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Message
Reasons why Texas power grid failed:
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:39 pm
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:39 pm
From Dan Crenshaw’s Instagram page:
With blackouts across Texas, many are wondering: what happened?
Leftists are cheering a “red state” having energy problems.
Here’s the truth about what happened.
Summary:
A mix of over-subsidized wind energy and under-investment in gas power means we didn’t have enough base load energy for a massive spike in demand.
Also, Texas infrastructure isn’t designed for once-in-a-century freezes.
#1 - Frozen Wind Turbines:
West Texas had wind turbines that had to be de-iced. The little energy that power regulators planned on being supplied from wind was now gone.
We have almost 31GW of wind installed on the grid, but on Monday we couldn’t even depend on 6 GW working.
To make matters worse, existing storage of wind energy in batteries was also gone, because batteries were losing 60% of their energy in the cold.
Bottom line: renewables don’t work well in extreme weather. Never will.
This is what happens when you force the grid to rely in part on wind as a power source. When weather conditions get bad as they did this week, intermittent renewable energy like wind isn’t there when you need it. LINK /
#2 - Nuclear also got too cold: We only have 4 nuclear units in TX, near Houston and Dallas. One of the reactors near Houston turned off due to a safety sensor freezing. No problem with the reactor. But the lack of the sensor forced the plant to shutdown, as a precaution.
(On another note, this shows how safe nuclear is. Lots of safety precautions.)
#3 - We don’t have enough Natural Gas online:
ERCOT planned on 67GW from natural gas/coal, but could only get 43GW of it online. We didn’t run out of natural gas, but we lost the ability to get it transported. Pipelines in Texas don’t use cold insulation – so they froze.
Every natural gas plant stayed online. The “downed” plants were due to scheduled maintenance.
Gov. Abbott made the right call in diverting all natural gas to home heating fuel and then electricity for homes. Gas and coal brought a stable supply of energy, but still not enough.
Why don’t we have extra gas power when we need it most?
Because years of federal subsidies for wind has caused an over reliance on wind and an under-investment in new gas and nuclear plants.
Bottom line: fossil fuels are the only thing that saved us. They are *base load* energy.
If we were even *more* reliant on the wind turbines that froze, the outages would have been much worse.
This raises the obvious question: can we ever rely on renewables to power the grid during extreme weather?
No, you need gas or nuclear.
And subsidizing investment in wind has pushed gas and nuclear out.
Now we live with the consequences.
The push to decommission baseload power sources like natural gas would be disastrous when trying to keep the lights on in Texas.
I’ll be joining my Texas colleagues in getting to the bottom of what happened. We can do better, even for once in a century events.
In the meantime, stay warm, stay safe, and stay strong.
With blackouts across Texas, many are wondering: what happened?
Leftists are cheering a “red state” having energy problems.
Here’s the truth about what happened.
Summary:
A mix of over-subsidized wind energy and under-investment in gas power means we didn’t have enough base load energy for a massive spike in demand.
Also, Texas infrastructure isn’t designed for once-in-a-century freezes.
#1 - Frozen Wind Turbines:
West Texas had wind turbines that had to be de-iced. The little energy that power regulators planned on being supplied from wind was now gone.
We have almost 31GW of wind installed on the grid, but on Monday we couldn’t even depend on 6 GW working.
To make matters worse, existing storage of wind energy in batteries was also gone, because batteries were losing 60% of their energy in the cold.
Bottom line: renewables don’t work well in extreme weather. Never will.
This is what happens when you force the grid to rely in part on wind as a power source. When weather conditions get bad as they did this week, intermittent renewable energy like wind isn’t there when you need it. LINK /
#2 - Nuclear also got too cold: We only have 4 nuclear units in TX, near Houston and Dallas. One of the reactors near Houston turned off due to a safety sensor freezing. No problem with the reactor. But the lack of the sensor forced the plant to shutdown, as a precaution.
(On another note, this shows how safe nuclear is. Lots of safety precautions.)
#3 - We don’t have enough Natural Gas online:
ERCOT planned on 67GW from natural gas/coal, but could only get 43GW of it online. We didn’t run out of natural gas, but we lost the ability to get it transported. Pipelines in Texas don’t use cold insulation – so they froze.
Every natural gas plant stayed online. The “downed” plants were due to scheduled maintenance.
Gov. Abbott made the right call in diverting all natural gas to home heating fuel and then electricity for homes. Gas and coal brought a stable supply of energy, but still not enough.
Why don’t we have extra gas power when we need it most?
Because years of federal subsidies for wind has caused an over reliance on wind and an under-investment in new gas and nuclear plants.
Bottom line: fossil fuels are the only thing that saved us. They are *base load* energy.
If we were even *more* reliant on the wind turbines that froze, the outages would have been much worse.
This raises the obvious question: can we ever rely on renewables to power the grid during extreme weather?
No, you need gas or nuclear.
And subsidizing investment in wind has pushed gas and nuclear out.
Now we live with the consequences.
The push to decommission baseload power sources like natural gas would be disastrous when trying to keep the lights on in Texas.
I’ll be joining my Texas colleagues in getting to the bottom of what happened. We can do better, even for once in a century events.
In the meantime, stay warm, stay safe, and stay strong.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:40 pm to back9Tiger
quote:
Because years of federal subsidies for wind has caused an over reliance on wind and an under-investment in new gas and nuclear plants.
Bottom line: fossil fuels are the only thing that saved us. They are *base load* energy.
All that needs to be said
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:41 pm to back9Tiger
We need more nuclear power. These other green energy sources just aren’t robust
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:43 pm to Ross
"Lobbyists, please give me more money."
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:44 pm to back9Tiger
Blah blah blah, he is FOS
Bottom line, private companies do not like to carry spare capacity just in case you need it as that is expensive and financial decisions based on this led to a shortfall.
This is the downside to deregulation and a "free market", it is what it is.
Bottom line, private companies do not like to carry spare capacity just in case you need it as that is expensive and financial decisions based on this led to a shortfall.
This is the downside to deregulation and a "free market", it is what it is.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:45 pm to cave canem
Guess you failed to read the part of federal pollution
Regulations. He’s not full of shite at all... this was a failure at the political and private level... plenty of blame to go around.
Regulations. He’s not full of shite at all... this was a failure at the political and private level... plenty of blame to go around.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:45 pm to back9Tiger
I’m just glad we are going to be 100% reliant on wind in the future. Man it is going to be so great to be Amish when the wind suddenly dies down.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:47 pm to back9Tiger
Everyone trying to play the partisan game. The gas was frozen, too.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:48 pm to cwill
That part is disconcerting...that should have never happened.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:53 pm to back9Tiger
quote:
That part is disconcerting...that should have never happened.
Do you really think O&G companies are going to spend $ weatherizing production for such a rare event? The whole name of the game for shale now is cost control, so an afe for 20 deg weatherizing would be doa.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:53 pm to back9Tiger
Basically it took the worst winter weather Texas has seen in decades to break their power grid.
Meanwhile, Cali gets rolling blackouts in normal weather.
But the twitter cesspool is blaming Texas & Dan for this & mocking a tweet from last year.
Makes sense
Meanwhile, Cali gets rolling blackouts in normal weather.
But the twitter cesspool is blaming Texas & Dan for this & mocking a tweet from last year.
Makes sense
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:53 pm to cwill
quote:
Everyone trying to play the partisan game. The gas was frozen, too.
You know that if it were not for Biden the Keystone XL would have prevented this, it is all Bidens fault, he hates America.
Did I do that right?
Imbeciles trying to make severe weather about politics is amusing if nothing else.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:54 pm to cwill
No doubt and they got caught on this one.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:54 pm to cave canem
quote:
Blah blah blah, he is FOS
Bottom line, private companies do not like to carry spare capacity just in case you need it as that is expensive and financial decisions based on this led to a shortfall.
You are actually proud of how stupid and uneducated you are.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:54 pm to cave canem
quote:
You know that if it were not for Biden the Keystone XL would have prevented this, it is all Bidens fault, he hates America.
I have seen this posted.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:54 pm to back9Tiger
It was a black swan event. You could prepare for it but the cost would be more than the customers would be willing to pay.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 8:55 pm to cave canem
I get it, you’re a liberal and liberal politicians are your god. The truth is your kryptonite... we all get it. Go gaslight somewhere else
Posted on 2/16/21 at 9:00 pm to back9Tiger
quote:
1 - Frozen Wind Turbines:
West Texas had wind turbines that had to be de-iced. The little energy that power regulators planned on being supplied from wind was now gone.
We have almost 31GW of wind installed on the grid, but on Monday we couldn’t even depend on 6 GW working.
There are plenty of wind turbines in northern states that kept turning. Failure to prepare for inclement weather doesn’t mean wind power isn’t reliable, it means tejas has incompetent people in power.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 9:01 pm to back9Tiger
Y'all need to realize that texas is basically like virginia... The leftists in the population cents given the whole state. They will be blue in less than 10 years.
Posted on 2/16/21 at 9:03 pm to TrueTiger
quote:
It was a black swan event.
One of those terms that's never used correctly. More like a grey swan that's happened plenty of times before it's just improbable. Black swans are something that humans can't preconceive.
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