to coal; maybe Texas can arrange to buy coal power from them:
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/02/un-greening-mexico-gives-up-on-renewables-revives-coal-industry/
Maybe Biden is cannier than we give him credit for. The halt to the wall might be about making it easier for Texans to enter Mexico.
We had coal-fired power plants in Texas, a notable one was Big Brown near Fairfax. The local shallow coal deposit finally ran out, and the plant closed when imported coal from Wyoming was too costly.
Funny, how that works with coal.
And wind closes down EVERY TIME there is no wind, and you can’t import it, no matter what the price, because it probably isn’t available elsewhere.
Your point, is pointless.
COAL was still available, just not at the cheap price as before.
There is PLENTY of coal available as a RELIABLE SUPPLY in Texas.
That big word is RELIABLE.. which wind and solar can NEVER be.
Reliability of wind turbines, how about a car guaranteed to start 2.5 days in every week, but no guarantee as to which days.
You should see all the ships anchored offshore near Australian port coal loaders to load export orders.
Mr. Sowell: Still spreading lies to satisfy your windophilia? “Every KwH produced by wind and solar decreases the demand for, and price of, natural gas.” Demonstrably false, yet you repeat it in one comment string. You sell wind with the same enthusiam and ethics as a ponzi salesman.
Here, they shuttered Big Brown because? Obama’s war on coal ran the price up? Bet you are not sitting in a blackout that could have been prevented if Big Brown was kept online. It’s funny to you, you’re not facing freezing to death because Obama thought coal bad.
Coal from Wyoming is mostly Anthracitic. Dryer, harder, dustier, more prone to explosive accidents, and producing more BTUs than Bituminous per ton, and having a relatively low sulfur content and thus great for cutting down on emissions.
The largest coal mine in Indiana used to be the Chinook mine. Had both surface strip mining with a huge walking drag line and underground mining operations. It shut down because the coal had too high of sulfur content despite less than 50% of the known deposits having been mined.
Not very unprecedented, what has happened is a failure to plan.
Texas and many other states invested in gas generation to back up that intermittent wind, as you stated, but then didn’t allow for the situation today, which was foreseeable so there is not enough gas supply to keep the lights on
Because they also assumed the wind would be there
Simple fact, if there were no wind towers, there would be enough gas supply for both heat and generation.
Because they would have planned for it
Wind made them lazy
I was a freshman in Texas registering for spring classes in January 1973. Was just fondly recalling that snow and cold snap. College students on campus with nothing to do but play in the snow! It didn’t last two weeks though.
Roger, I must disagree with your “unprecedented cold” comment. Not true. Rare? Yes. I’ve lived in Texas close to 7 decades, and I have seen worse. Just look at the records. Of course, things happened before records as well. We need to strip the word “unprecedented” from our collective vocabulary, as it plays right into the hands of the regressives, who use that word for everything bad. They’ll somehow claim that this “unprecedented” cold and snow event (weather) was caused by “climate change.” Wait for it. Wait for it. Waaaiiittt.
@roger – question for you. How much NG infrastructure could have been upgraded with the resources that were dumped into unreliables? I would think a fair amount.
Wind turbines are only supplying about 1000 MW, not the 5500 MW they were initially supplying at the start of this cold spell–this despite very strong winds across the state.
See http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/CURRENT_DAYCOP_HSL.html for the current contribution of wind energy.
Roger. Yes, please get the facts straight. You say the state has 100% backup for all wind generation. In 2020 wind supplied 23% of power in Texas. The last time I checked, the reserve margin in Texas was just under 7%. My math says the delta between 23 and 7 is quite large.
Okay Roger. I looked it up. Reserve margin in Texas has improved a bit. Here are the numbers as quoted by ERCOT :
Conditions in ERCOT have improved somewhat. ERCOT has been preparing for tight operating reserves owing to a spate of recent plant retirements—including of major coal baseload generators—and delays in some planned resources. Compared to the dismal 8.6% planning reserve margin it reported as it entered the 2019 peak demand season, the entity’s December Capacity, Demand and Reserves (CDR) Report forecasted the planning reserve margin for summer 2020 will be 10.6%. Margins are slated to grow through 2024, when they will reach 12.9%.
A 10% reserve margin on a maximum demand forecast of almost 77 GW doesn’t even come close to matching 100% of the 30 GW nameplate capacity of installed wind generation capacity in Texas. Clearly Texas does not have “100% backup for wind turbine generation capacity”. So please get your facts straight.
BTW- Am I really supposed to be impressed by wind generation currently limping along at 2.8 GW of generation on 30 GW of installed nameplate capacity ?
“Please, understand the facts about renewable power sources, such as wind. They are never meant to run in freezing rain, ice storms, and such.”
Rodger; We do understand the facts about renewable power sources, that’s why we are against the idea of expecting to rely on unreliables.
It’s the knob-head greens who don’t understand the facts
You’re argument, at best, only shows that tens of millions of dollars were diverted from providing solutions to known problems, to something that would do nothing to address those problems. You can claim wind turbines did not contribute to the problem, but wasting time and money on them clearly have.
All very true. but it is more than a natural gas issue. Power plants use water to cool the equipment. Water pipes are freezing in homes and in power plants. So many power plants are down for emergency repairs Prior to the storm ERCOT was producing about 70GW with minimal wind production. After the storm hit ERCOT was expecting a 70GW demand.But at that time they had only about 45,000GW of power available.
The Texas problem is mainly a thermal power plant problem. Natural gas, coal, and nutclear power plants are all having a hard time keeping everything running. The power distrubution grid has also taken a hit because it was never built for very cold weather Ice snow buildup frequently breaks tree branches that often fall into power lines. In colder climates trees grow thicker branches to withstand the snow and ice load. But in warm climates the branches are thinner. Add to that poorly insulated homes with unprotected water lines means power demand is probably in excess of of ERCOT predictions. Wind and solar power can function reliably in cold weather but if you don’t have a functional grid they cannot put power onto the grid.
What a load of TOTAL BS
Data speaks way louder than leftist rhetoric. !
This didn’t need to happen. I feel sorry for those suffering now.
Your right. Man didn’t make the weather, but sure did make so this weather made it a disaster,
Sorry to see that the green idiots have now created harsh and unnecessary consequences for Texas.
Meanwhile here on the central west coast of Florida it is 84F with a heat index of 91F. I just came in from 3 hours of yard work, cutting some limbs, planting a few new things and cleaning up after a couple of days of high winds.
I challenge anyone to claim it is better to be cold.
With apologies to James Brown,
Say it loud, I’m warm and I’m proud
Here in central Florida, we recently had a spell of wear your long woolies weather.
You guys in Florida are lucky. In earlier years, an arctic blast like this would come down into Florida and destroy all the oranges. The jetstream is your friend this time, keeping you in the warm air.
France not so lucky. Seine sewer upwelling and river overflow seem to be part of the romance again this year.
They already had some crop damage from a couple of cold snaps this year in the sunshine state. My girls that live in Daytona Beach, had thin ice on the water in the swimming pool one morning. The day before they were laughing at their neighbors running around putting glad bags over the blossoms or fruit on the citrus trees.
Over the last several decades commercial citrus operations have moved further south in the state. Can’t think of a better indicator that the climate has gotten colder in the US. Sure aren’t going to get an accurate picture from the heavily adjusted temperature data.
“Over the last several decades commercial citrus operations have moved further south in the state. Can’t think of a better indicator that the climate has gotten colder in the US.”
Excellent point.
Note that, as predicted, the operators of this “renewable energy” scam always ask that consumers REDUCE their demand for energy to lighten the load on this worthless, frail, intermittent, unreliable, nightmare kluge electricity generation Ponzi scheme at the very time they need it the most. If not, it fails, also just as predicted.
This is what happens to the conquered. How did the recent putsch happen? First, there were decades of letting all of our institutions be infiltrated and corrupted by the Great Marx Fad and its growing multitude of young, indoctrinated supporters, then a fraudulent election was bought and manufactured. Then, even worse, that result was aggressively made to stand. Silence is only one form of approval. For too many of us, there are steps. “Tolerate the System, go along with the System, accept the System; now you become the System.” Unquote. We are seeing what happens when children, fools and criminals run the System.
Have we not remembered the Lord?
A reasonable leader would call for a comprehensive review of the science of global warming before pressing on. But we are fresh out of reasonable leaders at this point.
With the communists in charge, we’re gonna be toast unless something gets done quickly.
Having lived and worked in California as well as many other places, the ignorance of Anthony Watts about making electricity and how people live other places is typical.
Before the internet, before deregulation, my first experience with a winter storm was at a nuke plant. I was in the control room to supervise a test screaming from 100% power. The load dispatcher refused permission for the test. In the north of the state temps were dropping to 40 below, in the south power plant were having issues with ice taking out transmission lines.
A few years later, I was running the same test at a nuke plant with a forecast high of 117. I tried to explain to management that we would not be allowed to run the test. The California governor would not authorize rolling blackouts.
Extreme weather events often challenge the grid because people turn on electric heaters or air conditioning. It has nothing to do with wind turbines.
When deregulation came along, Texas governor George Bush instituted a modest renewable energy portfolio standard in a compromise to get needed fossil plants built.
In California, Grey Davis failed at protecting the environment and consumers when rolling blackouts were required. Davis got recalled, Bush became POTUS.
What do modern wind farms out west actually do? The electricity is not needed locally but California will buy it to meet a not so modest RPS.
In other words, wind farms suck money out of California.
Electricity is public service. Anthony Watts lives in a state where the people demand electricity from wind.
Texas is a state where people like working hard energy jobs and selling to those who do not not.
A well designed system has excess capacity for times when demand soars. A well designed system produces electricity locally, so when demand soars over a large region, they are able to produce more locally, and not try to transmit it over long distances.
Kalifornia is blessed with rich natural resources, but they are cursed with low IQ voters, and politicians that pander to people that appreciate bumper slogan campaigns.
Texas has a good natural climate for wind mills.
But they need to be able to increase the production capacity for peak demands. Greater capacity natural gas generation, and standby coal, will work better than what they have. And some nuclear baseload should be on the drawing board for the future.
Why pay for standby coal? Just leave it to operate reliably and cheaply, and forget about the bird-choppers!
Easier to stockpile coal. And when demand soars the stockpile is available. Natural Gas is more difficult to store in volume, or increase the pipeline capacity. Wind or Solar is fixed. Nuclear is more economic when run at full capacity or close to it. So additional unused capacity is expensive.
Kali is doing this anyway, but it is out of state. And those out of state producers can have a spike in demand and need their excess capacity, at the same time.
Salt caverns account for 23% of U.S. underground natural gas storage daily deliverabilityhttps://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=3190
And how many of those caverns are directly beneath a gas fired power plant.
So your talking about generating units designed and built for general power generation sitting idle and then being fired up as peaking stations on demand. It has been tried and is cost prohibitive except in certain circumstances, when other units are already being run full time and so the crew man power is available.
The machinery of those stations is like that of an automobile, Letting it set idle it degrades faster than if it is run periodically. And you don’t pay skilled labor to sit on their ass and just do periodic maintenance, if your going to stay in business.
Further it takes a couple three days for those kinds of coal fired units to get fired up so they can generate power.
And finally, it’s not like you get coal to sustain operations when your pile in the crushing yard runs out with the snap of a finger. Coal mines don’t have huge piles of coal that have been through the prep plant laying around ready to ship on a moments notice and rail or barge service, which are the primary carriers for bulk coal, aren’t laid on at a moments notice.
I was probably in more mines, prep plants, and coal fired power stations, in the 15 years I had a company that serviced those industries, than most here, I know more than a little about it.
Having lived most of my adult life in California, my experience with the people of California is different from your characterization. The liberal legislature will willingly trample the rights of ideologic minorities and is more concerned about virtue signaling than doing what is in the best interest of its constituents. I seriously doubt your claim that Californians “demand electricity from wind.” Personally, I was disgusted by the windmills that took over the vistas through Altamont Pass
Trampling the rights of minorities is much easier than trampling the rights of the majoity. Our system is designed to protect the rights of the minority unless the majority really, wants them trampled. The majority does not care what you want. Your choice is fight or leave. If you think the voters are reasonable and willing to change, then you should fight. If you think they are stupid, and vote based on ignorance or emotional issues, you should leave.
California politicians have normalized the battered wife syndrome.
I did leave for mainly that reason. Haven’t regretted it for a second because at last check California voters are still dumb as a box of rocks.
I left California for a job offer I couldn’t refuse. When I retired, I decided not to go back.
And who is it that elects the liberal legislature you complain about?
Largely, the major urban centers of San Diego/Los Angeles and ‘Silicon Valley.’ They are people who are out of touch with reality and tell everyone else in the state how they are going to live, based on their needs and preferences as urbanites. They seem oblivious to life styles that aren’t corrupted by high-density housing, and pass laws that don’t respect the rights of the rural minority.
<i>¡Vayan <b><a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Amigas_SuperStation>Tres Amigas</a></b>!</i>
text entry es estupido
@Hocus – I found the workaround the other day. Down on the bottom, you’ll see the widget with two curly braces; click that, and you are put into “source code” mode.
To wit, your comment: ¡Vayan Tres Amigas!
Didn’t something almost exactly like this happen to Texas a couple of years ago when wind turbines quit working in a summer heat wave?
Yes. At that time, they also had a couple baseload units on planned shutdowns and at least one other on an emergency shutdown when they lost 1700 MW of wind power abruptly. You would think they would have learned their lesson.
This article got me to check the New England ISO web site and its charts. All renewables now only 6% of total power. Wind and solar each make up only 3% of the renewables. It’s supposed to be a stormy day- but so far, as of 1:20 in the afternoon, I see no storm here in Mass. I can only imagine how poor wind and solar will do in a real winter storm.
I couldn’t upload 2 images- so here’s the breakdown of fuel sources for New England electric power.
Right- that’s what I meant to say- so wind and solar made up .036 of the total. These figures change every day of course but wind and solar never make up much despite billions spent here on them.
Having lived in New England for most of my life, wind is not a reliable energy source at any time of year, and solar is pretty useless in the winter with the sun low in the sky and only up about 1/3 of the time.
And it doesn’t help when the solar panels are covered with snow, or the sun is behind the mountains.
You would also know that in New England there are still a lot of places heated with fuel oil and so New Englanders will be hit with the double whammy of spiking gas and home heating prices,
Who didn’t see this coming?
Skeptics have warned for years that this would happen.
Only gullible believers were fooled by the global warmunists. The big question is, will they learn from this?
Probably not.
“probably not” I suspect you are right they’ll invent an excuse,freak weather anomaly and some how it’s still our fault.
Some years ago over at Climate Etc I posted a correct recalculation of the EIA’s on shore wind LCOE. ‘True Cost of Wind’. EIA had made several obvious errors, such as all lifetimes being 30 years when CCGT is guaranteed for 40 and wind barely makes 20. Used the ERCOT grid for actual extra transmission costs; EIA was off by half. Turns out CCGT LCOE is about $68/MWh while wind is about $146/MWh; EIA had them at near parity in the $90s/MWh. A really bad deal for Texas even before this calamity.
Hi Rud, do you think it might move your way. I have to settle a score since my Canadian snowbird sibling, at this moment on the FL’s beach, has a good laugh every time I mentioned the unusually cold weather we had here in the UK.
We are going to dodge the cold bullet. The storm/cold drift is to the northeast. Here in Fort Lauderdale on the beach it is presently 82F and sunny.
I was hoping for a bit of snow, so no golf in the morning or beach in the afternoon. at least for a day or two.
Rud, I ran similar checks on the EIA’s LCOE. Reached just about the same conclusions. They also overstated wind’s capacity factor, claiming 40% when overall real-world operating data was at 25% or less. After we build out the best sites, reliability will worsen.
That is part of Germany’s problem. Look at a wind resource map of Germany, and you wonder what fools ever thought wind power was a good idea there.
A private monitoring exercise of published wind turbine sites in Australia resulted in a Capacity Factor under 30 per cent, the market operator website claims 30-35 per cent.
If you don’t adjust for intermittency, wind has a pretty good EROEI. If it matters when you get electricity, that requires buffering and wind’s EROEI becomes literally unsustainable.
Wind power advocates can post some attractive sounding numbers but they ignore intermittency, and that matters hugely.
This is the Tet Offensive of the Climate War. The offensive may pass, but the political fallout for Pres. Lyndon Biden will be a crisis.
I think you mean President Xi-den.
Bribem.
Walter Cronkite got on the air and characterized that battle as a big loss for the US when actually it was a big win that nearly destroyed the Viet Cong. It was a defining moment at the time that boosted the anti-war and anti-warrior campaign so that it expanded beyond academia and the students into a significant portion of mainstream America.
As for LBJ this former SF soldier hopes he and McNamara and the rest of his “Whiz Kids” are burning in Hell.
Too true, rah! One of the first instances of the Communist Propaganda Ministry blatantly lying to the American public! Nowadays that has become business as usual!
Thank you, for your service, and I was wondering if you ever read Lt. Gen. Hal Moore’s book?
Nope. But though I was not old enough to serve at that time, I was old enough to watch it on TV and get a whiff of what was really going on. I have been reading and studying about war since about the time I was able to read.
Then I served with plenty of Vietnam vets. My last team Sgt, in SF was Corky Shelton, bless his soul, two tours Vietnam SF, DSC. He spent 3 months in Walter Reed due to a rather rare type of liver fluke, that he was infected with when snooping and pooping in N. Vietnam. He told me that he always watched and listened to “the little people” meaning the Montagnards he was working with, and that was the key to his survival.
He was also in the other C-130 that wasn’t hit by the chopper at Desert One, and would have been going into the city to get hostages had the mission not been scrubbed.
Corky is gone now, but he and so many others should never be forgotten. I had the honor of serving with some of the highest quality men this country can produce. Quite simply as stated by the 10th Special Forces Group, “The Best”.
Why didn’t electricity shortage happen in Germany during cold snap, or did it?
Germany and the whole EU narrowly avoided massive blackouts last month, and face the same problems again now. But their grid is more extensive than in TX.
“U.S. senators prod Biden administration on Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-senate-nord-stream-2-idUSKBN2AC2L2
but Germany is sticking with it according to Angela Merkel.
Your talking about a country that is barely half the size of Texas having a population about two thirds greater than Texas. A lot less distribution problems. Population density may seem to be a factor that would produce more problems but in fact it makes transmission and managing a grid easier in such situations.
My question is, what would happen if Putin turned off the NG tap during a winter such as what Europe has been having this year?
Putin would run out of ‘good’ money.
Happening now: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/07/winter-storm-threatens-germanys-powerfreezing-hell-threatens-if-already-rickety-grid-collapses/
Because Germany can import hydro from Norway when needed. ERCOT is pretty much a stand alone grid just within Texas.
Germany buys electricity from coal fired power stations in Poland and French nuclear power stations as well.
And are constructing a gas pipeline to Russia as quickly as they can.
Wind revolution failing.
Clearly they didn’t build in enough wind farms, so the solution is to build more Wind Farms.
I wonder if there is permanent damage to the air foils now.
they should just add solar panels to the windmill blades, generator housing, and south side of the tower (both sides of the tower for those that really want to show their environmental zeal)
Interesting article: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/helicopter-de-icing-for-wind-turbines/
The story (with a ludicrous photo) made it here too.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/01/23/saturday-silliness-wind-turbine-photo-of-the-year/
Every, the conglomerate utility in eastern Kansas and western Missouri, has just announced rolling planned outages due to insufficient generation. The Wind Exchange says 41.5 % of their available generation is wind, and 34% is coal. I guess we are in for it. Minus 2 degrees here (eastern Kansas) with snow..
CNN Head line News has this video
Winter storms hammer Texas leaving millions without power 1:43
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/snow-ice-storms-updates-02-15-21/index.html
No mention of frozen wind mills.
On edit and after a VERY short Google search on “Frozen Wind Turbines Texas” it isn’t like CNN hasn’t heard the news, they just didn’t include it in their 1:43 video
There’s one part of this I’m not clear on: does this reflect consumer pricing? That is, are the customers who are using electricity right now going to be hit with this bill? If not, then who pays it?
Or is this speculative stock pricing?
Hoping someone can help me understand better.
Consumers bear the price indirectly. Their rates are generally set and so they face limited exposure to spikes. Instead these regular (but normally in the summer) spikes are added into the rate and averaged out over time.
This particular series of outages is probably due to overloading lines by rerouting power. I may be wrong (since I’m just guessing), but that’s what it looks like.
Demand is high, lines down from ice, power is rerouted, lines overloaded. Overall power below its alltime peaks, but higher than individual lines can handle. Even if more power were available that wouldn’t fix the problem of getting it where it needs to be.
In summer the demand spikes above 72GW with effectively no expected contribution from wind. Wind may be frozen, but that isn’t the problem.
Also, $9,000/MWh isn’t unheard of. If happens every couple of years. That’s the point of their market structure. Those few hours every couple of years is what everyone banks on. Its how simple cycle turbines (and coal for that matter) stay in business.
Not a word about this having to do with wind power but I KNEW if I came here I would find that it was. Thank you Anthony and crew for providing the truth to those that seek it.
Wow. Scary situation. So many people are forced to entrust ‘choices’ to the government that most citizens would not make.
This CNN story:
Power outages caused by winter storm force rolling blackouts across Texas
has 967 words and “wind turbine appears once at word #835
CNN sucks.
CNN has completely ignored the growing scandal around Gov. Cuomo as well as the scandal that has shut down the Lincoln Project.
CNN has a long history of ignoring any bad news that impacts their co-religionists, and making up bad news about their enemies.
Let’s not forget the part that CNN and the other Lame Stream urinalists played in getting HCQ and other inexpensive drugs suppressed from WHO Flu treatment! The AMA quietly reversed their stance against HCQ a few weeks after the election got stolen, and it only cost the US an extra 200,000-250,000 lives! What a deal!
The propaganda media is doing their best to cover for Cuomo, but it looks like the tide is turning hard against him and they are going to lose. Even the speaker of the NY House has called for an investigation and other members of the state legislatures calling for him to step down, or to pass a law for a recall. I would like to say that Cuomo’s presidential aspirations are in the toilet, but we’re dealing with a party that nominated for president a known drunk that killed a woman.