tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post6935844868352360400..comments2024-02-13T02:39:22.756-05:00Comments on EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Why There Are Rolling Blackouts in Texas During 10 Degree WeatherRobert Wenzelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14296920597416905488noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-72767856847237961512021-03-12T17:19:06.887-05:002021-03-12T17:19:06.887-05:00There really should be no question as to what happ...There really should be no question as to what happened, only why.<br />https://i.imgur.com/yZw41De.png<br /><br /><br />If you look at the hourly data on EIA.gov for ERCOT (screenshot above), it shows coal and gas generation were nearly maxed out, up until ERCOT decided to execute manual load shedding of 10GW, which caused all controllable generation sources to drop because generation must alwaysVigilant Onehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06185332870538731298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-4020705619607475312021-02-20T21:51:05.402-05:002021-02-20T21:51:05.402-05:00permin basin was on rolling blackout and guess wha...permin basin was on rolling blackout and guess what thats where gas is produced.no gas is why the plants tripped offline. we have very smart people in our gov. that dont know what the hell their doing.turning power off to gas producers really?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-78530890896460693792021-02-19T00:09:26.875-05:002021-02-19T00:09:26.875-05:00You're just a gamma who can't stand being ...You're just a gamma who can't stand being wrong or upstaged. There is no logical debate with idiots, just as there aren't with SJWs.<br /><br />The contents of the pipelines don't have enough moisture for this to stop ALL the pipelines from functioning in Texas given the conditions in Texas. It's as if pipelines in Alaska, across the bitter cold of Russia, and thousands of Shimshonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04158609487960587917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-66284847852364858602021-02-17T14:21:37.035-05:002021-02-17T14:21:37.035-05:00Every oil/gas giant has a department devoted to pr...Every oil/gas giant has a department devoted to preventing the formation of hydrates in natural gas and asphaltenes in crude oil transport. It's called "flow assurance". I'm not here to exonerate anyone, but not every explanation needs to fit into a nice ideological box. Do more reading and less name-calling. Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11511367878944127068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-55263380460283196372021-02-17T14:13:13.651-05:002021-02-17T14:13:13.651-05:00Eric, the difference is, you are speculating, and ...Eric, the difference is, you are speculating, and I am reporting on something I actually read, and that makes sense. It's idiotic. Are you an idiot intent on exonerating other idiots?<br /><br />If you read about those hydrates, the conditions for their formation are so extreme they were theorized to not even exist on earth, regardless of what you say. Obviously, that was wrong. They do existShimshonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04158609487960587917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-52938208613019167652021-02-17T07:54:38.580-05:002021-02-17T07:54:38.580-05:00Couple of points here:
Natural gas, nuclear, wind,...Couple of points here:<br />Natural gas, nuclear, wind, and I am pretty sure coal all went offline. <br /><br />To say coal would not have done so is just inaccurate without many, many caveats. In the polar vortex event on the east coast several years ago it was coal that failed in mass due to frozen stockpiles, among other issues...<br />The world is complex, but blaming a certain resource and Brandon Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17219366273934076952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-28799235981272972792021-02-17T05:54:27.105-05:002021-02-17T05:54:27.105-05:00Thanks to the power outage I was going through I w...Thanks to the power outage I was going through I was unable to make any kind of salient point before everyone else did. So I'll speak for everyone else in Texas when I say: damn you Ercot!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06765406987392111266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-35526149933050268352021-02-17T03:43:10.128-05:002021-02-17T03:43:10.128-05:00Shimshon, hydrates are formed by a combination of ...Shimshon, hydrates are formed by a combination of water, temperature, and pressure. At high-enough pressures, you can form hydrates at room temperature. Your original post said "pipelines shut down, and I could not understand how that would happen regardless of weather extremes." <br /><br />Plugged up by hydrates: I'm putting that out there as a possibility. Enjoy your day.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11511367878944127068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-81746871511077734062021-02-16T23:46:19.716-05:002021-02-16T23:46:19.716-05:00Eric, it is as if you didn't even read what I ...Eric, it is as if you didn't even read what I wrote and want to come up with a Rube Goldberg-style mechanism to explain an easy to understand failure. I am familiar with methyl clathrates (the modern term for the same thing). They do freeze at higher temps than methane itself, but it is still much colder than water. This is not what happened. It can't be much more basic than switching outShimshonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04158609487960587917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-39958995591134810712021-02-16T21:48:24.656-05:002021-02-16T21:48:24.656-05:00The following article from Center for Industrial P...The following article from Center for Industrial Progress has more to say about both the renewables failure as well as the failure of coal/gas powered plants, which also is a direct consequence of regulatory pressure.<br /><br />https://industrialprogress.com/the-truth-about-the-texas-electricity-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR0BS364aQ2wWydVG5nECGODamAkLR1a_SDEX4VC0kZ27TaIHnQcdGt5u7gAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-31356394057901343042021-02-16T21:14:09.516-05:002021-02-16T21:14:09.516-05:00Eric this is the recent grid maintenance and desig...Eric this is the recent grid maintenance and design process that no longer engineers to factor in extremes. Distribution doesnt plan for robust capability anymore. MidRichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349404533078477642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-35905937547054459482021-02-16T19:35:11.249-05:002021-02-16T19:35:11.249-05:00The issue is the windmills and solar are diffuse a...The issue is the windmills and solar are diffuse and intermittent; therefore, need supplemental power sources (coal does not). Natural gas is easy to ramp up and burns cleaner; however, it also freezes in cold temperatures. So now three sources have gone offline. Coal would not have done so. The world is complex. Central panning is shallow thinking. Brandon fits in with them.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13908931414406770220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-65966167201092071102021-02-16T16:25:30.211-05:002021-02-16T16:25:30.211-05:00You are still missing the point. It is thermal und...You are still missing the point. It is thermal under the conditions of a large government subsidized windmill footprint where there is failure. Without the subsidized windmill footprint, there was no thermal failure.Robert Wenzelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296920597416905488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-27115155821013502582021-02-16T16:02:37.993-05:002021-02-16T16:02:37.993-05:00You are correct it had been cold but thermal rathe...You are correct it had been cold but thermal rather than wind had been a bigger failure these last several days. You are also correct that planning is too blame, but the headline grab wind causes blackout needs a little more substantiation. Brandon Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17219366273934076952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-49619543915013879312021-02-16T15:56:14.865-05:002021-02-16T15:56:14.865-05:00Isn't global warming the answer to this proble...Isn't global warming the answer to this problem?The NAPsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16631781625841157567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-18910918363361162652021-02-16T15:34:37.554-05:002021-02-16T15:34:37.554-05:00Texas has had plenty of cold before windmills and ...Texas has had plenty of cold before windmills and never had blackouts before. Just one example in 1989 the temperature hit -1 in Dallas and 9 degrees in Houston. A lot colder than it is now.Robert Wenzelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296920597416905488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-12264760768464139812021-02-16T15:26:52.334-05:002021-02-16T15:26:52.334-05:00Please stop. You are quoting the CEO of ERCOT? ERC...Please stop. You are quoting the CEO of ERCOT? ERCOT is the central planning agency that is creating the problem.Robert Wenzelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296920597416905488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-44378086547017032632021-02-16T14:55:48.077-05:002021-02-16T14:55:48.077-05:00Here is a quote from the CEO of ercot. I work in ...Here is a quote from the CEO of ercot. I work in renewables and understand there are serious intermittency issues with it but to blame the situation in TX on wind is shallow thinking at best. <br /><br />Magness said about 45,000 megawatts of electricity was offline Tuesday morning. ERCOT said that figure was 34,000 megawatts Monday. <br /><br />For context, one megawatt of electricity can powerBrandon Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17219366273934076952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-88928611247384889672021-02-16T14:50:54.368-05:002021-02-16T14:50:54.368-05:00I'm wondering if the problem is much more basi...I'm wondering if the problem is much more basic. At the right combination of pressure/temperature/water content, water vapor will form solid structures with natural gas (called hydrates) and this could easily plug the natural gas lines. <br /><br />Here's an example of a phase diagram for hydrate formation:<br />http://d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net/images/earthandmind/posts/Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11511367878944127068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-43702924085295741082021-02-16T14:43:05.334-05:002021-02-16T14:43:05.334-05:00It is not like texas never had cold weather before...It is not like texas never had cold weather before windmills is a logical fallacy and does not address the massive amount of thermal generation that is offline right now. It also doesn't address the infrastructure issues.Brandon Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17219366273934076952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-90556921136614299792021-02-16T14:37:32.009-05:002021-02-16T14:37:32.009-05:00Another environmental catastrophe brought you us b...Another environmental catastrophe brought you us by government policy championed by economic illiterates.<br /><br />And capitalism will be blamed. I already saw one economics professor claim "deregulation" was the cause. Hahaha ok<br /><br />David B.David B. (formerly The Contractor)https://www.blogger.com/profile/03686482990006926632noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-87389555759683675812021-02-16T14:15:48.848-05:002021-02-16T14:15:48.848-05:00Excellent info!Excellent info!Robert Wenzelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296920597416905488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-78599103909673755912021-02-16T14:09:07.342-05:002021-02-16T14:09:07.342-05:00I read a day or two ago that the NatGat pipelines ...I read a day or two ago that the NatGat pipelines shut down, and I could not understand how that would happen regardless of weather extremes.<br /><br />Today I read that pipelines have pumps along the route. I did not know this, but it makes sense. In saner times, those pumps would be run from bleeding the gas out and using it to power them where and as needed. Then, madness ensued, and now all Shimshonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04158609487960587917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-38660678878115767812021-02-16T12:53:39.909-05:002021-02-16T12:53:39.909-05:00Oh please, it is not like Texas never had cold wea...Oh please, it is not like Texas never had cold weather before windmills.<br /><br />There has been plenty of it an no rolling blackouts.Robert Wenzelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296920597416905488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3758330678390419129.post-10992098052429344712021-02-16T12:41:44.126-05:002021-02-16T12:41:44.126-05:00Bob,
There are issues with intermittent renewables...Bob,<br />There are issues with intermittent renewables, but it's actually our natural gas fleet that let us down, not a GW or so of offline wind turbines. A quick check shows that a very large percent of our thermal fleet is down and the amount of wind offline is a pittance inb comparison. I don't know if more coal would have helped us. Thermal generation and infrastructure is Brandon Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17219366273934076952noreply@blogger.com