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Page added on February 17, 2021

What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

Millions of Texans were without heat and electricity Monday as snow, ice and frigid temperatures caused a catastrophic failure of the state’s power grid.

The Texas power grid, powered largely by wind and natural gas, is relatively well equipped to handle the state’s hot and humid summers when demand for power soars. But unlike blistering summers, the severe winter weather delivered a crippling blow to power production, cutting supplies as the falling temperatures increased demand.

Natural gas shortages and frozen wind turbines were already curtailing power output when the Arctic blast began knocking generators offline early Monday morning.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which is responsible for scheduling power and ensuring the reliability of the electrical network, declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency and asked electricity delivery companies to reduce load through controlled outages.

More than 4 million customers were without power in Texas, including 1.4 million in the Houston area, the worst power crisis in the state in a decade. The forced outages are expected to last at least through part of Tuesday, the state grid manager said.

CenterPoint Energy, the regulated utility that delivers electricity to Houston-area homes and provides natural gas service, started rolling blackouts in the Houston region at the order of state power regulators. It said customers experiencing outages should be prepared to be without power at least through Monday.

“How long is it going to be? I don’t know the answer,” said Kenny Mercado, executive vice president at the Houston utility. “The generators are doing everything they can to get back on. But their work takes time and I don’t know how long it will take. But for us to move forward, we have got to get generation back onto the grid. That is our primary need.”

Video: Houston Chronicle Photo Staff

Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, said the rolling blackouts are taking more power offline for longer periods than ever before. An estimated 34,000 megawatts of power generation — more than a third of the system’s total generating capacity — had been knocked offline by the extreme winter weather amid soaring demand as residents crank up heating systems.

The U.S. Energy Department, in response to an ERCOT request, issued an order late Monday authorizing power plants throughout the state to run at maximum output levels, even if it results in exceeding pollution limits.

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures on the state’s deregulated power system, which doesn’t provide power generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and improving power plants.

“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.

“For more than a decade, generators have not been able to charge what it costs them to produce electricity,” said Hirs. “If you don’t make a return on your money, how can you keep it up? It’s like not taking care of your car. If you don’t change the oil and tires, you can’t expect your car to be ready to evacuate, let alone get you to work.”

Woodfin said ERCOT and generators followed best practices for winterization, but the severity of the weather was unprecedented — “well beyond the design parameters of an extreme Texas winter.”

The hit to power generation came as frigid weather froze wind turbines and forced outages among natural gas and other power plants. Most of the power knocked offline came from thermal sources, Woodfin said, particularly natural gas.

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.

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and natural gas in the state, said Monday afternoon that some producers, especially in the Permian Basin and Panhandle, were experiencing unprecedented freezing conditions, causing concern for employee safety and affecting production.

As part of its statewide response, the commissioners issued an emergency order on Friday evening to manage shortages of natural gas, requiring gas to first be delivered to residences, hospitals, schools, churches and other locations that meet human needs, then to power plants and then to industrial users.

The RRC also issued a notice asking oil and gas operators to monitor and maintain operations as safety permits.

ERCOT and utility officials called on Texans to do as much as they can to conserve energy.

“Every single watt of savings is one watt that we don’t have to go take out at somebody’s house,” Mercado said. “For those who still have power, whether it is commercial, a school, residential, if they can bring their demand for electricity down, that would help us. That is what we need for the rest of today. I want to emphasize this.”

With demand high and supplies short, wholesale electricity prices have spiked, and because of the nature of electric power contracts, those increases may be felt by consumers well after the region has thawed. Wholesale electricity sold are near the $9,000-per-megawatt hour maximum in power markets across the state Monday as the system struggled to meet demand, according to ERCOT.

The system hit a new record early Monday morning of more than 69,000 megawatt hours, well above the previous winter record of about 66,000 megawatt hours set in 2018.

ERCOT entered emergency conditions and initiated rotating outages at 1:25 a.m. Monday. As the regulator calls for reductions in demand, each supplier is responsible for reducing its share of the gap by its share of the market. In the case of CenterPoint, that’s about 25 percent, ERCOT’s Woodfin said.

Oncor, which serves the Dallas area and beyond, is responsible for 36 percent.

Rotating outages could be initiated until this weather emergency ends, with Monday and Tuesday mornings at the highest risk periods for rlling blackouts, Mayor Sylvester Turner said. Blackouts could last between 15 minutes and an hour and could happen more than once.

“These are not rolling blackouts. We are dealing with system-wide power outages across the state,” Turner tweeted at 8:11 a.m.

Downed power lines caused by icing could keep some customers in the cold and dark for an extended time.

Hirs said Houston residents can expect more power outages in the future.

“The year 2011 was a miserable cold snap and there were blackouts,” said Hirs. “It happened before and will continue to happen until Texas restructures its electricity market.”

Chron

72 Comments on "What went wrong with the Texas power grid?"

Cloggie on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 8:56 am

The event makes a strong case for centralized rationing of energy for emergencies like this, or supply dips, to be expected in a 100% renewable energy future.

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 10:21 am

Newfie » Wed 17 Feb 2021, 09:35:18
Starving,

It might be a good time to chill a bit.

A thread kind of looses its meaning when you become the only one posting.

Let others have some room here please.

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Peakoil.com is a really lame website, You have about 5 contributors on this web site, and you still find a way to shit on them. I guess you want to go bankrupt. THe only reason I am commenting on this shit website is because of StarvingLion. He goes I go.

The_Forbin_Project on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 12:16 pm

“The system hit a new record early Monday morning of more than 69,000 megawatt hours, well above the previous winter record of about 66,000 megawatt hours set in 2018.”

so another 4.5% broke the system, from an engineering point of view this is unforgivable but this is politics playing around.

The_Forbin_Project on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 12:23 pm

Texas is not alone in betting on fickle wind power,

The highest delivered power of the installed fleet was 13.564Gw out of 22Gw installed capacity

13.564/22 = 0.6255 or 62.55 say 63%

this means the peak GW power during any one hour of the year will be

current fleet = 13.855
proposed fleet 40 x 0.63 = 25.200
combined = 39.955 GW delivered

And the minimun figure is

current fleet = 0.095 ( /22 = 0.432% )
proposed fleet 40 x 0.00432 = 0.173
combined = 0.268 GW delivered

Typically lower delivered power is in the winter , so can be peak. Wild fluctuations are smoothed by coal and gas. but coal is to be phased out and gas genration max capacity is approx 25GW

Greens also what to remov nukes , another 5/6GW and Biomass , another 2.5GW.

The UK will end up like Texas in the winter, summer is always easy for green power – low demand helps.

Forbin

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 1:06 pm

You know what good will come out of the collapse. Bullshit institution like UN will finally die and parasites like the guy on the video will have to survive on their own. Parasites like him only survive because they steal labor and skills of other people. Same applied to Klaus Schwas of the world garbage forum. Same applied to career politicians biggest parasites of it all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27XKf1ABdNc

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 3:11 pm

StarvingLion » Wed 17 Feb 2021, 16:37:01
THE DEGENERATE LOWLIFE NAMED OUTCAST_SEARCHERS ZERO JUST SAID THIS:

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People have completely lost touch with reality. My feeling is they know the collapse is coming and they know, they don’t have any real life practicals. They know they will be the first ones to die. So they panic and you see all kind of irrational behavior.

Still amazing after all this time, that not one nation is the world have told its citizens about peak oil and try to work with them. No one nation. Politicians are the same, stupid useless worthless pieces of shit that are just there for fame, money, power. All useless pieces of shit, this is why I want a collapse, nature will take of these useless politicians

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 3:19 pm

To finish my comments, all these stupid useless politicians worldwide are waiting for a savior. Of course they will also be there to take credit for them self the work that this savior will do for them. Seen it to many. All garbgage trash politicians are, all of them

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 4:46 pm

StarvingLion » Wed 17 Feb 2021, 18:27:18
They are NOW HACKING ACCOUNTS.

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You always have interesting info sir

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 5:00 pm

Canadian Citizenship Test 2021 (414 Questions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It2B2JO4I1o

Fuck Canada is such a loser nation. Sucking immigrants dick days in and days out

rockman on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 5:31 pm

I could offer a lot of detailed explanations. But I won’t. Not complicated but so many “moving parts” it would probably take a couple of thousand words. Shot answer: given the weather conditions the power grid functioned EXACTLY as it should have.

Unfortunately.

FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 8:09 pm

How one Texas storm exposed an energy grid unprepared for climate change

https://desdemonadespair.net/2021/02/how-one-texas-storm-exposed-an-energy-grid-unprepared-for-climate-change.html

Good

All my favourite texx-ass climate deniers are dead climate deniers.

The future looks bright.

FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 9:39 pm

Nearly 12 million Texans now face water disruptions. The state is asking residents to stop dripping taps.

After enduring multiple days of freezing temperatures and Texans dripping faucets to prevent frozen pipes from bursting, cities across the state warned Wednesday that water levels are dangerously low, and it may be unsafe to drink.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/texas-water-boil-notices/

If Trump was allowed to tweet he’d tell the good folks of Texas that climate change is a hoax & not to worry because his kike daughter, kike son in law & his 3 grand-kikes are all safe & warm at the billionaire villa….Oh & Trump says he needs more donations to MAGA…;) so skip the Texas Freeze relief fund & send it to him instead.

When the infrastructure is totally smashed to shit from ever more destructive AGW Jacked events (and 50 years of infrastructure maintenance deferral), Trump & the rest of the US billionaires & elite – ‘The Big Club’ will be long gone & residing in any one of a number of still functioning societies. Trump will most likely move himself & his all Kike family to Israel.

I don’t think Trump likes America or Americans. Especially American women (except porn stars).

Why else would Billionaire Trump pass over tens of millions of fine healthy eligible American women to marry a foreigner, not once, not twice, but 3 times? And breed with them too, then proudly bless your daughter’s conversion & marriage into the Jew tribe & cheer like gangbusters when she shits out 3 little mud-blood grand-kikes? The very second she shat the first one out Trump did a fist pump & yelled, “YES I’M IN”. In the Jew tribe. By conversion, by marriage & by blood. A high price, but it is the world’s most exclusive & powerful tribe after all.

Holy Fuck, that’s got to be the loudest, anti American, unpatriotic IN-YOUR-FACE gesture in US history…….and you fools never even noticed.

https://youtu.be/Nyvxt1svxso

FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 10:30 pm

Even the propaganda is bigger in Texas…and none too subtle.

Rick Perry says Texans would choose to be without power for longer ‘to keep government out of their business’

The former governor’s made the comments as 2.7m Texans are without power

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rick-perry-texas-electricity-winter-storm-b1803820.html

Did you ask them Prick Perry or just make that shit up?

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says grandparents are willing to die to save economy for their grandkids

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-says-grandparents-are-willing-to-die-to-save-economy-for-their-grandkids-2020-03-23

IOW DIE for BAU, IOW DIE for the rich. Die for a system that abandoned you & yours decades ago.

And the notion that Boomer grandparents, the most spoiled & entitled generation in human history, would be willing to sacrifice anything for anyone is beyond absurd. Why would they care? Their cheques are still coming in like clockwork every month. It’s their kids & grandkids who are dying deaths of despair & long before Covid. Hell ya that system is so worth saving say the kids. Today’s youth are totally looking forward to that catastrophic runaway climate change, mass extinction & unprecedented, once in a species, global Overshoot/Limits to Growth y’all Boomers left them while putting in zero effort to change.

If Boomers really want to sacrifice for their grandkids they need to sign everything over to them then shoot themselves in the fucking head…..or better yet OD on fentanyl just like the younger generations are doing in droves. More every year. That’s their answer to the world you’ve left them… grandpa.

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 10:39 pm

The ugliness of repugnant bitch Harris is really something. Total ugliness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSOkyNVyQHA

I heard she is not even good at sucking dick.

Theedrich on Wed, 17th Feb 2021 11:33 pm

Look at the bright side: thousands of infesting Spics may freeze in TX.

Cloggie on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 1:25 am

There are bright sides indeed, namely that we are confronted with the fact that you can’t take power supply for granted.

Main cause: freezing of essential parts, both with gas and renewable infrastructure, but mostly gas PLUS over-demand.

Takeaway point-1: you can’t do anything against black swan events like these, just sit it out, in a couple of days the weather will be better and things get restored to normal again. Go to bed with a book and keep yourself warm under the blankets.

Takeaway point-2: we need a new generation of smart meters that not only can read electricity and gas consumption remotely, but are also able to ration gas and electricity remotely and use text messages to inform consumers about impending shortages.

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 8:12 am

This is really important to me retard Legume. I still want justice for the illegal spying done on me form you TrudDope. You could resign and guidoune Guibault could also resign. There must be a paper trace. SO I can get this shit going, fucking piece of human trash.

I would like to know this morning retard Legume, how many negros dicks did you suck before going into office.

I would like to know how many negros asshole guidoune Guilbault as clean up with her mouth before going into office. Go back later for more insult, mon christ de tabercale de calisse. The law just apply to man like me, not to you retard Legume.

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 8:14 am

Have you seen the price of gasoline this morming retard legume. 1.26$. Wow retard legume how long before we have shortage of gasoline and diesel in the lame shitty dog shit province that is Quebec. Whats a fucking loser nation Canada is. Canada where women right are more important then men rights. Mes christ d’enfants chiennes de politicians canadiens a merdre

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 8:24 am

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole discusses party’s opposition day motion – February 18, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b_y5jb6uuw

Eing O’Stoole is talking bullshit. Typical piece of dog shit politicians. All the same, these fucking losers are

Canada the land of loser, feminine man, brown shit diversity, corrupt man like retard Legume and so on. Land of losers and mental retards.

Cloggie on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 9:54 am

Renewable energy in the US latest: one of the most prominent renewable tech media outlets, Green Tech Media, is closing shop:

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/02/18/a-top-cleantechnica-competitor-to-close-down-why/

“”A Top CleanTechnica Competitor To Close Down … Why?

Nobody understands, one month after the regime change in the US, that should at least be positive for renewables.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 10:42 am

Ugly negro are too stupid. They should not be allowed to speak on media. Look at this stupid negro bitch. Negro need to understand that we have been tolerant with them but we are getting fed up with their bullshit and manipulations tricks using shame and the good nature of whites. Same applied to the Jews that took control of a big part of the US political system and financial system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQrMbLUFWJ4

IForgotThis on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 10:43 am

I forget to includ this following in my comments above about the useless negro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQrMbLUFWJ4

Cloggie on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 10:48 am

For the first time in my life I looked up the weather forecast for Dallas (temp in Celsius)

th -4 to 0
fr -11 to 0
sa -7 to 7
su 4-13
…
we 12 to 24 (!)

By Wednesday, it is time for the beach (in February!)

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 11:16 am

Look at these cock suckers in Japan United by Emotion. That what happen when you have a society governed by feminine man like TurdDope, retard Legumen and by women like guidoune Guibault, repugnant bitch Harris, and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3fKFKaZt7M

Jump to 1:36

My solution to this, is still the same, crash Western civilization to the ground and let Nature take care of feminine man, useless women in position of leadership, people with no real life practical skill

FuckQuebecCanadaUSTrumpUSMilitaryForSpyingOnMe on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 11:20 am

Federal Justice Minister David Lametti holds a news conference on Parliament Hill to discuss details of the federal government’s new legislation (C-22) aimed at addressing the over-representation of Black Canadians and Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system. He is joined by ministers Bill Blair (public safety), Bardish Chagger (diversity and inclusion and youth) and Ahmed Hussen (families, children and social development).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyz3YjO_4fU

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This is Canada sucking the negro and indian asshole days in and days out. No hope for this stupid dumb ass nation. Enhoy dying stupid piece of shit.

YouWantsChaosAndDeathYouWillGetIt on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 11:40 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyz3YjO_4fU

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This is Canada sucking the negro and indian asshole days in and days out. No hope for this stupid dumb ass nation. Enhoy dying stupid piece of shit.

If these fucking reforms are good for negros and Indians they are also good for Whites people. it is called equality and justice. You fucking piece of shit garbage politician reserved what is coming your way. You ask for it you will get it.

OkFuckerYouSeeYouWantToPissMeOff on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 11:49 am

Again TrudDope is shitting on Whites people days in and days out. You ask for it, I will deliver to you on a golden plate death, destruction and chaos.

FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 11:52 am

Words are not much. The data tells us which countries are fast becoming shit-hole banana republics.

US life expectancy drops a year in pandemic, most since WWII

https://apnews.com/article/us-life-expectancy-huge-decline-f4caaf4555563d09e927f1798136a869

OkFuckerYouWantToPissMeOffPrepareForChaosAndDeath on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 11:53 am

I want to know Canada, we have two justice system, one for the fucking negro an Indians and one for the Whites. DO I get this right. I really want Canada to die and burn to the ground. It is the only way to go forward.

FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 12:07 pm

Photos from around the world show cities hit by record-setting snowstorms

“From Tennessee to Athens, Greece, already freezing temperatures have plunged further this week as the polar vortex envelopes the northern hemisphere.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/539020-photos-from-around-the-world-show-how-cities-have-been-hit-by-record-setting

In a few months it’ll be heatwaves. If/when the grid goes down during a heatwave the dead deniers will be dying in the thousands & tens of thousands, like France in 2003 & Russia in 2010.

Dead climate deniers are my favourite climate deniers.

I looked at the temperature & snowfall numbers for Texas – that’s winter picnic weather here in Canada. What fragile pussies Americans have become.

FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 12:22 pm

Learning about the physics killing climate deniers is fun.

How the Warming Arctic Helped Drive a Deep Freeze Into Texas

https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/how-the-warming-arctic-helped-drive-a-deep-freeze-into-texas

FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 12:28 pm

Love them knock on effects.

Texas power outages force chipmakers to halt production

“Business is also feeling the bite from the Texas winter storm, with a number of chipmakers forced to suspend production.

Why it matters: Even a brief shutdown of chip production in Texas could exacerbate the global chip shortage that’s already reducing production of everything from cars to computers.”

https://www.axios.com/texas-winter-storm-chipmakers-nxp-samsung-48c0f85f-7159-4c26-a5bc-bfae48ee23e7.html

FuckingRetardGaslineShortageComingInQuebec on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 1:23 pm

Look at that this , two corrupt politicians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SeRGXohKBk

Retard Legume is the old guard. No idea how the world workd, still think everythinbg is financialk montage.

FuckingLosers on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 1:30 pm

Listen to this imbelice of legault and Fitzgibbon. Two fucking useless bussn ess leader that don’T understat the the old world is death. This is how great civlisatin ends with loser like them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SeRGXohKBk

ThereIsNoOtherWay on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 1:34 pm

There is no other way, politicans don’t get it, they are too stupid. we have to crash this to the ground and let nature clean it up. There is no other way

rockman on Thu, 18th Feb 2021 1:52 pm

Here’s a partial explanation. But there ae many physical problems that are not covered. Here’s one of the big questions: winterizing the power plants. Easy: up north many of the power plants are in buildings heated by the natural output of the plant…IOW free heat. Try that in Texas then during summer and much of the electricity would run ac’s to keep the plant from burning up when temps hit 95F+.