Rolling blackouts in Texas

173,452 Views | 1588 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Whitetail
gonemaroon
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Right, and they have 5700MW of excess right now so they could at least turn on 3000MW or even 4000MW and have tons of buffer / and they can always just trip the load again if need be.
XXXVII
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Zobel said:

That's not how it works. It doesn't go on and off in a second. A MW is a MW. They need to be doing everything they can to get power to homes within the confines of preventing another low frequency trip event.


I understand this. Do you know why they still haven't increased the load beyond about 45,000 MW yet? I have a feeling they are too nervous about something big instantly tripping right now.
Charpie
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Parts of Austin are coming back online
thriller03
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I think they are slowly starting to roll neighborhoods in north DFW. I am in Sachse and our neighborhood hadn't been rolled off at all, but parts are starting to see hour on/fifteen minutes off based on social media. ONCOR has been saying parts of the T&D grid faced instability during rolling until more generation came on. Maybe it's getting there.
BurnetAggie99
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We will bring 16 circuits back on but will see how long Ercot lets us keep them on. Also got some ice related outages as well.
Zobel
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When power was out at my place for 32 hrs and my home was getting real freakin cold I was happy to get power back for an hour. Yes. Get people power. Literally lives on the line.
45-70Ag
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Just went to our house between Waco and mcgregor, been staying with some friends. Currently 48 in the house and got every faucet running but no power still. Going on 60 hours.
aginlakeway
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Charpie said:

gonemaroon said:

They could be rolling folks on the grid right now for several hours why they have the generation -

This is straight ****ing bull****
Agreed.

This is from Austin Energy



Quote:

Austin Energy hasn't been rotating outages because the demand for load shedding from ERCOT was so high that it required Austin Energy to drop every piece of the grid not servicing emergency services (hospitals, police, fire, etc.).

ERCOT is currently telling Austin Energy that they expect the power emergency to extend as far as Tuesday.



We were off 49 hours, on 8 hours, off 1 hour, and now back on.
"I'm sure that won't make a bit of difference for those of you who enjoy a baseless rage over the decisions of a few teenagers."
aginlakeway
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45-70Ag said:

Just went to our house between Waco and mcgregor, been staying with some friends. Currently 48 in the house and got every faucet running but no power still. Going on 60 hours.

That is a HUGE win there. And maybe more important than the power as far as preventing breaks.
"I'm sure that won't make a bit of difference for those of you who enjoy a baseless rage over the decisions of a few teenagers."
Whitetail
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Smart meters...If 10,000 people on a grid were judged as who used the most to who used the least...and say each were given a score 1-10...could the utility turn off all the 9's and 10's by meter?

That would be one way to do it where the least number of homes are affected.
htxag09
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True, and maybe that would alleviate the situation I'm in from the start. But would I be judged as a 10 since I have a dozen additional people in my house right now?
45-70Ag
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They've been running since Sunday afternoon. I didn't just drip them but basically opened them up.
Ag In Ok
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Charpie said:

gonemaroon said:

They could be rolling folks on the grid right now for several hours why they have the generation -

This is straight ****ing bull****
Agreed.

This is from Austin Energy



Quote:

Austin Energy hasn't been rotating outages because the demand for load shedding from ERCOT was so high that it required Austin Energy to drop every piece of the grid not servicing emergency services (hospitals, police, fire, etc.).

ERCOT is currently telling Austin Energy that they expect the power emergency to extend as far as Tuesday.




There is a huge statement in here that needs to be confirmed. Is ercot warning some privately that an emergency (should be well defined and not assumed on my part) could go till next Tuesday? We need to buy diesel fuel for our generators and if reduced capacity is expected to linger into next week, we have some trucks to queue up.

Any confirmation of this??
aginlakeway
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45-70Ag said:

They've been running since Sunday afternoon. I didn't just drip them but basically opened them up.

Great news!
"I'm sure that won't make a bit of difference for those of you who enjoy a baseless rage over the decisions of a few teenagers."
Fenrir
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Ag In Ok said:

Charpie said:

gonemaroon said:

They could be rolling folks on the grid right now for several hours why they have the generation -

This is straight ****ing bull****
Agreed.

This is from Austin Energy



Quote:

Austin Energy hasn't been rotating outages because the demand for load shedding from ERCOT was so high that it required Austin Energy to drop every piece of the grid not servicing emergency services (hospitals, police, fire, etc.).

ERCOT is currently telling Austin Energy that they expect the power emergency to extend as far as Tuesday.




There is a huge statement in here that needs to be confirmed. Is ercot warning some privately that an emergency (should be well defined and not assumed on my part) could go till next Tuesday? We need to buy diesel fuel for our generators and if reduced capacity is expected to linger into next week, we have some trucks to queue up.

Any confirmation of this??
I have been told second hand info that would seem to corroborate.
nortex97
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Whitetail said:

Smart meters...If 10,000 people on a grid were judged as who used the most to who used the least...and say each were given a score 1-10...could the utility turn off all the 9's and 10's by meter?

That would be one way to do it where the least number of homes are affected.
Then the next step is to have your social media score evaluated into the equation as well (facebook/twitter/google etc), and let the government determine if your social/environmental contribution warrant the kilowatt hours you have been consuming. For that matter, if you should be allowed to have/charge a new phone at all.

That's what China does, and it works well for them, per Xiden. What could possibly go wrong?
ntxVol
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45-70Ag said:

They've been running since Sunday afternoon. I didn't just drip them but basically opened them up.
I hope you're not on an aerobic septic system.
45-70Ag
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No, city water.
itsyourboypookie
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gonemaroon said:

Right, and they have 5700MW of excess right now so they could at least turn on 3000MW or even 4000MW and have tons of buffer / and they can always just trip the load again if need be.


Where are you getting the load data and power plant data?
flyingaggie12
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If you need diesel you need to make plans now. Military/federal government has been activated to deliver Diesel meaning they are expecting supply here to dwindle.
LostInLA07
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Wow that's ridiculous
45-70Ag
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H2Ag
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nortex97 said:

Whitetail said:

Smart meters...If 10,000 people on a grid were judged as who used the most to who used the least...and say each were given a score 1-10...could the utility turn off all the 9's and 10's by meter?

That would be one way to do it where the least number of homes are affected.
Then the next step is to have your social media score evaluated into the equation as well (facebook/twitter/google etc), and let the government determine if your social/environmental contribution warrant the kilowatt hours you have been consuming. For that matter, if you should be allowed to have/charge a new phone at all.

That's what China does, and it works well for them, per Xiden. What could possibly go wrong?
I have a little experience with these in the past. All smart meters don't have a remote disconnect feature. It was available at extra cost years ago. a lot of the utilities opted not to install. Load management is supposed to be one of the benefits of "Smart Grid". Seems to me a path to less painful outages in the future. Nortex is right though. Doubt the regulators will keep their greedy hands out of the cookie jar

AgsMnn
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No water at work.

Should not have drank that Metamucil this morning.
Scriffer
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This may be a stupid question and one that's already been answered, but could the unreleased power be earmarked for getting down facilities back up and running?

Question is moot if they are supposed to generate their own power and don't have source lines, I guess. I know so little about this stuff, so please go easy on me.
45-70Ag
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AgsMnn said:

No water at work.

Should not have drank that Metamucil this morning.
Whitetail
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Scriffer said:

This may be a stupid question and one that's already been answered, but could the unreleased power be earmarked for getting down facilities back up and running?

Question is moot if they are supposed to generate their own power and don't have source lines, I guess. I know so little about this stuff, so please go easy on me.
Plants need power to start so yeah your theory is plausible.
sellthefarm
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With all the freezing rain in east Texas this morning, could the un-released load be from new down wires? My folks in Nacogdoches lost power late this morning, which was the first time they lost power; meanwhile, in Temple, a bunch of people are getting power back for the first time.

So they could be releasing power but it's just getting off-set by new down wires this morning in east Texas...
richardag
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htxag09 said:

That's fine and dandy. I'm against wind energy as well. But it's simply irrelevant to use this time to explain how wind energy is unreliable. All our energy is apparently unreliable and it's just kicking the can down the road and not holding those responsible who should be.
The unreliability of gas, coal and nuclear can be mitigated, the unreliable wind can not be mitigated since it relies on wind which is very inconsistent at best in most of the world.
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
Good Poster
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AG
Can anybody explain the water outage situation in the Houston area and give insight to when we might see running water again? TIA.
gonemaroon
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itsyourboypookie said:

gonemaroon said:

Right, and they have 5700MW of excess right now so they could at least turn on 3000MW or even 4000MW and have tons of buffer / and they can always just trip the load again if need be.


Where are you getting the load data and power plant data?

From ERCOT / I trade ERCOT for a living.

gonemaroon
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I emailed my client REP at ERCOT asking him why they aren't turning massive amounts of load back on rotational -

1MW - 350 homes. They have 6200MW of excess right now so with buffer they could easily turn on 3000-4000MW worth of customers for 5 hours today.

What in the proper **** are they doing over there?

LostInLA07
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Interested to see the explanation
htxag09
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richardag said:

htxag09 said:

That's fine and dandy. I'm against wind energy as well. But it's simply irrelevant to use this time to explain how wind energy is unreliable. All our energy is apparently unreliable and it's just kicking the can down the road and not holding those responsible who should be.
The unreliability of gas, coal and nuclear can be mitigated, the unreliable wind can not be mitigated since it relies on wind which is very inconsistent at best in most of the world.

This is my point. I agree. However, politicians and people screaming this now is absolutely asinine. "Wind power is unreliable!!" Meanwhile our current thermal power system is failing at epic magnitudes. You're not wrong, but it's not relevant to what's going on. It's kicking the can down the road for the actual issues that caused this mess.
Aggies2009
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I guarantee the response will be something along the lines of, "It's your local utility provider's fault- ask them."
 
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