Update: New Test Coming For Texas: Texas Grid Struggled to Supply Electricity During URI That Storm Contributed to More Than 200 Deaths and Cost the State Billions in Financial Loses
You Would Have to Be Blind Not to See Where This Is Going, "Yoked"…
How Long Before USA Says: We Will Not Comply?
Insane that Assange is behind bars for killing nobody while Bush and Blair walk free -responsible for millions of deaths including their own troops.
Newsletter
Support Orphans
Editor's Bio
A Thrilling Ride!
Every once in awhile, a book comes across your path that is impossible to put down. A Long Journey Home is not a casual book that you read in a week or earmark to complete at a later date. Once you begin, cancel your schedule, put your phone on silent, find a quiet place where you cannot be disturbed, and complete the journey. Click Here to Purchase on Amazon.com!
Reach People
Featured Story
HNewsWire: Texans must be prepared for a power outage. Again. According to a new bombshell report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), while Texas has made some progress in increasing surplus energy flow to the grid for times of peak demand, power will be extremely tight this winter.
Texas appears to be in the cross hairs of a massive Arctic blast scheduled for next week. Meteorologists warn that temperatures could dive to extremes, while energy traders are concerned about a potential wave of freeze-offs across the state that could affect the flow of natural gas.
Judah Cohen, head of seasonal forecasting at AER, a Verisk company, told Axios the cold blast slated for around the Christmas holiday could be one of the most extreme cold air masses to pour into the southern part of the country in years. Computer model data shows temperatures could dive 30 degrees below average by Dec. 23.
Cohen warned the upcoming cold blast could be on par with the February 2021 episode when an Arctic blast triggered a grid failure across Texas.
Another, more severe weather model was tweeted by meteorologist Ryan Maue who warned:
"Next Thursday, dangerously cold air extends from Canada to Texas up to 58°F below normal."
AccuWeather forecasted the cold air could "challenge records that have stood since the 1980s from the northern Rockies to the Southeast, as well as stress energy grids, in the run-up to the Christmas holiday."
Houston-based NatGas research firm Criterion Research has been telling clients all week about the potential for upcoming freeze-offs.
Criterion said, "Midland, Texas, will post average temperatures below freezing for multiple days, with nightly lows of 20 degrees and daily highs just above the freeze line." They said in similar instances, freeze-offs have occurred, curtailing production.
The research firm said ERCOT's guidance for next week "is shaping up to be a big showing, with the ISO showing total load rising to 53 GW on Thursday (12/22). However, the demand shot is not quite as high as peak days during last winter and well off of summer highs for the ISO."
They noted ERCOT's fossil fuel power generation sources would rise next week to 30 GW. Any production freeze-off could affect energy flows to power plants.
"One concern that could lead to tightness for natural gas supply & demand is the rising risk of freeze-offs in the Southern US," Criterion said.
Next week's forecast for Central US and Texas sent natural gas futures soaring more than 7.5% today.
And as a reminder, Texas largely relies on NatGas for power generation. What could possibly go wrong?
On February 17, 2021, Following the power grid collapse in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement– Tuesday that “declared the reform” of ERCOT in the new legislative session. Abbott will pressure lawmakers to investigate ERCOT’s failures and make sure rolling blackouts never happen again.
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours,” said Abbott. “Far too many Texans are without power and heat for their homes as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. This is unacceptable. Reviewing the preparations and decisions by ERCOT is an emergency item so we can get a full picture of what caused this problem and find long-term solutions. I thank my partners in the House and Senate for acting quickly on this challenge, and I will work with them to enhance Texas’ electric grid and ensure that our state never experiences power outages like this again.”
Here’s the full text:
Texas power regulators announced significant changes in December focused on shoring up problems with its electricity grid that narrowly escaped a catastrophic total blackout when Winter Storm Uri hit in February.
With natural gas generating most of the state’s electricity, much of the talk has focused on how to make sure natural gas providers and generators are prepared against freezing and supply issues should another storm like Uri sweep through Texas.
But little has been said about what wind power—the second-largest producer of energy for Texas’ independent grid—will do to winterize to keep the grid stable in an emergency, even as some wonder why Texas, rich in fossil fuels, is relying so heavily on wind in the first place.
The Texas grid, unique in its independence from the rest of the country, is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which is governed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
The grid is powered mainly by natural gas, which generated 46 percent of the electricity in 2020. But the grid’s share of renewable power has been increasing over the past decade, with wind providing 23 percent, surpassing coal which supplies 18 percent. Another 11 percent is supplied by nuclear, and the remainder comes from other sources.
All sectors of the grid struggled to supply electricity during the storm that contributed to more than 200 deaths and cost the state billions in financial losses.
In an email response to The Epoch Times, Mike Hoke, a public utility spokesman, said wind power producers were not exempt from winterization rules mandated by state regulators in wake of Uri.
Wind farms had to implement weather emergency preparation measures intended to ensure the sustained operation of all cold weather critical components during winter weather conditions and provide training, according to an email from ERCOT Corporate Communications.
Additionally, wind power CEOs or Texas leaders were required to submit attestations to ERCOT by Dec. 1 regarding their winterization efforts in the same way that leaders of conventional resources such as natural gas did, according to ERCOT.
Jennifer Garber, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, which runs the Sweetwater Wind Farm in Nolan County, Texas, said in an email that their wind turbines performed within expectations during Uri.
“Since February, we have reviewed our operational winterization procedures and our Texas renewable resources met the requirements as outlined by the Texas PUC,” she wrote.
Criticism has been leveled at wind power’s performance during the deep freeze due to ice accumulation on turbine blades and frozen gear-boxes hindering or stopping production—something that doesn’t happen in wind farms in northern states and countries such as Canada.
Josh Rhodes, an energy expert with the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas, Austin, said during an interview with The Epoch Times that retrofitting Texas wind farms to deal with freezing could be costly.
“It is pretty expensive to retrofit,” he said, adding there are probably 10,000 to 15,000 wind turbines in Texas.
Wind turbines can be outfitted with cooling or heating equipment that can be placed in the gear-boxes on turbines, Rhodes said, but added that some turbines may not be designed to accommodate both systems.
That would leave a few other options, such as adding heating strips to turbine blades to keep them ice-free just like a defroster in a car windshield, or coating the blades with a Teflon-like substance, he added.
“If they can add that coating after the fact, that would probably be one of the cheapest options,” Rhodes said.
Another method he heard that was actually used in some Texas wind farms was to get the blades spinning and then throw the brake which would sometimes shake the ice off.
But even if wind farms are fully protected against cold weather, there is apprehension that Texas’ growing reliance on wind energy could cause trouble down the road. If enough wind power drops off the grid in just a few minutes, there wouldn’t be enough time for thermal plants to power up to take up the slack.
While on national television, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), for example, emphasized renewable energy’s failure during the storm.
“Our wind and our solar got shut down,” Abbott said during a February appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. “It just shows fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states to make sure we will be able to heat our homes in the wintertime and cool our homes in the summertime.”
Despite the blowback against renewable energy, the Texas legislature actually stripped language from Senate Bill 3 this spring, which addressed the grid crisis, that would have added incentives for natural gas-fired power plants.
For David Blackmon, an independent energy analyst and consultant based in Mansfield, Texas, that omission from the bill was a missed opportunity for the state to stabilize its grid.
“Unfortunately ERCOT has fallen into the trap of relying on wind energy,” Blackmon said, adding that climate change politics has impacted Texas’ grid.
“It’s such a strange thing to me,” he said. “It’s as if no one takes a step back and says: What are we doing here? At what point does Texas become like California?”
Jason Modglin, president of Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, echoed those concerns, saying that it was natural gas that took on the lion’s share of the load when wind power dropped off during Uri.
“Natural gas ramped up 400 percent in February, but we needed it to ramp up 500 percent,” said Modglin.
Modglin added that only a few peaker gas plants—those that are used in emergencies—have been built in the last decade and coal-burning plants are being phased out in Texas.
“The money has been chasing wind and solar,” Modglin said.
Source: HNewsWire HNewsWire HNewsWire theepochtimes
Top Stories
Watchman: There Are More Reports Coming Out of Vaccinated Individuals No Longer Being Able to Sense God in Their Life,Nephilim in Today World Are Not Human and Therefore Are Nonredeemable. Nephilim Are Half Human Half Demon That Is How God Will Regard Those Who Take an mRNA Vaccine StevieRay Hansen…
Satan Soldiers Have Censor This Article “They’ve Killed God; I Can’t Feel God; My Soul Is Dead” Astra Zeneca Halts COVID-19 Vaccine Trials after Second Volunteer “Develops Neurological problems” The……...
Read MoreWatchman: Daily Devotional, God Does Not Tempt Us, but He Does Test Us (James 1:13). God Will Test Us to Strengthen Our Resolve and to Help Us Realize Where We Are in Our Growth in Him. His Tests Help Us Get off the Fence and Stand Squarely in the Kingdom of God
Daily Devotional: Genesis 22:1-2 1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac,…
Read More“The Fall”? “The Curse”? What Does The Bible Really Say? A “Curse”? A “Fall”?
Edward O’Hara Why is it that we hear so many using such hyperbole? Is it hyperbole? Or is it Biblical language? Is this language found anywhere in the Bible from which…
Read MoreWatchman Issues a Warning About COVID Vaccines: “The Tribulation Is in Full Swing, and Satan’s Soldiers Are Becoming More Aggressive.” Christians in Particular Should Brace for Increased Persecution
Unvaccinated Transplant patients are being murdered in Canada and America – Four Alberta Judges have legalized murdering the unvaccinated & leftist lawyers tell us they’re coming after all of us…
Read MoreNewsletter
Support Orphans
Editor's Bio
A Thrilling Ride!
Every once in awhile, a book comes across your path that is impossible to put down. A Long Journey Home is not a casual book that you read in a week or earmark to complete at a later date. Once you begin, cancel your schedule, put your phone on silent, find a quiet place where you cannot be disturbed, and complete the journey. Click Here to Purchase on Amazon.com!
Reach People
Top Stories
Watchman: There Are More Reports Coming Out of Vaccinated Individuals No Longer Being Able to Sense God in Their Life,Nephilim in Today World Are Not Human and Therefore Are Nonredeemable. Nephilim Are Half Human Half Demon That Is How God Will Regard Those Who Take an mRNA Vaccine StevieRay Hansen…
Satan Soldiers Have Censor This Article “They’ve Killed God; I Can’t Feel God; My Soul Is Dead” Astra Zeneca Halts COVID-19 Vaccine Trials after Second Volunteer “Develops Neurological problems” The……...
Read MoreWatchman: Daily Devotional, God Does Not Tempt Us, but He Does Test Us (James 1:13). God Will Test Us to Strengthen Our Resolve and to Help Us Realize Where We Are in Our Growth in Him. His Tests Help Us Get off the Fence and Stand Squarely in the Kingdom of God
Daily Devotional: Genesis 22:1-2 1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac,…
Read More“The Fall”? “The Curse”? What Does The Bible Really Say? A “Curse”? A “Fall”?
Edward O’Hara Why is it that we hear so many using such hyperbole? Is it hyperbole? Or is it Biblical language? Is this language found anywhere in the Bible from which…
Read MoreWatchman Issues a Warning About COVID Vaccines: “The Tribulation Is in Full Swing, and Satan’s Soldiers Are Becoming More Aggressive.” Christians in Particular Should Brace for Increased Persecution
Unvaccinated Transplant patients are being murdered in Canada and America – Four Alberta Judges have legalized murdering the unvaccinated & leftist lawyers tell us they’re coming after all of us…
Read More