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Thanks for the Wind ‘Power’
In the middle of the country, it is cold.
Take a look at the Tuesday morning temperatures across the country.
This map shows just how far extremely cold temperatures have plunged into the South. pic.twitter.com/Jt7blzdlIE
— NWS Sioux Falls (@NWSSiouxFalls) February 16, 2021
If you click the link, there are a lot of places -15 to -20 degrees.
A lot of that area is controlled by the South West Power Pool, this organization runs the electric grid for this part of the country.
The good news is that there is not a lot of wind, so the “wind chill” is not making it feel colder than it is. The bad news is that there is not a lot of wind. This means that all the fancy windmills that make power are not working. Furnaces use a lot of power. The South West Power Pool has mandated rolling blackouts across their area of control. We are using more power than we are making.
When the wind doesn’t blow in the winter, we get to sit in cold, dark houses and offices for 60-90 minutes. That gives you time to reflect and really thank people for think wind power was the answer.
Published in General
I read wind power generation was down 50% due to blades icing up. The article didn’t mention the total power produced . . .
Ugh. Deal breaker.
The frozen windmills aren’t the only problem and may not even be the main problem. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is running all of this. ERCOT is one of those quasi-governmental organizations that has almost no political accountability. They are REALLY bad at explaining the situation to the public. I have a better feel for the cause of the power problems after spending 10 minutes reading this thread than after watching hours of local news.
This is good, too:
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2021/02/17/texas-blackouts-highlight-costs-of-ignoring-resilience/
This section of the grid has some of the states with the highest dependence on Wind energy. The low guy is Nebraska getting 10% of its power from wind. South Dakota and Oklahoma get around 30% of there power from wind. Kansas leads the nation with 41% of its power from wind. Texas is closer to 20%. (most of this comes from Wikipedia so the number could be a little off)
Even if there were no other issues, large increases in demand coupled with 10-40% cuts in supply is a disaster waiting to happen.
In theory if Texas had other power plant issues, there should be enough capacity in the other states that are members of the Pool to pick up the slack. Dependence on non-operating wind mills meant that this could not happen
I’m starting to think that politicians and journalists enjoy too much status in our society, and plumbers and electrical engineers too little.
Sounds like a job for…
KEYSTONE PIPELINE!!!
When I need a plumber he is most important person in the world.
I wonder how long it takes for “Biden” (supposedly) to re-authorize Keystone and then take credit for having gotten it off the ground to start with during the Obama years?
This was interesting:
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/texas-power-outages-ercot/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1613676421&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter