Ercot issues Conservation Warning

[mspohr]

Big surprise here!

Thousands of Texans are without power as arctic cold front hits state

ERCOT says there is enough to meet the demand, but still, thousands of Texans are without power. Gov. Abbot warned that issues like downed power lines could cause outages.

abc13.com

 

[nwdiver]

Welcome to Texas. Where too much wind will destroy our winter barrier and trip our gas turbines but too little wind won't support our grid because we're too cheap to ensure an adequate gas supply like the rest of the developed world.

 

[mspohr]

They still haven't fixed things...

Texas bracing for upcoming heat wave, potential strain on ERCOT power grid

Temperatures Friday through Monday are expected to creep into the 90s and even reach triple-digits in some North Texas counties, upping the demand for power.

www.dallasnews.com

 

[iPlug]

They still haven't fixed things...

Texas bracing for upcoming heat wave, potential strain on ERCOT power grid

Temperatures Friday through Monday are expected to creep into the 90s and even reach triple-digits in some North Texas counties, upping the demand for power.

www.dallasnews.com

Too bad ERCOT refuses to link to other grids. We could share some late afternoon to early evening solar (we're 1-2 times zones behind them).

 

[CrazyRabbit]

we are linked to other grids... always have been thru dc interconnects.

Grid and Market Conditions

www.ercot.com

we have over 35 Gw of wind and 10 Gw of grid scale solar now.

 

[nwdiver]

we are linked to other grids... always have been thru dc interconnects.

Grid and Market Conditions

www.ercot.com

we have over 35 Gw of wind and 10 Gw of grid scale solar now.

ERCOT has DC interconnect capacity like an American has Emergency savings

 

[mspohr]

we are linked to other grids... always have been thru dc interconnects.

Grid and Market Conditions

www.ercot.com

we have over 35 Gw of wind and 10 Gw of grid scale solar now.

Need batteries close to loads.

Climate, the Texas grid, and solar + batteries to the rescue

Extreme weather, power outages, and centralized grid failures are increasingly becoming the norm. How will PV and battery energy storage mitigate and adapt to climate problems?

pv-magazine-usa.com

Solar and batteries can serve a critical role in alleviating this congestion, reducing renewables curtailment, smoothing the curve of wholesale market demand spikes, and providing critical backup power in times of crisis.

When located closer to load centers, or the location of energy demand, batteries can readily dispatch backup power. By locating the batteries as “nodes” further down the grid, pressure is taken off key bottlenecks like substations, which shut down in times of extreme peak demand, and are extremely expensive to upgrade.

Batteries can also serve as peak-demand shavers, avoiding those massive spikes in wholesale market volatility. This is the main way they are currently deployed in ERCOT, and peak demand shaving represents a massive market opportunity. At RE+ utility-scale solar and storage developer 8-minute energy shared that 95% of the revenue generated by a two-hour duration battery is earned in the first hour of dispatch. 8minute said the market opportunities for batteries could be improved, if “predefined revenue streams” are created, like in the capacity-based, forward looking market of California’s CAISO grid.

 

[mspohr]

ERCOT asking Texans to conserve electricity after several power generation facilities go offline

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking Texans to conserve electricity between the hours of 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the weekend as it deals with power generating issues.

www.kwtx.com

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

ERCOT asking Texans to conserve electricity after several power generation facilities go offline

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking Texans to conserve electricity between the hours of 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the weekend as it deals with power generating issues.

www.kwtx.com

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/texas-calls-energy-conservation-six-224302946.html

Natural-gas fired plants make up all of the generation that failed, an Ercot spokesman said.

Texas’ grid operator told a power plant to delay repairs ahead of a May heat wave. It was among six that crashed.

Climate change and other factors are shortening the window when aging Texas power plants can make repairs to run at full strength in hot summer months.

www.texastribune.org

 

[MontyFloyd]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/texas-calls-energy-conservation-six-224302946.html

Texas’ grid operator told a power plant to delay repairs ahead of a May heat wave. It was among six that crashed.

Climate change and other factors are shortening the window when aging Texas power plants can make repairs to run at full strength in hot summer months.

www.texastribune.org

Texas would tremendously benefit from more PV installations.
Hotter it is, the more PV power is produced.

 

[mspohr]

Texas would tremendously benefit from more PV installations.
Hotter it is, the more PV power is produced.

Actually, solar panels decrease production as it gets hotter.
Most have a negative temperature coefficient.
Most solar panels have a temperature coefficient of around -0.3% / °C to -0.5% / °C.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Actually, solar panels decrease production as it gets hotter.
Most have a negative temperature coefficient.
Most solar panels have a temperature coefficient of around -0.3% / °C to -0.5% / °C.

Yes, the key benefit is actually that the strenuous daytimes don't have a lot of cloud cover.

Texas has a lot of PV in the pipeline. However, the current DoC investigation resulting from a complaint of tariff-dodging from a small US PV manufacturer has put the brakes on what would have been record PV deployment this year. And of course this has _really_ come at the wrong time, as PV would be displacing displacing natural gas generation.

 

[canasion35]

Yes, the key benefit is actually that the strenuous daytimes don't have a lot of cloud cover.

Texas has a lot of PV in the pipeline. However, the current DoC investigation resulting from a complaint of tariff-dodging from a small US PV manufacturer has put the brakes on what would have been record PV deployment this year. And of course this has _really_ come at the wrong time, as PV would be displacing displacing natural gas generation.

Finally, somebody that is calling out the real issue with solar deployment in ERCOT.

Also for everyone’s awareness, ERCOT issues conservative operations warning and effects pretty often. It’s not a nuanced thing and has been issued regularly in the past 5-6 years.

 

[mspohr]

Climate lessons from faltering Texas power grid

Texas is in for a hot summer — and power plants are already failing.

thehill.com

It’s not even summer yet, but Texans are already being asked to turn up our thermostats and leave appliances off each afternoon amid a heatwave that has driven power demand to springtime records. Meanwhile, our aging coal and gas power plants continue to falter. The largest coal plant near Houston caught fire just days before six gas plants tripped offline.

So far, the lights have stayed on, thanks largely to solar output that doubled yet again this year. But the close calls in May bode poorly for what is forecast to be a hotter than normal summer.

Other Americans may dismiss these woes as a uniquely Texan problem. Texas alone operates its power grid as an island, isolated from the two main grids that span other states. That lets the state skirt federal oversight and prevents us from importing power when we need it most.

Recent woes in Texas are just our latest reminder that fossil-dominated power supplies have failed to be affordable, reliable or resilient to extreme weather, even as they pollute our air and water as well as warm our climate. Built right, a cleaner power supply will be more resilient to heatwaves, floods and droughts and help slow the warming that is making those events more common.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

Climate lessons from faltering Texas power grid

Texas is in for a hot summer — and power plants are already failing.

thehill.com

So far, the lights have stayed on, thanks largely to solar output that doubled yet again this year. But the close calls in May bode poorly for what is forecast to be a hotter than normal summer.

true, we now have 10 GW of grid scale solar and it keeps growing.

Climate lessons from faltering Texas power grid

Texas is in for a hot summer — and power plants are already failing.

thehill.com

Other Americans may dismiss these woes as a uniquely Texan problem. Texas alone operates its power grid as an island, isolated from the two main grids that span other states. That lets the state skirt federal oversight and prevents us from importing power when we need it most.

True, texas is its own grid.
false, there are four grids across USA.
false, texas is interconnected with DC ties. East coast grid has six regulating authorities, 3 of which were having rolling blackouts during URI. being connected to the east coast grid would not have changed a thing.

Climate lessons from faltering Texas power grid

Texas is in for a hot summer — and power plants are already failing.

thehill.com

Recent woes in Texas are just our latest reminder that fossil-dominated power supplies have failed to be affordable, reliable or resilient to extreme weather, even as they pollute our air and water as well as warm our climate. Built right, a cleaner power supply will be more resilient to heatwaves, floods and droughts and help slow the warming that is making those events more common.

we are a long way from being all renewable. first we need to generate enough renewable power, second we have to solve the storage part of the equation.
"failed to be reliable or resilient", this is false. yes, some fossil fueled generation plants went down due to no fuel which caused pipes to freeze. even a nuclear plant shutdown because the cooling water inlet temperature for the condensers was to low. wind was forecast to be zero and was zero, renewable resources LEFT US HIGH AND DRY. so much for our 35GW investment in wind energy. don't get me wrong, i like renewable energy. but come on man tell the truth.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

California, did you turn up your thermostats as requested? So why isn’t Oregon sending you more power? What about power fron NY? You are on the National grid, you stated that is the solution.

 

[iPlug]

California, did you turn up your thermostats as requested? So why isn’t Oregon sending you more power? What about power fron NY? You are on the National grid, you stated that is the solution.

View attachment 842749

Do you see a problem with the chart you posted here with CAISO being short of power?

 

[nwdiver]

California, did you turn up your thermostats as requested? So why isn’t Oregon sending you more power? What about power fron NY? You are on the National grid, you stated that is the solution.

View attachment 842749

You're missing a chart

 

[CrazyRabbit]

Do you see a problem with the chart you posted here with CAISO being short of power?

Didn’t post a chart.
Casio says “restricted maintenance operations”. You’re short on power and news says you’all have been asked to turn up your thermostats.
Nwdiver, can you share the link to that chart.

 

[iPlug]

Didn’t post a chart.
Casio says “restricted maintenance operations”. You’re short on power and news says you’all have been asked to turn up your thermostats.
Nwdiver, can you share the link to that chart.

Take a look at your chart again. Compare “current capacity” to “forecasted peak”. Lots of excess power.

Casio says “buy our calculator and use it”.