Daily Shaarli
February 16, 2021
A series of winter storms and a blast of Arctic air has put most of the United States into a short term energy supply challenge.
Texas has been the epicenter of the winter event. Its electric power grid has been under an Emergency Energy Alert Stage 3 since the early morning hours of February 15. At that stage, reserve margins are so tight that the grid operator has issued orders to transmission companies to reduce loads on the system.
The transmission companies have few remaining tools available to keep the grid in balance and prevent widespread collapse. They have reached the response stage where they need to implement rotating outages. In some cases, the margin between reserve generating capacity and demand has been so tight that the rotating outages have been substantially longer than the typical planned duration of 15-45 minutes.
There are numerous contributing factors, including fuel-related outages at natural gas fired power stations, a lack of wind as the cold air settles in, freezing at some wind turbine generators, and challenges at coal plants.
Approximately 35 GWe of installed thermal generating capacity was not producing electricity for a significant portion of the day on Feb 15. As of this moment, 8:15 PM central time, there is no solar electricity being provided in Texas and its 30,000 MWe of installed wind turbines is generating just 800 MWe.//
On Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, at 0537, an automatic reactor trip occurred at South Texas Project in Unit 1. The trip resulted from a loss of feedwater attributed to a cold weather-related failure of a pressure sensing lines to the feedwater pumps, causing a false signal, which in turn, caused the feedwater pump to trip. This event occurred in the secondary side of the plant (non-nuclear part of the unit). The reactor trip was a result of the feedwater pump trips. The primary side of the plant (nuclear side) is safe and secured.
One argument in particular Turley found to be "breathtaking" and "chilling" - when lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (MD) suggested that Trump was guilty because he refused to show up and testify. ///
So 5th amendment doesn't apply to Trump impeachment...
Keith Malinak (last fan standing)
@KeithMalinak
Seriously. That's the dirty little secret as to why power is out while it's 0° or lower in North Texas right now.
Frozen wind turbines..@GregAbbott_TX.
Chad Prather
@WatchChad
Everyone’s power is out in Texas but we have our masks to keep us warm. I sure am glad we invested in wind turbines. //
Amethyst Heels
@amethyst_heels
·
Feb 15, 2021
It is -11 and we are without power...
What the .... is wrong with the infrastructure in this country?! 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️❄️❄️❄️
Quentin Blacklock
@qblacklock
Over-reliance on renewables. Wind turbines frozen, solar panels covered in snow. Not enough coal | ng | nuke generation in TX available for when demand is great. Regional grid operator not able to buy enough outside power to compensate.
People are dying in a state where oil and gas are in abundance. Texas shouldn’t be having a power problem, but it is, and that’s mostly due to the fact that around a quarter of the state’s power comes from green energy.
Carlson pointed this out on his show on Monday night and made it clear that when it comes to green energy, it’s far from reliable, and moreover, the people who push for it don’t even seem to want it themselves.
German utility seeks funding for non-nuclear prototype reactor
Sweden needs new power capacity to meet electrification demand