ERCOT calls for Texans to conserve Power--Grid Failure possible

[Binman4OSU]

Between what happened this winter and now THIS.....what the crap. They may crash the grid again.

Adding to the pressure on the grid is potential for record-breaking June electricity demand as cities across Texas expect temperatures in the 90s or higher.
ERCOT is forecasting that demand on Monday will exceed 73,000 megawatts. The daily record for June is 69,123 megawatts, which was set on June 27, 2018.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on Monday asked people to conserve energy throughout the week as the supply of electricity on the Texas grid ran the risk of falling short of demand.
Texans should reduce their electricity use through Friday, ERCOT said.
It is the second time the state’s grid operator has made such a request since devastating blackouts gripped Texas in February.
In a media release, ERCOT blamed the tight grid conditions on more electric generators than usual being shut down for repairs. The grid operator said 11,000 megawatts of generation capacity — about the amount of energy it takes to power 2.2 million homes on a summer day — is unavailable due to those forced outages. One megawatt of electricity can usually power about 200 homes on a summer day.
According to ERCOT, about 73% of that unavailable power comes from “thermal” generators, typically gas and coal plants, being offline.
“This is unusual for this early in the summer season,” ERCOT Vice President of Grid Planning and Operations Woody Rickerson said in the statement.
Generator owners have told ERCOT the number of outages should reduce by the end of the week. Rickerson said ERCOT will conduct "a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service.”

 

[osupsycho]

Between what happened this winter and now THIS.....what the crap. They may crash the grid again.

Adding to the pressure on the grid is potential for record-breaking June electricity demand as cities across Texas expect temperatures in the 90s or higher.
ERCOT is forecasting that demand on Monday will exceed 73,000 megawatts. The daily record for June is 69,123 megawatts, which was set on June 27, 2018.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on Monday asked people to conserve energy throughout the week as the supply of electricity on the Texas grid ran the risk of falling short of demand.
Texans should reduce their electricity use through Friday, ERCOT said.
It is the second time the state’s grid operator has made such a request since devastating blackouts gripped Texas in February.
In a media release, ERCOT blamed the tight grid conditions on more electric generators than usual being shut down for repairs. The grid operator said 11,000 megawatts of generation capacity — about the amount of energy it takes to power 2.2 million homes on a summer day — is unavailable due to those forced outages. One megawatt of electricity can usually power about 200 homes on a summer day.
According to ERCOT, about 73% of that unavailable power comes from “thermal” generators, typically gas and coal plants, being offline.
“This is unusual for this early in the summer season,” ERCOT Vice President of Grid Planning and Operations Woody Rickerson said in the statement.
Generator owners have told ERCOT the number of outages should reduce by the end of the week. Rickerson said ERCOT will conduct "a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service.”

They said this was likely coming this summer thanks to all the damage done to the grid back in February so it is not unexpected. I mean they had to take a lot of stuff offline to fix the damage and then throw in shortages on everything.

 

[teachum]

They said this was likely coming this summer thanks to all the damage done to the grid back in February so it is not unexpected. I mean they had to take a lot of stuff offline to fix the damage and then throw in shortages on everything.

Not to mention the recruitment of people from other states like California. Several huge corporations have moved there over the last couple years, and those folks aren't accustomed to Texas heat!

 

[wrenhal]

Sounding like Texas has been overrun by the same people that used to run California's power grid. Rolling blackouts will make those transplants feel right at home.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

[TheMonkey]

Sounding like Texas has been overrun by the same people that used to run California's power grid. Rolling blackouts will make those transplants feel right at home.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

What makes you think former Californians are running the Texas power grid? The biggest issue former Californians have created is consumption.

The real issue is how the grid was deregulated. And it was done in a way that was intentionally different than California. Texans are proud of that.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/the-real-problem-in-texas-deregulation/595564/
… the Texas grid simply couldn’t deliver. That’s because the power system in Texas wasn’t really designed to deliver power to customers. It was designed to deliver revenue to the patchwork quilt of companies that choose to participate in its marketplace. Companies that could disappear in a year. Companies that collect bills from customers, but have no obligation to restore downed power lines, because someone else owns them.

 

[Coolfogg]

When you have a mass migration , things are going to get stretched to the braking point.

 

[TheMonkey]

When you have a mass migration , things are going to get stretched to the braking point.

Which is why you do risk mitigation. I served on some teams that did this for oil & gas companies. They knew the reserves were shrinking, but didn’t insulate the plants and distribution because it would eat into profit and the probability of that kind of weather phenomenon was low. The problem is the impact could be catastrophic. This is poor management and a deference to profit. Capitalism works best when profit lines up with the needs of the public. This is an example of when those don’t align. Studies have shown that deregulation in Texas actually created higher consumer pricing than in regulated markets. This 19 year experiment (so far) is failing if changes aren’t made quickly.

 

[Binman4OSU]

This is poor management and a deference to profit. Capitalism works best when profit lines up with the needs of the public. This is an example of when those don’t align. Studies have shown that deregulation in Texas actually created higher consumer pricing than in regulated markets. This 19 year experiment (so far) is failing if changes aren’t made quickly.

You are correct. There have been some horrendously stupid decisions in order to align with more profit surrounding this entire thing.

The thing is, there isn't mitigation against Extreme Cold OR Extreme Heat. There was not risk mitigation against EITHER extreme weather condition which is absurd. It was about accepting that risk and hoping it would never happen in the name of profit......Now they are going to get both cases of Long Term Extreme Cold and Long Term Extreme Heat in a 6 month span and may just actually destroy their crap grid in the process

 

[TheMonkey]

You are correct. There have been some horrendously stupid decisions in order to align with more profit surrounding this entire thing.

The thing is, there isn't mitigation against Extreme Cold OR Extreme Heat. There was not risk mitigation against EITHER extreme weather condition which is absurd. It was about accepting that risk and hoping it would never happen in the name of profit......Now they are going to get both cases of Long Term Extreme Cold and Long Term Extreme Heat in a 6 month span and may just actually destroy their crap grid in the process

Even if you accept that risk, you would think it would be mitigated by developing a fallback. Unlike many other grids, we have no ability to accept energy from neighboring states. That would be a sign of Texas dependence on others. Can’t have that.

 

[PokeJ]

You are correct. There have been some horrendously stupid decisions in order to align with more profit surrounding this entire thing.

The thing is, there isn't mitigation against Extreme Cold OR Extreme Heat. There was not risk mitigation against EITHER extreme weather condition which is absurd. It was about accepting that risk and hoping it would never happen in the name of profit......Now they are going to get both cases of Long Term Extreme Cold and Long Term Extreme Heat in a 6 month span and may just actually destroy their crap grid in the process

Even if you accept that risk, you would think it would be mitigated by developing a fallback. Unlike many other grids, we have no ability to accept energy from neighboring states. That would be a sign of Texas dependence on others. Can’t have that.

Can’t blame the grid for private utility companies that have units in outages wether planned or u planned. This sounds like more of a capacity issue than grid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Binman4OSU]

Can’t blame the grid for private utility companies that have units in outages wether planned or u planned. This sounds like more of a capacity issue than grid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

This is the LEADERSHIP failure here. If all of these private utility companies come together under the eye of ERCOT but can not coordinate their own outage plans in order to ensure the grid is stable and can handle demand than you have FAILED at leadership and communication here.

IF you are going to be independent as they have done, then the private companies need to be communicating, planning and working Together on these things and they CLEARLY are not.

I mean the President of ERCOT says he now has to go back to these companies and figure out how come they had soo much capacity offline for maint all at the same time now which is contributing heavily to the issues they have now. That is a complete lack of leadership and communication on the part of ERCOT

 

[TheMonkey]

Can’t blame the grid for private utility companies that have units in outages wether planned or u planned. This sounds like more of a capacity issue than grid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Why can’t we? The reason private generator companies are reducing our capacity below our threshold by taking facilities offline is because we have a grid that relies on private generator companies. And as @Binman4OSU mentioned, there apparently was a lack of coordination by the entity responsible for overseeing those private generators.

Who do we blame? Californians?

 

[Jonkr06]

Hilarious reading all the finger pointing on this. Everyone is to blame yet nobody is to blame. Not a damn thing will be done to fix it either.

We're in for a long summer when warnings are tripping the second week of June.

 

[UrbanCowboy1]

Hilarious reading all the finger pointing on this. Everyone is to blame yet nobody is to blame. Not a damn thing will be done to fix it either.

We're in for a long summer when warnings are tripping the second week of June.

Yep - you gotta laugh when the Texas power grid is having issues and people say "it's the Californian's".

 

[Binman4OSU]

This Tweet from last year didn't age well. Texas grid has collapsed once and is on the verge of it again since this

The finger pointing on this started LONG ago and it was STARTED by the very People Texas Elected

Yep - you gotta laugh when the Texas power grid is having issues and people say "it's the Californian's".

 

[Binman4OSU]

This Tweet from 7 DAYS AGO didn't age well either

https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1402382110468579330

 

[Binman4OSU]

 

[Binman4OSU]

https://twitter.com/KXAN_News/status/1404848993625165828

 

[Binman4OSU]

 

[llcoolw]

Talked to CoServ last Friday. Before the warning. They be mad. Claiming other independents aren’t even Texans. Trying to create shortages and raise more demand to get higher prices. And I didn’t even ask about that, the representative just went into a prepared excuse. I wanted to know the forecast (if any) for rolling blackouts. Crossed my mind because of the February damage and I have an option to buy another solution. They said that rolling blackouts have been happening south of Austin for the last 20 years. Around Austin for the past 10 years. None for north of Waco on massive scales. She said to prepare for them. Number 1 reason was population increase. FWIW