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National Emergency declared in Texas

It is reliable if you install it properly. It's still providing power in Canada and Germany and the northern part of the USA. But you have to buy the fancy winter weather package if you want it to work in the winter.
In Texas they avoided that package on their gas fired plants too. Seems like it was a problem for all of them. Even their nuclear plants aren't working properly due to frozen cooling water.
So in two posts, you've explained that ERCOT is lying, the PUCT is basically worthless, and we need to install some kind of Cadillac generation units for the last 1% of potential incidents....WHATEVER.
 
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Read a bit more about it. You might be surprised that the ERCOT website doesn't tell the whole story. Even in the story linked by the rush chairman, you will see that. The reason Texas went it alone was so their utilities could avoid oversight.
Your anus must get swollen from repeatedly reaching into your butt to extract erroneous and/or incomplete information.

 
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I am sure it is all interconnected. But when a large number of turbines are shutdown it increases loads not only on other generation sources but also the transmission system. Add in extreme weather causing transmission issues it makes the entire system that much less stable.

Sounds like you're desperate to blame wind turbines when the facts say otherwise.
 
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Your anus must get swollen from repeatedly reaching into your butt to extract erroneous and/or incomplete information.

Great. Throw around insults and reach for the same old nonsense. Read the article I posted before (or one of the dozens others that document why Texas really has it's own grid. Hint it is because they didn't want to be regulated.) and go sit in the corner.
So in two posts, you've explained that ERCOT is lying, the PUCT is basically worthless, and we need to install some kind of Cadillac generation units for the last 1% of potential incidents....WHATEVER.
If this ever happens again (which it will because these polar vortex breakdown events happen almost every year thanks to climate change), you will save much more than you invest in the proper infrastructure. Also, we know that the latest round of failures was due to the gas being piped in on demand rather than held in reserve on site. Things like this sound great until they are a problem.
 
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Great. Throw around insults and reach for the same old nonsense. Read the article I posted before (or one of the dozens others that document why Texas really has it's own grid. Hint it is because they didn't want to be regulated.) and go sit in the corner.

If this ever happens again (which it will because these polar vortex breakdown events happen almost every year thanks to climate change), you will save much more than you invest in the proper infrastructure. Also, we know that the latest round of failures was due to the gas being piped in on demand rather than held in reserve on site. Things like this sound great until they are a problem.

Wait, climate change has suddenly started creating polar vortices?

deja_q_hd_046_resized_6484.jpg
 
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So in two posts, you've explained that ERCOT is lying, the PUCT is basically worthless, and we need to install some kind of Cadillac generation units for the last 1% of potential incidents....WHATEVER.

Cadillac? I think you meant California.
 
Wait, climate change has suddenly started creating polar vortices?

deja_q_hd_046_resized_6484.jpg
Not suddenly. The warmer than normal polar region causes the normally strong vortical flow around the poles to fail, creating the "polar vortex" weather pattern that has become the new wintertime normal. Here's some reading if you actually care.
This is nothing new. It has been discussed for years by climate scientists.
 
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One thing that the press is definitely whiffing on is claiming Austin energy is shutting off power more to poorer neighborhoods. The current outage map shows that most of the remaining outages are in West Austin - Bryker Woods, Clarksville, Old West Austin, Enfield - decidedly not poor neighborhoods.
 
Not suddenly. The warmer than normal polar region causes the normally strong vortical flow around the poles to fail, creating the "polar vortex" weather pattern that has become the new wintertime normal. Here's some reading if you actually care.
This is nothing new. It has been discussed for years by climate scientists.

Yes, definitely not new.
 
Great. Throw around insults and reach for the same old nonsense. Read the article I posted before (or one of the dozens others that document why Texas really has it's own grid. Hint it is because they didn't want to be regulated.) and go sit in the corner.

If this ever happens again (which it will because these polar vortex breakdown events happen almost every year thanks to climate change), you will save much more than you invest in the proper infrastructure. Also, we know that the latest round of failures was due to the gas being piped in on demand rather than held in reserve on site. Things like this sound great until they are a problem.
I'd really like to know where you get your information. Wherever you got your last sentence from is so totally stupid it's not really funny. There is no way you can have gas storage at every power plant. It's just not physically possible no matter the economics. But really what do I know, I've only worked for midstream pipeline companies for 30 years.
 
I'd really like to know where you get your information. Wherever you got your last sentence from is so totally stupid it's not really funny. There is no way you can have gas storage at every power plant. It's just not physically possible no matter the economics. But really what do I know, I've only worked for midstream pipeline companies for 30 years.
Well here's one of many articles about storage at power plants:
And in Texas there are a few dozen total plants statewide. I do know the reason they prefer not to store gas on site is the cost, but with the pipelines that freeze up in bad weather, it looks like they should be storing more at the plants or investing in better insulation for the pipelines.
 
I'd really like to know where you get your information. Wherever you got your last sentence from is so totally stupid it's not really funny. There is no way you can have gas storage at every power plant. It's just not physically possible no matter the economics. But really what do I know, I've only worked for midstream pipeline companies for 30 years.
Don’t you just store the gas in those big towers at the plants? Seems like an easy answer. Not.

The explanation I heard early in the week was that Texas was trying to maximize wind generation and buffering with other sources. People were already saying the system was in peril because of the swings in demand due to weather and seasons. When the vortex hit, a significant amount of wind power was lost (percentage doesn’t matter much because an unbalanced system is an unbalanced system.). The gas transmission system then had to immediately ramp up to both heat buildings and generate power. Anybody who works with machinery knows you don’t turn the key in an emergency and expect a machine to work flawlessly.

In this case we are told the problem was the gas delivery because of freezing. Why? Obli heard a rumor that the thawing system was fed by wind power. Maybe. Could the sudden spike in demand have overwhelmed the system? Regardless, the so-called plan was expecting too much once the wind generation cratered.

Bottom line is this illustrates that “green” energy can’t handle this situation without an amazing storage system. Further, balancing green and fossil is tricky. You can’t rely too heavily on wind and fail to keep fossil capacity. We know fossil works in any weather if properly maintained. Wind has a long way to go to prove it is the answer.
 
Well here's one of many articles about storage at power plants:
And in Texas there are a few dozen total plants statewide. I do know the reason they prefer not to store gas on site is the cost, but with the pipelines that freeze up in bad weather, it looks like they should be storing more at the plants or investing in better insulation for the pipelines.
You keep showing your ignorance. Nat gas storage is mostly in areas where there is historically little production. Plus it is underground storage, not big tank farms like gasoline. Nat gas storage is used for areas that don’t produce much and are far from sources. It is cheaper to use under ground storage than build enough pipelines to meet peak demand.

They pump gas all year long and fill reservoirs and use it at peak demand. The northeast has a lot of storage fields because they couldn’t produce enough before fracking unleashed massive amounts. Now the storage is used to balance prices and to fill in during high stress periods like this. We have plenty in storage until national production is back to normal.
 
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Don’t you just store the gas in those big towers at the plants? Seems like an easy answer. Not.

The explanation I heard early in the week was that Texas was trying to maximize wind generation and buffering with other sources. People were already saying the system was in peril because of the swings in demand due to weather and seasons. When the vortex hit, a significant amount of wind power was lost (percentage doesn’t matter much because an unbalanced system is an unbalanced system.). The gas transmission system then had to immediately ramp up to both heat buildings and generate power. Anybody who works with machinery knows you don’t turn the key in an emergency and expect a machine to work flawlessly.

In this case we are told the problem was the gas delivery because of freezing. Why? Obli heard a rumor that the thawing system was fed by wind power. Maybe. Could the sudden spike in demand have overwhelmed the system? Regardless, the so-called plan was expecting too much once the wind generation cratered.

Bottom line is this illustrates that “green” energy can’t handle this situation without an amazing storage system. Further, balancing green and fossil is tricky. You can’t rely too heavily on wind and fail to keep fossil capacity. We know fossil works in any weather if properly maintained. Wind has a long way to go to prove it is the answer.

Everyone knows the limitations/capacity factors of wind and solar, this isn't about whether or not "green" energy can handle it. It's about the design of the grid system and whether or not it could handle a spike in demand during extreme weather conditions. The weakness in the grid was exposed, TX went cheap and that's the bottom line.
 
Not suddenly. The warmer than normal polar region causes the normally strong vortical flow around the poles to fail, creating the "polar vortex" weather pattern that has become the new wintertime normal. Here's some reading if you actually care.
This is nothing new. It has been discussed for years by climate scientists.
That polar vortex was so brutal last year here in the northeast. The cost to heat my house was 20% lower than the year before. My snow blower was rusting from......no snow. We had zero snow. Not a single flake. So much for the new wintertime normal.....or maybe it doesn’t occur in leap years.
 
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Everyone knows the limitations/capacity factors of wind and solar, this isn't about whether or not "green" energy can handle it. It's about the design of the grid system and whether or not it could handle a spike in demand during extreme weather conditions. The weakness in the grid was exposed, TX went cheap and that's the bottom line.
“Texas went cheap.” So do they now spend millions of dollars to fix the turbines which might fix the problem with cold weather but not address severe weather demand spikes? Or do they put millions into fixing whatever went wrong with the gas delivery system which will solve the problem?
 
Well here's one of many articles about storage at power plants:
And in Texas there are a few dozen total plants statewide. I do know the reason they prefer not to store gas on site is the cost, but with the pipelines that freeze up in bad weather, it looks like they should be storing more at the plants or investing in better insulation for the pipelines.
That "article" says absolutely nothing about storing gas at power plants. But I'm sure you knew that and posted it anyway thinking that who's really going to look at it right? Did you just google "gas storage" and post the first thing that shows up? WTF

Natural gas storage requires a reservoir which is usually one of two things: either a depleted field or a salt dome. Either one has it's limitations but both require piping and compression to get the gas both into and then back out of the ground. But even if that exists, that means that every power plant would need to coincidentally be placed in a perfect spot for storage instead of, oh I don't know, maybe the most logical spot on the grid that needs the power and has access to a gas pipeline to feed it. It's just not physically feasible. But go ahead and keep spewing your BS. You're very good at it. I'd like to know what you do for a living so I can tell you you're doing it wrong because I'm sure you are.
 
One thing that the press is definitely whiffing on is claiming Austin energy is shutting off power more to poorer neighborhoods. The current outage map shows that most of the remaining outages are in West Austin - Bryker Woods, Clarksville, Old West Austin, Enfield - decidedly not poor neighborhoods.
Considering that ERCOT is based in Austin, I'm unsurprised that they are socio-economic aware, but technologically deficient. I suspect ERCOT's CEO and COO (both Austin L-dweebs whom I know) will soon be looking for gainful employment in the private sector....

I wish them both well in their job searches..


LOL.jpg
 
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If this ever happens again (which it will because these polar vortex breakdown events happen almost every year thanks to climate change), Things like this sound great until they are a problem.
I can tell by the authoritative tenor of your posts that you are a younger eco-indoctrinated, academically-oriented "individual";)


"Also, we know that the latest round of failures was due to the gas being piped in on demand rather than held in reserve on site. ".

You're going to need to further explain your position regarding the ability to store natgas in Texas specifically pertaining to proximity to principal electricity generation locations

I will award extra credit if you are able to find subterranean, commercially-viable salt domes near the wind-turbine farms.

I eagerly await your well thought-out academic and geologically based response. :rolleyes:
 
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Not suddenly. The warmer than normal polar region causes the normally strong vortical flow around the poles to fail, creating the "polar vortex" weather

Were you even alive in the 1970’s and 1980’s?

I know 40-50 years might seem like a long time to you, but if you weren’t even around at that time, how would you know anything about polar vortices or weather patterns?
 
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“Texas went cheap.” So do they now spend millions of dollars to fix the turbines which might fix the problem with cold weather but not address severe weather demand spikes? Or do they put millions into fixing whatever went wrong with the gas delivery system which will solve the problem?
Good point. Going ‘expensive’ may blow the entire business model
 
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That polar vortex was so brutal last year here in the northeast. The cost to heat my house was 20% lower than the year before. My snow blower was rusting from......no snow. We had zero snow. Not a single flake. So much for the new wintertime normal.....or maybe it doesn’t occur in leap years.
The polar vortex is occurring RIGHT NOW all over the USA including in the Northeast. It doesn't mean the your heating bill will be lower or higher at the end of the year (although ours has been very high the last 2 months). The overall winter of 2021 will be milder as is the 30 year trend. 2020 was the warmest year ever recorded (actually a tie with 2016). The polar vortex is an extreme event that lasts (at least in the last 10 years) for days or weeks.
 
The polar vortex is occurring RIGHT NOW all over the USA including in the Northeast. It doesn't mean the your heating bill will be lower or higher at the end of the year (although ours has been very high the last 2 months). The overall winter of 2021 will be milder as is the 30 year trend. 2020 was the warmest year ever recorded (actually a tie with 2016). The polar vortex is an extreme event that lasts (at least in the last 10 years) for days or weeks.
It snowed on the Acropolis in Greece. Madrid Spain was shut down by a record foot of snow last month. Europe has had a terrible winter. Israel had snow. China has had rolling blackouts and importing huge amounts of fuel oil due to extreme cold. Siberia hit -79F last month.

Portland Oregon has 160,000 people without power due to ice and snow storm. The US has a 72% snow coverage.

[/QUOTE]
 
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It snowed on the Acropolis in Greece. Madrid Spain was shut down by a record foot of snow last month. Europe has had a terrible winter. Israel had snow. China has had rolling blackouts and importing huge amounts of fuel oil due to extreme cold. Siberia hit -79F last month.

Portland Oregon has 160,000 people without power due to ice and snow storm. The US has a 72% snow coverage.

[/QUOTE]
giphy.gif
 
That "article" says absolutely nothing about storing gas at power plants. But I'm sure you knew that and posted it anyway thinking that who's really going to look at it right? Did you just google "gas storage" and post the first thing that shows up? WTF

Natural gas storage requires a reservoir which is usually one of two things: either a depleted field or a salt dome. Either one has it's limitations but both require piping and compression to get the gas both into and then back out of the ground. But even if that exists, that means that every power plant would need to coincidentally be placed in a perfect spot for storage instead of, oh I don't know, maybe the most logical spot on the grid that needs the power and has access to a gas pipeline to feed it. It's just not physically feasible. But go ahead and keep spewing your BS. You're very good at it. I'd like to know what you do for a living so I can tell you you're doing it wrong because I'm sure you are.
You're right it's not a good article. But above ground storage is an option if you aren't going to spend the money to ensure that your pipelines can deliver in cold weather.
 
It snowed on the Acropolis in Greece. Madrid Spain was shut down by a record foot of snow last month. Europe has had a terrible winter. Israel had snow. China has had rolling blackouts and importing huge amounts of fuel oil due to extreme cold. Siberia hit -79F last month.

Portland Oregon has 160,000 people without power due to ice and snow storm. The US has a 72% snow coverage.

[/QUOTE]
You realize the polar vortex weather pattern is a result of global climate change? When it occurs the Arctic is actually much warmer than normal. It may not be a new thing but it is becoming more frequent with man made climate change.
 
No one stores nat gas above ground except for LNG waiting to be exported. Extremely expensive.
You either store it on site or fix your pipelines. The argument seemed to be that you blame the failure in Texas on green energy WHICH IS A LIE. The facts are that many failures were caused by lack of planning and investment in Texas by ERCOT, the energy industry, legislature, and governor.
Ironically the extreme cold was caused most likely (statistically most likely since isolated weather events are very difficult to cite to a single cause) by climate change driven by the century long use of old fashioned fossil fuel.
 
You either store it on site or fix your pipelines. The argument seemed to be that you blame the failure in Texas on green energy WHICH IS A LIE. The facts are that many failures were caused by lack of planning and investment in Texas by ERCOT, the energy industry, legislature, and governor.
Ironically the extreme cold was caused most likely (statistically most likely since isolated weather events are very difficult to cite to a single cause) by climate change driven by the century long use of old fashioned fossil fuel.
Go back and read. I said several times it was a systemic failure of all sources of energy.
 
The next time someone tries to tell me the climate and weather are completely different, someone please remind me of this thread. This is gold.
 
You either store it on site or fix your pipelines. The argument seemed to be that you blame the failure in Texas on green energy WHICH IS A LIE. The facts are that many failures were caused by lack of planning and investment in Texas by ERCOT, the energy industry, legislature, and governor.
Ironically the extreme cold was caused most likely (statistically most likely since isolated weather events are very difficult to cite to a single cause) by climate change driven by the century long use of old fashioned fossil fuel.

Some of the things you are advocating is extremely, extremely dangerous and unwise. If you are not familiar with it, Google Cleveland natural gas explosion.
 
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The next time someone tries to tell me the climate and weather are completely different, someone please remind me of this thread. This is gold.
Climate is the long term average of the weather. Individual weather events are hard to tie to the climate. The fact that you continue to deny climate change is the big joke here. I remember how a few months ago you were going to show me with an energy conservation model how climate change was a hoax. Funny when I started showing you all of the terms in the model, you ran and hid.
 
Some of the things you are advocating is extremely, extremely dangerous and unwise. If you are not familiar with it, Google Cleveland natural gas explosion.
I am not advocating above ground storage at all. I am just stating that if you want to have 30 or 40% of your power from natural gas as well as about 40% of your home heating, you need to have a solution that works in all weather. All/most of the Texas gas power plants relied on pumping through pipelines directly from wells to the power plant. Some kind of intermediate storage could have mitigated all of the freezing that occurred. But that was not what happened. Pipelines froze and plants couldn't provide power. I don't know if folks were getting gas to their homes for heat through buried lines, but there was a huge failure due to reliance on FOSSIL FUELS.
 
Climate is the long term average of the weather. Individual weather events are hard to tie to the climate. The fact that you continue to deny climate change is the big joke here. I remember how a few months ago you were going to show me with an energy conservation model how climate change was a hoax. Funny when I started showing you all of the terms in the model, you ran and hid.

Actually I asked for the thermodynamic model, and you couldn't provide it. No one can provide it, because you cannot make a thermodynamic model where heating causes cooling short of having an endothermic reaction.
 
Go back and read. I said several times it was a systemic failure of all sources of energy.
The failure was due entirely to the planning of ERCOT and their friends in political office. It had nothing to do with wind turbines. The ERCOT folks made the decision that wind wouldn't work in cold weather by not winterizing the turbines. Folks in Colorado, Canada, Pennsylvania, Sweden, Germany, etc. all run wind turbines through much colder weather than Texas is getting right now.
Climate change is leading to more extreme weather events. Polar vortex breakdown is just one of them but that's the event of the moment.
 
Actually I asked for the thermodynamic model, and you couldn't provide it. No one can provide it, because you cannot make a thermodynamic model where heating causes cooling short of having an endothermic reaction.
Actually you don't seem to understand how radiation works. I am also sorry that you don't understand that a "thermodynamic" model is just a simplified energy conservation law.
 
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