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'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

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Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#71
post #70
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>their most relevant property is how much immediate power they can output and for how long. You listed two properties there. Only one of these two properties is present in a figure that is solitarily presented as "10,000 megawatts." We can tell this because only one property is presented. And because it is a very-clearly ambiguous and singularly-useless instance of a unit that sees frequently-erroneous use, we do not…

> The singular property presented can't even be extrapolated to relate to both things. Both things aren't equally important. The energy capacity of the battery isn't provided for the same reason that coal plants don't specify the size of their coal piles or hydro plants don't specify the potential energy storage capacity of their reservoirs. Power is the most relevant property to the real time operation of the grid,…

> The grid operators need to know how much power a battery (or other generation source) can provide, and for how long.

Sure do! They definitely need all both of those things! One thing, by itself, is definitely not enough information! Agreed. Absolutely!

But only one of those figures was presented here, and this here [waves arms around] is the context of the discussion.

And one figure is fewer than two figures, would you not agree?

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#72
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California is also going negative quite often now. Instead of dropping prices and encouraging usage during those times they curtail. The utility model is completely broken. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=60822

As A CA resident living under the thumb of PGE I have to say that nothing shocks me any more. The current PGE rates basically redline a whole portion of the state. Gray Davis got run out of town on the back of Enron's nonsense. The fact that there is abject lack of fall out from the current pricing is, outrageous.

SoCal Edison isn't any better.

When I left CA my off-peak cost was more expensive per kWh than my on-peak cost here in Phoenix. And that on-peak is for 3 hours per day.

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#73
post #64
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its fine as long as the amount of time it can provide rated output is longer than it time it takes to bring replacement generation capacity on line. I don't care how long my UPS will actually last as long the holdover time is long enough to cover the time it takes to deal with all of the foreseeable problems in starting up the backup generator.

I don't think that grid-scale batteries are working with consumers on the grid in the same way that your home UPS is with you in your house. Perhaps most-obviously: Consumers who are suddenly running on grid-scale batteries have no idea that this is a thing that is happening. There's no signal for them to shut their stuff off -- automated, or not. It's a whole different paradigm than your UPS under your desk is: With…

> It's a whole different paradigm than your UPS under your desk is: With your UPS, your system(s) receive a signal that things are running on local battery, and you've elected to configure things to use that signal to order an automated shutdown.

The setup you described there wasn't the situation I was describing at all.

I was describing a situation where there is utility power, a UPS, and a standby generator. When the utility power goes out, the generator has to start, stabilize, and only then can the load be transferred off the battery.

The requirement is that the UPS meet this current power demand for longer than the generator start up and transfer time (the "holdover time" I was speaking about in the previous post.)

For things like frequency response the holdover time is a fixed requirement. ERCOT requires all energy storage resources be able to maintain output for 15 minutes.

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#74
post #70
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>their most relevant property is how much immediate power they can output and for how long. You listed two properties there. Only one of these two properties is present in a figure that is solitarily presented as "10,000 megawatts." We can tell this because only one property is presented. And because it is a very-clearly ambiguous and singularly-useless instance of a unit that sees frequently-erroneous use, we do not…

> The singular property presented can't even be extrapolated to relate to both things. Both things aren't equally important. The energy capacity of the battery isn't provided for the same reason that coal plants don't specify the size of their coal piles or hydro plants don't specify the potential energy storage capacity of their reservoirs. Power is the most relevant property to the real time operation of the grid,…

> For example, a battery that primarily functions in the frequency regulation market (modulation of supply and demand every few seconds) doesn't need a lot of storage capacity, but needs high power output.

For ERCOT this is fixed as a hard requirement so there's no point in specifying the time-- it's all going to be the same. For example:

> Fast Frequency Response (FFR) – subset of RRS

> – Must be capable of sustaining its required response for at least 15 minutes (if necessary)

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#75
post #71
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The singular property presented can't even be extrapolated to relate to both things. Both things aren't equally important. The energy capacity of the battery isn't provided for the same reason that coal plants don't specify the size of their coal piles or hydro plants don't specify the potential energy storage capacity of their reservoirs. Power is the most relevant property to the real time operation of the grid,…

> The grid operators need to know how much power a battery (or other generation source) can provide, and for how long. Sure do! They definitely need all both of those things! One thing, by itself, is definitely not enough information! Agreed. Absolutely! But only one of those figures was presented here, and this here [waves arms around] is the context of the discussion. And one figure is fewer than two figures, would…

> Sure do! They definitely need all both of those things!

When a generation provider bids supply onto the grid, it doesn't tell the operator what the maximum storage capacity of its equipment is, it tells the ISO how much power it can output for a given time frame (or alternatively how much energy it can deliver during a timeframe).

That is different that the total energy storage capacity of the battery itself, which is what I think you asked for.

The grid operator usually pays more attention to the former when it comes to day to day grid stabilization, and especially so for batteries, because batteries today don't do long term energy storage.

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#77
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think, but Biden is looking at imposing a 30% excise tax on crypto miners. This is directly targeted at Texas, to slow further development and growth in that state. Crypto has been one of the largest drivers for renewable energy in Texas, and now they want to put a dagger in it. Investors are watching closely at putting any money into the grid because of the Biden administration. If that tax goes into effec…

> One would think, but Biden is looking at imposing a 30% excise tax on crypto miners. This is directly targeted at Texas, to slow further development and growth in that state. It's not about targeting Texas. It's because the economic value returned to society (in GDP, jobs, etc) from the energy consumed by crypto is less than for energy consuming activities like manufacturing, especially considering the environmenta…

You apparently didn't read what you posted. Texas has been the largest chip producer in the nation for a long time. None of that had to do with Biden. Texas Instruments has three fabs a stones throw from me.

Also, HR 7178 CHIPS for America Act was the first recent CHIPS Act, and it was under Trump and Republicans. If you read the wiki page, they completely omit how this all happened.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7178...

Democrats abandoned the first bill because it was a Republican bill, then side loaded it into a Supreme Court Funding bill. Democrats literally copied the bill, added a bunch of language for Unions, subsidies and then called it their own. They removed the tax credit provision, and literally handed them money when they are already profitable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act

Biden claimed credit for finally signing the bill, after subsidies and other hiring requirements were added to it. Also of note, all of these agreements are non-binding.

Micron signed a deal today. They are going to do like most, dig a hole and take the money and leave.

TSMC has completely stalled. There are not enough educated to workers on the project, and Biden's demands are creating a number of problems. They are going to stall until after the election, and if Trump loses, pull out completely.

As for the electrical issues in Texas, I live here, and we do not have electrical issues. My power has been off once in 10 years and that was during the cold weather in 2021. I have friends I play PUBG/COD with in California and their power is out all the time. I do not understand why people complain about power in Texas. If you drive across the state we have more solar and wind farms than anyone. That includes nations.

Biden promised a lot of things and did not deliver. He was supposed to decriminalize marijuana, didn't happen. He promised to reduce my healthcare costs, it didn't happen. They have more than doubled in 24 months.

I was onboard for immigrants, but after my sisters daughter was killed by one, which has destroyed our family, I am against it.

The amount of misinformation flowing right now is more than when Trump was in office.

I am voting for RFK. He seems like the lesser of all evils. As for Texas, Democrats here are not like Democrats everywhere else. We are libertarian hippies. Quit boxing us in all together.

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#78
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think, but Biden is looking at imposing a 30% excise tax on crypto miners. This is directly targeted at Texas, to slow further development and growth in that state. Crypto has been one of the largest drivers for renewable energy in Texas, and now they want to put a dagger in it. Investors are watching closely at putting any money into the grid because of the Biden administration. If that tax goes into effec…

> One would think, but Biden is looking at imposing a 30% excise tax on crypto miners. This is directly targeted at Texas, to slow further development and growth in that state. It's not about targeting Texas. It's because the economic value returned to society (in GDP, jobs, etc) from the energy consumed by crypto is less than for energy consuming activities like manufacturing, especially considering the environmenta…

Really? Because this group has not spent a dime on solar, and is funding the protests on Universities. You have fallen for the same Democrat slime ball propaganda.

This same group is under investigation for fraud. It couldn't be because Berkshire Hathaway, one of the largest donors to Democrats, is trying to take over the Texas energy market.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-12/warren-bu...

https://energyandpolicy.org/utility-industry-contributions-p...

Every dime has gone to counties aligned with Democrats. Harris County received the award, and they have steered that money to TEPRI. Electricity is already incredibly inexpensive in Texas compared to other states, why flood Houston with solar panels?

https://tepri.org/

https://www.choosetexaspower.org/electricity-rates/houston/

It couldn't be you want Texans to pay more is it? I mean they pay almost half what California pays.

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration...

https://www.aol.com/news/harris-county-selected-solar-grant-...

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/20...

You have no idea what you're talking about. NONE.

Warren Buffett bought controlling interest in Occidental.

This is power move by Democrats. This has nothing to do with any of what you stated.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/14/buffetts-berkshire-buys-more...

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#79
post #43

There is an unfortunate tunnel vision focus on renewables when the real goal should be deep decarbonization. The reason is obvious when you realize that people of a certain generation (who are in power now) don't like nuclear energy because 'nuclear' was the bogeyman while they were growing up. They are dragging the rest of us down with them into an era of unstable and unreliable power at huge expense.

The focus is on decarbonization, which is why the focus is on renewables, as they are the fastest, least cost route to decarbonization (along with efficiency). Nuclear? Why would you want to slow down decarbonization and make the process more expensive? It's almost as if your words of focus on decarbonization are lies.

> the fastest, least cost route to decarbonization

Just wondering, did you read the article? The problem it describes with inverters is just one out of an array of problems with renewables (leaving aside hydro). Cost overruns due to electrical grid incompatibility, hardware instability, operation in bad weather conditions (almost certainly a fact of life in the near future), unprofitability, reliance on China for critical parts of the solar power supply chain...the problems with renewables are endless.

Nuclear? Proven technology that's expensive mostly because it's over-regulated beyond all rationality, and because the US foolishly neglected its large-scale manufacturing capabilities and let them atrophy and move offshore. The supply shocks that were felt in the US and Canada because they had to wait for masks from China when the pandemic started, should make this blindingly obvious.

You'll also note that every country not controlled by the insane anti-science green lobby is seriously looking at, and many are building, nuclear power plants as fast as they can. UAE, South Korea, China, India, Bangladesh just to name a few.

> your words of focus on decarbonization are lies.

Am I living in a parallel reality to you, because in my reality France and Ontario, Canada are examples of two regions which achieved deep decarbonization. Guess what they have in common? Most of their power comes from nuclear energy. Guess what happened to German carbon emissions after they shut down their nuclear plants and started up their coal-fired plants? Shocker! Carbon emissions went up.

But sure, good luck in your parallel world where actual demonstrated decarbonization is nothing but lies.

Re: 'Catastrophic grid failure' a possibility for Texas solar/wind/battery storage

#80
post #17

There is an unfortunate tunnel vision focus on renewables when the real goal should be deep decarbonization. The reason is obvious when you realize that people of a certain generation (who are in power now) don't like nuclear energy because 'nuclear' was the bogeyman while they were growing up. They are dragging the rest of us down with them into an era of unstable and unreliable power at huge expense.

I am in favour of nuclear but a politically unpalatable solution is useless for decarbonisation.

It's only politically unpalatable until we, the people, make it palatable to our politicians.
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