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it didn't take a hit due to the storm/cold, that is all I was trying to say, it is a tiny fraction of the power that was needed, they were already at low production due to clouds and short daylight hours, all that is true but the Ice/Snow/Cold did not cause it to drop. That is the only statement I made, which is true
It did take a hit because of the storm and will take a hit every cloudy/snowy/rainy day from now on forever. You can’t say “those gas plants that couldn’t get gas because of the storm failed”. Then say solar that operated at 15% of what it can or should instead of 10% wasn’t impacted. Solar and wind were the most impacted technologies because they are WEATHER driven. Snow and ice took it to essentially nothing for days but it wasn’t part of the equation in the first place because it’s so unreliable in inclimate weather.....it’s such a crappy source of power it wasn’t even considered it doesn’t get a ribbon for being slightly above nothing....it also isn’t dispatchable and can’t provide the absolute 100% necessary ancillary products that have to be maintained for voltage and frequency.....If we had 10x the solar it still wouldn’t have mattered......again we cut load at night!!!
Your statement and the statements in the article aren’t correct for a bunch of reasons......I’m giving the ones that don’t involve physics and easily understood. I can keep going as to why it’s incorrect or people can just realize that a machine with 46,500 miles of line and 26 million customers may be more complex than a reporter figured out in two days with no technical background.
I will give you this.....in brilliant sun and zero degrees solar will produce. Now just find me another zero degree day ever in Texas and show me a weather pattern that gets to temps that threaten the grid in winter that doesn’t have clouds or precip and we’ll talk. Then when you are done with that exercise I will take you a single plant that made more than all the solar would even if it was sunny and stayed on through the whole thing I won’t even count night against the solar in average output.
Your statement and the statements in the article aren’t correct for a bunch of reasons......I’m giving the ones that don’t involve physics and easily understood. I can keep going as to why it’s incorrect or people can just realize that a machine with 46,500 miles of line and 26 million customers may be more complex than a reporter figured out in two days with no technical background.
I will give you this.....in brilliant sun and zero degrees solar will produce. Now just find me another zero degree day ever in Texas and show me a weather pattern that gets to temps that threaten the grid in winter that doesn’t have clouds or precip and we’ll talk. Then when you are done with that exercise I will take you a single plant that made more than all the solar would even if it was sunny and stayed on through the whole thing I won’t even count night against the solar in average output.
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I’m not sure the actual breakdown there were gas suppliers cutting off plants before the event even started.....well heads started freezing around Tuesday and absolutely cut some nominations....storage hung in there because it was maxed in February which is rare but thank god it was I don’t know of any storage issues.....there were a crap ton of forced outage issues.
I will disagree with you on the net effect of solar during the storms and cold snap. I use solar pumps instead of windmills to water my cattle. I realize that my solar cells are not putting out MWh of energy but I had only had one day where I had to knock snow off the panels. In fact, I had enough power that even on a day that was cloudy and no direct sun I didn't have to break ice because the water started running, after I broke the float out of the ice and it melted a nice hole in the ice. We do have the pipes set to where they drain well, but I was impressed with sun rotor, especially when my windmill froze up. Solar can work, it's just a matter of keeping the panels clean.
How would you have managed it and how would other places have managed it. People don’t understand the scope of this storm. These were the coldest temps ever recorded in Texas for three days. Not one minute then back to 30 by noon. Texas is also gigantic.....and wasn’t the only one with problems. It it gets to 125 degrees or negative 30 with the largest single day snow even in history this summer/winter and stays there for three days in VT, MA,CT, ME, NY, NJ, PA,RI, NH then we’ll see how they do. Here’s a hint.....the won’t do well there were large customer outages and the forced outage rate of plants went up 22% in the 2014 polar vortex in the PJM (Penn, Jersey, Maryland covers more than those states largest interconnect in the eastern grid control area) interconnect when temps were similar then to what they were here and they should be made for it.
People are mad because the grid is so good we take it for granted. It is the most essential piece of infrastructure we have and it is far and away the cheapest and most dependable. It hiccuped during a weather event that will change design criteria.
So fix it.....fix something that is 99.9% reliable over the last 51 years and is cheaper than it was 25 years ago. And do it without changing people monthly bills that are probably less than they pay for a phone to play candy crush on or building anything near anyone.
People are mad because the grid is so good we take it for granted. It is the most essential piece of infrastructure we have and it is far and away the cheapest and most dependable. It hiccuped during a weather event that will change design criteria.
So fix it.....fix something that is 99.9% reliable over the last 51 years and is cheaper than it was 25 years ago. And do it without changing people monthly bills that are probably less than they pay for a phone to play candy crush on or building anything near anyone.
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Your numbers are way off. Assuming 3 full days of disrupted power, that's 99.61% reliable. Get your story straight.
/sarcasm
Seriously, it's frustrating to be subjected to the cold that we were, but people really need to realize what they're asking when they want the grid to be able to handle events like this. It would be like me designing every part of a building for tornado-level wind speeds. It's nonsense, because it would cost 100x the same building designed for current code-level events.
/sarcasm
Seriously, it's frustrating to be subjected to the cold that we were, but people really need to realize what they're asking when they want the grid to be able to handle events like this. It would be like me designing every part of a building for tornado-level wind speeds. It's nonsense, because it would cost 100x the same building designed for current code-level events.