Rolling blackouts in Texas

174,196 Views | 1588 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Whitetail
gonemaroon
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One step further is that all of the retail energy providers sell us $50-100MW power and we with this gas price explosion of Waha and Henry going to $300 it was going to cost the big guys NRG and Vistra / everyone else let's call it $3000 to generate power that they sold to us way below that. 5000MW of load at $9K for a day or so is over a billion dollar loss. The market saving losses well over a billion by having the lights off on everyone.

Chew on that
Premium
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Hopefully they count our 6+ hours of power towards our blackout time and give us a break without rolling a blackout on top of it
DallasAg 94
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azul_rain
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San Antonio is reporting most of the blackouts on the northside, I wonder why that demographic is targeted and not the West, south or east side
agsalaska
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BenFiasco14 said:

#BidensBlackouts
I prefer calling them 'Greenouts.'
The Debt
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hedge said:

San Antonio is reporting most of the blackouts on the northside, I wonder why that demographic is targeted and not the West, south or east side
cut off the delinquent electric Bill's first?
DallasAg 94
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azul_rain
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The northside is the wealthier side of town
TravelAg2004
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For those of you who have a much better grasp on what happened, what's the plan forward?

Do we just operate at lower power until the freeze is over and demand subsides? Or is there away for power plants to come back online in a short amount of time?
oldschoolcat
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So are the rolling blackouts due to limited capacity, or are they due to exceeding some kind of EPA air quality standard to meet demand?
YouBet
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TravelAg2004 said:

For those of you who have a much better grasp on what happened, what's the plan forward?

Do we just operate at lower power until the freeze is over and demand subsides? Or is there away for power plants to come back online in a short amount of time?


Plan forward for me is that the big dog gets eaten first because I like him much less than our Boston Terrier. Things will start looking up at that point.
The Debt
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hedge said:

The northside is the wealthier side of town
I see
Aggie_2463
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Power prices have dropped considerably since the green wave of solar and wind has come into play the last several years and with that companies were forced to close down coal / gas plants due to economic feasibility and also EPA regulations.

Companies have had to make that decision to survive in the economic climate and under epa regulations. Now the ugly truth has finally appeared that the wind / solar can't support us. We need coal and gas. Also, the point about these outages taking place in the winter... it's called forced outages. Nobody "plans" to take an outage in the dead of winter unless there are certain circumstances. Sometimes the failure of equipment and maintenance needed dictates that. Trust me when I say we'd like to do outages all in spring or fall and never have forced outages. I'm in outage mgmt so I know.

I personally just hope this is a wake up call to the government, and the green new deal folks.
Pasquale Liucci
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You called it
azul_rain
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Haven't had power since 2am
you may all go to hell and i will go to Texas
agmom95
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I live in Steiner Ranch is Austin and we have not lost power yet due to rolling blackouts. It was noted on our local news that Steiner, Westlake and Other areas west of town are somehow not having blackouts, yet east Austin has had up to 6 hours of no electricity or gas. Interesting.
Aggie_2463
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Another thing is the fact it's a mofo to keep these plants going in ten degree weather

There's fuel issues, freezing thermocouples, water lines, etc etc. I would expect statewide plants are running derated with these issues.
ttu_85
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Ag with kids said:

eric76 said:

V8Aggie said:

I don't get it. I've lived in over 20 homes and they all had gas heaters. Am I missing something? I mean everyone's AC runs off electricity so even if half of us gave electric furnaces how are we going to put a dent in the grid?
Instead of AC, I like evaporative coolers.



Of course, it helps if you live in a dry climate. Those would be pretty miserable for residential purposes in Houston.

They are used in some cases in air conditioners in very large buildings. They do that by using a desiccant to absorb the moisture from the air and then gas flame to heat the desiccant to get rid of the moisture.
When I lived in Las Cruces, everyone had swamp coolers. They're really great in the dry desert air.

But, you get just a tiny bit of humidity and you are ****ing miserable...

They're basically a non-starter for anyone in Texas east of a line from Wichita Falls, to Abilene, to Del Rio...

Yep.
Even Midland Odessa and Lubbock in May and June and July if dew points > 60. Which they do.

If you are behind, west of, the dry line swamp coolers work if not they dont. The dry line activity is variable from year to year.
YouBet
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agmom95 said:

I live in Steiner Ranch is Austin and we have not lost power yet due to rolling blackouts. It was noted on our local news that Steiner, Westlake and Other areas west of town are somehow not having blackouts, yet east Austin has had up to 6 hours of no electricity or gas. Interesting.


Enjoy your white privilege!
ttu_85
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agmom95 said:

I live in Steiner Ranch is Austin and we have not lost power yet due to rolling blackouts. It was noted on our local news that Steiner, Westlake and Other areas west of town are somehow not having blackouts, yet east Austin has had up to 6 hours of no electricity or gas. Interesting.
Lord I'd shoot myself if I had to drive 620 everyday.Rolling blackouts minor in comparison. Thoughts and prayers.

Your post is implying something. Maybe its something as simple as a different power provider. PEC is common in Western Travis Co.Not so much toward the east.

Interesting
titan
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S
gonemaroon said:

One step further is that all of the retail energy providers sell us $50-100MW power and we with this gas price explosion of Waha and Henry going to $300 it was going to cost the big guys NRG and Vistra / everyone else let's call it $3000 to generate power that they sold to us way below that. 5000MW of load at $9K for a day or so is over a billion dollar loss. The market saving losses well over a billion by having the lights off on everyone.

Chew on that
gonemaroon,

Is there a way to know the times and durations of a rolling blackout? If something is deliberate, it should be possible to plan them. The way a vessel under damage control cuts power selectively but is very aware which parts is doing it for as it does and when.

Is there some url to check likely durations and where or do they not even do that?

FrioAg 00:
Leftist Democrats "have completely overplayed the Racism accusation. Honestly my first reaction when I hear it today is to assume bad intentions by the accuser, not the accused."
DallasAg 94
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agmom95
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We are Austin Energy. But yes, some area are PEC. I just commented based on all of the crazy assumptions on KXAN's Twitter. Everyone is assuming they are doing it on purpose since ERCOT gives authority to energy companies how rollouts are done?
agmom95
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Yes, 620 has been great since COVID. If we had somewhere else to go, we'd sell right now. Have property northwest of Temple, but are only about 8 years from retirement and only plan on being there part time. Would love to go to CStat.
Big Al 1992
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SATX_BQ98
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North San antonio is the wealthier side of town. We have been without power here since 130a. At first, thought it was a blackout. Then never came back on.
Ag In Ok
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How long is the recovery window?
titan
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SATX_BQ98 said:

North San antonio is the wealthier side of town. We have been without power here since 130a. At first, thought it was a blackout. Then never came back on.
There have been enough posts on the thread to make clear it is not the media's boogeyman of class involved--it sounds like it is indeed due to plants and sources being needless damaged or shut down from mis-management over the weekend.
FrioAg 00:
Leftist Democrats "have completely overplayed the Racism accusation. Honestly my first reaction when I hear it today is to assume bad intentions by the accuser, not the accused."
azul_rain
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Absolute bull****
you may all go to hell and i will go to Texas
richardag
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Albatross Necklace said:

richardag said:

45-70Ag said:


WTF
If I'm reading this correct, the DOE prohibited ERCOT from using resources unless they declared EEA3 (and thereby instituted rolling blackouts)


Thanks for the response.
Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787
Point Man 81
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Quote:

North San Antonio is the wealthier side of town. We have been without power here since 130a. At first, thought it was a blackout. Then never came back on.
And the area that likely voted for Trump. The Castro bros. would like nothing more than to eff u guys. If you don't think this is political, then take another look at the map of blackouts.
richardag
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Aggie_2463 said:

Power prices have dropped considerably since the green wave of solar and wind has come into play the last several years and with that companies were forced to close down coal / gas plants due to economic feasibility and also EPA regulations.

Companies have had to make that decision to survive in the economic climate and under epa regulations. Now the ugly truth has finally appeared that the wind / solar can't support us. We need coal and gas. Also, the point about these outages taking place in the winter... it's called forced outages. Nobody "plans" to take an outage in the dead of winter unless there are certain circumstances. Sometimes the failure of equipment and maintenance needed dictates that. Trust me when I say we'd like to do outages all in spring or fall and never have forced outages. I'm in outage mgmt so I know.

I personally just hope this is a wake up call to the government, and the green new deal folks.
Appreciate the insight.
Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787
Ags77
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We had a 30 minute blackout yesterday morning. None since. Fingers crossed.
Gigem
titan
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They really should work on a way to inform whether a blackout is due to a load management switch and power will be back on fairly soon, or due to downed lines or damage. Its easier to wait if you have a time you know and whether it makes sense to take additional measures or even leave.
FrioAg 00:
Leftist Democrats "have completely overplayed the Racism accusation. Honestly my first reaction when I hear it today is to assume bad intentions by the accuser, not the accused."
TommyBrady
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I work at luminant. If the government would have subsidized us like wind and solar everybody would have power rn and we would be burning clean lignite coal to make sure nobody had to freeze. **** anybody who doesn't get that the renewables can never be trusted in times of crisis to provide a base load power.
 
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