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Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

ercot.com

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Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#401

Post by foxhop »

rossdavidh wrote: post #4

Texan here. I tried, on Thursday, to buy a space heater; not only was the hardware store out, they told me a list of other places around town that were also out. Most homes use natural gas for heat, but I think a lot of space heaters are probably turned on right now. I also have to wonder how an everyone-videoconference-from-home society changes electricity usage? Not saying it has a significant impact, just wonderin…

Get incandescent light bulbs and heat a small room. I use a 200 watt bulb to keep me toasty at my desk in Connecticut Zone 6B

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#402

Post by bombcar »

JimNasby wrote: post #255

More than 4 GW of capacity has gone offline in the last few minutes, based on http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_system_condi... . A significant chunk of load was shed as well. Frequency is swinging pretty wildly.

Demand went above capacity just now by 100MW - I assume the “ancillary” is doing something.

Or Texas is now an over unity device.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#403

Post by foxhop »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #318
rossdavidh wrote: post #4

Texan here. I tried, on Thursday, to buy a space heater; not only was the hardware store out, they told me a list of other places around town that were also out. Most homes use natural gas for heat, but I think a lot of space heaters are probably turned on right now. I also have to wonder how an everyone-videoconference-from-home society changes electricity usage? Not saying it has a significant impact, just wonderin…

If you have anything else that can use a significant amount of power (e.g. electric stove/hotplate, kettle, gaming rig, bitcoin miner), it's just as efficient as a space heater. This also means that if your alternative is running a resistive heater, there's no meaningful extra cost to e.g. mining cryptocurrencies with your GPU (assuming you have decent cooling so your components don't get damaged from overheating).

Thats a terrible idea. Get traditional light bulbs and warm your body and a small room.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#404

Post by bombcar »

gregwebs wrote: post #138

Do power saving recommendations given out here to reduce consumption such as "don't use the oven" help in the winter given that wasted electricity ends up as heat? Or is this given by the electricity company hoping that they have natural gas to heat their house with instead?

If you have GAS you should use the oven and furnace as much as you can and shut off electricity. If you have electric heat it doesn’t really matter either way.

(Pro tip - if you have a gas or propane oven but a electric furnace/baseboard now is a great time to run the self cleaning cycle. The oven will get to 500+ degrees and heat your kitchen up real nice.)

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#405

Post by Schiendelman »

foxhop wrote: post #389

I love my incandescent bulbs. It is a threat to remove them. The heat they produce is amazing in the winter. I use a 100 watt bulb to keep me warm at my desk. Heat bodies not buildings. I've been practicing this since a child and I'm 36 now. To heat yourself, check out: https://youtu.be/3gjvOOlHmsU For actual good LED lamps (not the crap they push in USA) check out: https://youtu.be/klaJqofCsu4 TLDR most LED lamp are…

You also use your incandescent bulbs when it’s warm out. Stop wasting power.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#408

Post by RNanoware »

svnpenn wrote: post #142
adrianmonk wrote: post #32

Here's their news release about it: http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/225151 That links to this PDF which describes their emergency procedures: http://www.ercot.com/content/wcm/lists/200198/EEA_OnePager_u... Basically, there are 3 levels of response: (1) Reserves below 2,300 MW: get more power, including from other grids. (2) Reserves below 1,750 MW: interrupt power to industrial customers (who've contractually…

Uh, were at 1210 mw right now

1.21 gigawatts? Do you have any idea how much energy that is? The only power source capable triggering that kind of energy is a bolt of lightning. It would have to be a real wall-shaker, big enough to stop a clock!

(I mean this as purely a bit of comic relief. Texas is in dire straits right now, and I wish the people and infrastructure all the best in this time.)

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#409

Post by foxhop »

jeffbee wrote: post #130

The main difference between this and California rolling outages last August is the conspicuous lack of ten-thousand-word think-pieces about how it was the inevitable consequence of a failing one-party regime. Climate change is going to result in local excursions in heating and cooling demand. It's just stochastic bad luck.

It's grand solar minimum, industry not preparing infra for cold snaps, uniformed population who gave up their incandescent bulbs (heaters) for LEDs and power hungry space heaters, people wasting energy. It's not just bad luck.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#410

Post by foxhop »

Schiendelman wrote: post #405
foxhop wrote: post #389

I love my incandescent bulbs. It is a threat to remove them. The heat they produce is amazing in the winter. I use a 100 watt bulb to keep me warm at my desk. Heat bodies not buildings. I've been practicing this since a child and I'm 36 now. To heat yourself, check out: https://youtu.be/3gjvOOlHmsU For actual good LED lamps (not the crap they push in USA) check out: https://youtu.be/klaJqofCsu4 TLDR most LED lamp are…

You also use your incandescent bulbs when it’s warm out. Stop wasting power.

Nice try, I'm an environmentalist. I replace the bulb with LED when it's warm out.
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