What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

Post by trianglem » Wed, Feb 17, 2021, 4:16 AM UTC

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #286

svnpenn wrote: post #20

Dallas suburb here (Las Colinas). No power since Monday 6am. I had to get room at holiday inn. I actually got the room yesterday, but the hotel lost power after an hour, so I had to go back home and sleep in 5 degree apartment. Don't believe anything you read about "rolling outages". It's only rolling, if you define that as "out until it's not freezing anymore".

Houston right now, haven't had power, nor water since yesterday. My room is sitting at 20ish degrees and has been all day. I've quite literally been snug under a load of blankets with my wife all day just to stay warm. My office back in Dallas which is not normally open offered to let people stay the night since they happen to be on the same grid as a hospital and I seriously considered trying to make it there today

Post by salawat » Wed, Feb 17, 2021, 4:17 AM UTC

brundolf wrote: post #381

jeffbee wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rolling outages work when you need to shed 1% of your load, not when you need to shed 80% of it. If Austin is down to critical loads only (hospitals or whatever) there may not be anything left to rotate.

There are non-critical loads all over that were never interrupted (my neighborhood, north edge of ATX). It's pretty arbitrary. Even worse: for about the first 24h there were (largely uninhabited!) commercial buildings all over the place that were fully lit up. We're talking skyscrapers. Even some unfinished skyscrapers. I think they've finally begun to address those. The charitable interpretation is that it was simpl…

Post by 8note » Wed, Feb 17, 2021, 4:17 AM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #373

refurb wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the big lesson here is “when you have extreme weather events, things can go wrong”. No more than that. To say this can always be avoided is misleading. When black swan events happen, shit goes bad.

I'm not sure this is a truly "black swan" event. Cold fronts that bring snow and cold temperatures to Texas are becoming more and more frequent. This is simply the worst one so far .

Post by 8note » Wed, Feb 17, 2021, 4:21 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #271

worker767424 wrote: post #94

The Texas-only grid was definitely part of it, and should be a lesson to people who thought the lesson from Covid is "do more locally." No, having stronger, longer distance connections is what makes you more resilient, at least when there are local problems.

I think the big lesson here is “when you have extreme weather events, things can go wrong”. No more than that. To say this can always be avoided is misleading. When black swan events happen, shit goes bad.

Post by WillPostForFood » Wed, Feb 17, 2021, 4:23 AM UTC

gkop wrote: post #591

WillPostForFood wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right if they were trying to reduce load 50%, that's basically impossible for the reasons you mention. They were only trying to get it down 20% and it might have worked if they could have effectively rolled the blackouts. A lot of people have natural gas heat. It doesn't work when the power is out (no ignition, no thermostat, and no fan), but doesn't put a huge load on the electric grid when it is on. For a w…

> A lot of people have natural gas heat. It doesn't work when the power is out That doesn’t have to be the case. I have gas heat [0], that works fine when our power is out. (Not intending to detract from the rest of your point) [0] a basic Williams wall furnace on a 50 year old thermostat.