A perfect case for the nuclear energy.
Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
171–180 of 597 posts
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do such nuclear power plants exist? I was under the impression that they provided consistent, baseline levels of power in most circumstances.
You can definitely ramp up and down power generation at nuclear plants. Whether that makes sense economically is another question.
Nuclear plants are OK at this. The current fleet in North America can ramp at about 5% per minute from 50% to 100%. (Between 50% and less gets very slow). There's also concern that repeated ramping could greatly increase the amount of maintenance required.
So, on the same order as a "fast" combined cycle plant and quicker than a older combined cycle ng plant. But.... pretty slow compared to the 4 minutes from 0 to 20% and 4 minutes from 20% to 100% for an open cycle gas turbine, and a fair degree of ability to react to "step" loads.
So, if nuclear needed to, it could help out in grid stability operations, but you really need something very fast like hydro or open cycle NG plants (or batteries) to do most of the work.
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#173Problem is that: 1) People's use of energy is relatively insensitive to price, or they don't know the price, or few people care about the price when it comes time to need it 2) When you need the energy, it's too late to make the equipment/house more efficient, and when you don't need it, people don't think it's important to make it more efficient 3) Mandating that people upgrade their equipment is unpopular, they vot…
Do you still have incandescent bulbs in the US? Its really hard to find them here in Australia. I thought they were banned but I just read that they are not, but have been phased out.
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#174Problem is that: 1) People's use of energy is relatively insensitive to price, or they don't know the price, or few people care about the price when it comes time to need it 2) When you need the energy, it's too late to make the equipment/house more efficient, and when you don't need it, people don't think it's important to make it more efficient 3) Mandating that people upgrade their equipment is unpopular, they vot…
IJS record-breaking cold weather in Texas currently.
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really usable for wind turbines though, the energy cost would be significant first of all (compare the blade area of a wind turbine to a plane!) The bigger issue is maintenance. Wind turbine leading edges are a very hostile environment compared to a plane and even normal materials get abraded very quickly, plus they are expected to last for many years without significant maintenance. Anti-ice systems would just n…
Given they can generate their own electricity, wouldn't it make more sense to just heat the blades?
Heating the blades would be nearly impossible with any significant wind chill. I imagine anyplace that has wind turbines is going to have significant wind chill.
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#176I'd guess the insulation in most of the homes down there isn't great? If so, please take a moment to turn on any faucets with pipes that run along an exterior wall. Just do it a tiny bit, so that it drips every few seconds. Otherwise when it gets warmer you may have burst pipes to worry about. Good luck Texas!
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you’re just looking for emergence power you can get honda e2200i generator with a gas adapter for around 1500 USD.
Most people around here (Pacific Northwest) do propane. No one wants to store large quantities of gasoline on their property.
Yup, especially when those tanks of propane work for hot water and cooking too.
There's a lot of crossover with RVs, industrial, and even marine when you use propane. The cabin I'm writing this from has a battery bank and a standby generator salvaged from a touring bus.
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Holy cow! How in the world do you use that much? My old house in Colorado would use ~350kwh/month. Swap out that electric heater for a heat pump asap!
Big house (3700sqft or so), tall ceilings, four people working/schooling from home and an electric car as the primary family car. In 2019 I literally did not turn the heater on a single time, I don't think the investment in a heat pump would be worth it.
Heat pump systems can sometimes be an upgrade to standard air conditioning systems
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Griddy literally emailed every customer yesterday and told them to switch providers asap.
Yep. I was on track for a $5000 electric bill at the end of the week. I got switched over yesterday. Still going to be painful but not horrible.
I’ve been half ignoring them because they tend to cry wolf with the high price emails. But this is no joke, I checked current rate which is $9.01/kWh. I immediately switched back to my old provider.
Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid
#180Problem is that: 1) People's use of energy is relatively insensitive to price, or they don't know the price, or few people care about the price when it comes time to need it 2) When you need the energy, it's too late to make the equipment/house more efficient, and when you don't need it, people don't think it's important to make it more efficient 3) Mandating that people upgrade their equipment is unpopular, they vot…
Do you still have incandescent bulbs in the US? Its really hard to find them here in Australia. I thought they were banned but I just read that they are not, but have been phased out.
There was an incandescent bulb phase out over several years that was supposed to end in 2020, but Trump blocked it because he claimed that LED bulbs were too expensive and made him look orange.[0]
You pretty much can’t buy them anymore at stores except for specialty bulbs like oven lamps, but that might vary state-to-state.
0: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/trump-light-bulb-...