4.2 Million Texans Without Power

Ok, thanks for clarifying. I was confused, which is not unusual.

 

MSNBC states the figure for Texas wind powered generation is 7%. Texas predominantly uses gas fired power generation plants.

I may be incorrect but I believe Texas must use water to cool the pumps transmitting gas through pipelines. Water pipes froze so the pumps at the power plants had to be shut down and the plants taken off line.

 

Here is a graph from 2019. It shows wind as 20% of total. Apparently that has increased to 25% today. Surprising.

https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2020/august/ercot.php

 

From what I have read a big problem is that most of Texas' electrical grid doesn't connect to anywhere outside of Texas. So there is no backup from other areas if needed. That's intentional BTW.

Also it seems the reason Texas has a significant amount of windmills is not because of 'liberal' policy. It's because building and operating windmills is dirt cheap compared to the cost of building and operating coal/oil/gas fired power plants.

 

And there was a 3000% increase in natural gas cost overnight after the storm hit.

 

I was surprised to find out that over 50% of TX homes use electric heat, no doubt the reason for the dramatic power demands. Up here in the frozen north, a house with electric heat, is unusual. Very expensive and inefficient way to heat your home.

I guess I can't blame Texans for not wanting to invest in a natural gas/propane HVAC system for their new home, it's not ever that cold in most places there.
Although in this situation, apparently natural gas systems are also crippled by the cold.. but that is curious to me, how much different can the system be than what we have here, and it's finally just got above zero this afternoon. We spent something like 250 hours below zero. And we have no issues with gas delivery here.

The other thing that shocked me was reports of near freezing temps inside of houses, even after just a few hours without the heat on. Then I learned that less than 30% of TX homes have double or triple pane windows. I am pretty sure I could shut the heat off in the house here, when it is the same temp as they experienced down there, and we might lose 10* in 6-8 hours.

I suspect a lot of the homes there are also lightly insulated.

JW

 

I never heard that natural gas has trouble in cold temps. A quick google search confirms it liquifys at -260f. So obviously 0° shouldn't be an issue. Natural gas is used in plenty of cold climates, so that must be nonsense. Of course a gas furnace still needs power to run..

I also figured Texans must have electric furnaces. Holy freaking inefficient. I ran a small electric oil filled space heater for one month in a den, it doubled the electric bill. It was set to 45° too.

 

I won’t say the P word but something doesn’t add up here.

 

Actually it does add up. Texas relies on a free market system to deliver electricity to people.

The supplying companies try to keep costs down as any business does.

They don't cooperate with neighboring states.

Extreme weather created demand outside of the peak estimated range. Also, much of the electricity is generated by burning natural gas. Some of these generation stations went off line due to cold weather that was outside of their normal operation range.

Hopefully people use good judgement and it warms up a bit soon.

 

The gas itself is not the problem, it's the equipment that supports the transmission of the gas is the problem. I work in the oil and gas industry and there are a lot of facilities in Texas that are shut down because of the cold. That is because most of their equipment is not rated for cold weather (colder than 32 F) operation. Why not? Because they are in Texas where it doesn't get that cold 99.99% of the time.

I'm sure they mostly only have electric furnaces because they are cheaper. Because as I mentioned before it's Texas where it doesn't get that cold 99.99% of the time.

 

Wonder how many homes in that area have gas powered back up generators. Mine runs on Propane and I can go 2-3 weeks on a full tank of gas. I also have the solar. If my inverter "sees" power it will generate. Seems counter productive if ya ask me.

 

I understand the 99.99% reasoning and I don't blame them for choosing electricity for heat.

What is it at the plant that can't operate in 0° temps? That's not even jacket weather around here...

 

Anything that uses water and is not protected from freezing can break. All it takes is one piece of crucial equipment to go down and an entire plant can be shut down or crippled. Obviously things can be fixed but that takes time.

 

The REAL PERCENTAGE is like 10% . Natural gas does not flow well in cold temperatures

 

A lot of southerners have heat pumps. They work quite well and efficiently as A/C and heat down to about 30*. Then their ‘Emergency Heat’ mode kicks in, which is the blower and heat strips-which draw huge amounts of power. That demand is combined with power plants not insulated or weatherproofed for once a decade temps which results in the rolling blackouts. A lot of southerners close to the coast (+-100 miles like Houston) can handle a loss of power but not due to it being cold. They usually don’t happen together.
Patrick

 

Okay, about those freezing pipes:

I was reading that new houses in Texas are built w pipes running through outer walls, etc.

What do they do in colder climes? We Floridians are not too familuar with the subject.

 

If any of you Texans left a can of diet soda in your car outside you now understand why people in the upper mid-west call it pop.

 

It's called placing lines underground below the frost line and using insulation where possible above ground. Power plants and water utilities are steam traced and insulated. It's been over -25 here for the past 2 weeks, and my house runs on natural gas and there have been no issues. Natural gas is cheap, efficient, and readily available. It's only the carrying charges and the taxes that make it expensive. I work in a chemical plant and most all of our pipelines are above ground, some of the water and utilities are below ground. The above ground stuff is all steam traced and insulated. We usually never have an issue until it warms up after the cold snap, then things break for some inexplicable reason.

 

I talked to my brother in law Steve that lives in Dallas who worked in the field and he told me there were some electric power plants shut down for maintenance since in the winter they do not use as much power as in the summertime.
The nuclear power plant down there was also shut down for its' maintenance.

Their houses are insulated like up North since they do get very hot there (100+) and the air conditioner needs to keep the house cool just like we need to keep the house warm up north here.
Steve has natural gas at his house down there but it would not run since no elec. to turn on. He ran the gas stove and was able to keep the house up to 70*.

The gas freezes because it has humidity in it and is the part that freezes he said there are dryers in the system to take care of that but not completely. I have heard you can use methanol to keep the water out of the lines but maybe that can't be done there.

He just said it was a perfect storm and everything lined up together. He also told me he would have mowed his grass maybe twice by now and would be putting on weed and feed this weekend, and also said it will be 60 by Wednesday by by winter.

 

I remember in the Ice Storm we had in the mid 70's in Ct. I was renting a basement apartment with my Riv. parked in the garage attached to the apartment which I had walled off from her side of the garage. My landlord was visiting her sick Mom in Pa. I called her to tell her of the ice storm & about pipes freezing which included the heat pipes which were copper also. At 1st. I brought home the Oxy/Act torches from work & put the Rose Bud on the end & put it inside the fire box on the low setting. Of course as we know heat rises naturally. It did OK until the temps dropped down to minus temps. for a couple weeks. The torches were not going to be able to keep up. THEN I had an idea. I talked to a couple of my plumber friends & they told me IF I could get the air out of the hoses it will start to circulate on it's own since heat rises. Since the Riv. was right by the door I ran to the shop & got a roll of 5/8" & 3/4" heater hose. 18ft. was just enough. I opened the garage door above the tailpipe outlets. The radiator fan was strong enough to keep the fumes from the exhaust at bay with good ventilation. Hooked them up to my car & was able to bleed the air out of the hoses. Started the car up & let it run at 1500RPM's. Once the water started to circulate I was able to lower the speed to 800RPM's to keep the house warm enough so it wouldn't freeze. I didn't believe it BUT it WORKED!!! Used lots of gasoline BUT the house didn't freeze & I could be somewhat comfortable.
Who knows how much $$$$ was saved IF pipes actually started to freeze & burst not counting ALL the water damage that would have happened.