4.2 Million Texans Without Power

“More than 4.2 million people woke up without power in Texas, according to poweroutage.us., as record-low temperatures brought a demand for power that the state's electric grid could not keep up with.

The areas around Galveston and Houston were the hardest hit, according to poweroutage.us.”

Texas has its own power grid.

 

One of the local meteorologists pointed out that there may be some severe damage to water pipes at places in Texas. In many areas water systems are not built to withstand that kind of cold, she said.

 

This highway was pretty clean and clear a few hours ago. And it just started snowing maybe an hour ago and hasn't let up lol. Luckily for us we still have power in the west tx area for now.

 

I saw that the wind turbines froze in many areas. Some unbelievable conditions.

 

My daughter lives in Waco Texas she was scheduled last night for a Rolling black out but fortunately they never turned the power off.

 

The wind turbines evidently aren't the issue -- reports are that coal, natural gas, petroleum, and wind are all performing at pretty much full capacity.

The issue is the grid -- it is not designed to handle the huge demands from this storm that are far greater than even the worst summertime loads during a heat wave. Hence the blackouts.

 

Crazy stuff from the Dallas Morning News:

Some retail power companies in Texas are making an unusual plea to their customers amid a deep freeze that has sent electricity prices skyrocketing: Please, leave us.
Power supplier, Griddy, told all 29,000 of its customers that they should switch to another provider as spot electricity prices soared to as high as $9,000 a megawatt-hour. Griddy’s customers are fully exposed to the real-time swings in wholesale power markets, so those who don’t leave soon will face extraordinarily high electricity bills.
... snip ...
Texas is home to the most competitive electricity market in America. Homeowners and businesses churn power providers there like credit cards. In the face of such cutthroat competition, retail power providers in the region have grown accustomed to offering new customers incredibly low rates, incentives and, at least in Griddy’s case, unusual plans that allow customers to pay wholesale power prices as opposed to fixed ones.
The ruthless nature of the business has power traders speculating over which firms might have been caught short this week in the most dramatic run-up in spot power prices they’ve ever seen.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business...ustomers-leave-now-before-you-get-a-big-bill/

 

57 windy and sunny here. I washed my truck and got a little over heated. But, we are going back downhill for the rest of the week.

 

On some types of aircraft, we use de-icing boots on the propeller blades. This must be a consideration for wind turbine blades. Otherwise, the blades could get out of balance.

 

My Cousin & his wife's place in Texas city Tx! no power for over thirty hours.

 

I just got power on here after a 36 hour blackout. May be in for more tonight....we'll see. Winter clothes hardly ever used came in handy but it still got plenty cold inside last night (mid-40's)

This state's grid hasn't kept up with the crazy growth in this state over the past few years IMO.

 

What I was reading somewhere stated that the issue is that the grid is currently designed with no margin, because margin costs money. So private companies say hey, the heck with margin, we just need design this to meet our maximum envisioned demand, which is a hot spell in the summer and that is it. Unused margin = wasted profit.

Well, this storm comes along, the demand is suddenly higher than the summer maximum, and the whole system is boned. They have power, just no way to safely send as much as is wanted to everywhere it is wanted at the same time. Hence -- rolling blackouts.

 

Cracked pipes are going to a huge mess when they thaw....

 

The flipside of that Steve - run around on the ragged edge and at some point it's gonna bite you in the a##.

 

There goes the power they might have generated...those blades are gynormous! Not to mention the cost of a system like that. Seems like locking them out during an imbalance condition might be the most cost effective thing to do.

 

The NC power company that I worked with in the late 60s was interconnected with other systems. When we had an emergency, we bought power from other companies. We also had IC turbine generators fired by fuel oil in reserve. I read that Texas is an independent not connected to the national grid.

 

My suspicion is they are either de-iced or are locked out.

 

I just saw a line of cars in Texas, waiting to get into one of the few open restaurants, a Burger King, that was 4 to 5 hours long.

 

We are supposed to be better than that.

My BK can't get two cars...for good reason

 

I was just reading these wind grinders uses a liquid coolant of a sort that freezes when not operating in these freezing temps.. So now what little power there is they are are diverting it to the wind grinders trying to keep them from freezing the motors.....