No, Frozen Wind Turbines Did Not Cause the Texas Blackouts

[AncientGeek]

Wind power is not being criticized. Even when it might be smart to do that.

The governor of Texas said wind turbans took down the electric grid and the Green New Deal would kill us all.

 

[MTAtech]

This post is, well, wrong. I'd recommend you read the one you replied to. Power plants are heavily regulated. It is clear the winterization requirements need review, or ERCOT needs to ensure a stronger buffer with more reliable plants.

Winter preparedness not mandatory at Texas power plants and generators, despite 2011 report

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation found Texas power generators were “reactive as opposed to being proactive in their approach to…

www.kxan.com

The prime reason Texas decided not to be on the national power grid was to avoid federal regulation. Sure, they have their own regs but if they were the same, they wouldn't have wanted to not be subject to fed regulation.

 

[ElChupacabra]

Wind power is not being criticized. Even when it might be smart to do that.

Criticized for what, specifically? In this case the lack of preparedness played a factor here as well since Texas did not order wind turbines designed to withstand the cold. Wind turbines designed for the cold work well in Nordic countries and others with cold winters.

 

[calamity]

This is an informative article, explaining exactly what happened in Texas and why.

Texas Gets Lay’d: How the Bush Family turned off the lights

Maybe because Texas gave us that wet-lipped huckster Ted Cruz, you think the state deserves to freeze in the dark. I get that, but it’s not their fault, a least not the victims burning family heirlooms to stave off frostbite.

www.gregpalast.com

 

[jonny5]

IT is still a FACT that in places like MINN and other northern states where the Temp gets way colder then they did in TX 20/25/30 degrees BELOW ZERO several times a year for several days ,even as long as a week or longer and they don't have any problems like they had in TX, Maybe winterizing their power system works, and the TX companies should try it
Have a nice afternoon

They should certainly try winterizing the NG and nuclear facilities which work far better. Wind mills they should just shut down.

 

[jonny5]

Yes it did. The bulk of the power failure came from natural gas plants that failed which were supposed to stay online.

That's why the lights went off.

They've known that their power system was vulnerable to this sort of thing for decades and decided no to do anything about it.

Putting up windmills didn't have anything to do with this as, when they put up windmills, they just put up windmills with the same lack of preparation.

No it didnt, look at the charts. 90% of the power was still being supplied by coal, NG and nuclear. Wasting time and money on windmills just made things worse.

 

[jonny5]

The windmills are very cheap energy, they just can't be done as cheaply in the winter.

They arent cheap. They dont generate a lot of power, they require WIND which means they dont always work, and they have to be far away increasing tranmission costs. Plus you have to have actual tradiotional base power to smooth it out. Lots of cons, and the main pro is they dont produce carbon. Is it worht it?

 

[jonny5]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just winterize the wind mills than to replace a thousand million of miles of gas pipe infrastructure?

Probably not seeing how the federal govt is going to make gas hyper expensive. Probably cheaper to just take the subsidies and go all green. FREE even!

 

[Moot]

Probably not seeing how the federal govt is going to make gas hyper expensive. Probably cheaper to just take the subsidies and go all green. FREE even!

I think diversifying energy sources is probably more realistic. Texas relied too much on natural gas.

 

[jonny5]

I think diversifying energy sources is probably more realistic. Texas relied too much on natural gas.

I think going all green is more realistic, because thats what the govt is going to force on us. Might as well get it over.

 

[Moot]

I think going all green is more realistic, because thats what the govt is going to force on us. Might as well get it over.

I seriously doubt that. I think the market forces will dictate how green we go and the government will help provide the funding for infrastructure through incentives, grants and budgetary legislation.

 

[dcsports]

There aren't winterization standards from either state or national regulation agencies. It's the kind of government you get when you keep putting industry stooges in charge of things.

"Heavily regulation" doesn't mean anything when there aren't regulations.

Well, there are regulations. And ERCOT would disagree with you on the standards.

 

[dcsports]

Winter preparedness not mandatory at Texas power plants and generators, despite 2011 report

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation found Texas power generators were “reactive as opposed to being proactive in their approach to…

www.kxan.com

The prime reason Texas decided not to be on the national power grid was to avoid federal regulation. Sure, they have their own regs but if they were the same, they wouldn't have wanted to not be subject to fed regulation.

Again - we're talking about different things. Energy in general is heavily regulated. The reason the grid is separate is to avoid the heavy handed federal regulations regarding sale of energy on the grid. The power plants do have to follow federal standards.

 

[Robertinfremont]

Criticized for what, specifically? In this case the lack of preparedness played a factor here as well since Texas did not order wind turbines designed to withstand the cold. Wind turbines designed for the cold work well in Nordic countries and others with cold winters.

I agree that TX did not purchase or the agencies purchasing the power grid parts did not put up windmills to work in the Arctic and trusted the global warming conspiracists enough to get the stock windmills then available.

 

[ElChupacabra]

I agree that TX did not purchase or the agencies purchasing the power grid parts did not put up windmills to work in the Arctic and trusted the global warming conspiracists enough to get the stock windmills then available.

They didn't have to listen to "global warming conspiracists". The FERC/NERC report on the southwest storm which impacted the region laid out the recommendations pretty clearly.

 

[jgarden47]

On the right side of the highway in Arkansas they have electrical power, heat and running water - on the left side of the road in Texas, much of the state remained in the cold and dark for days, where lining up with pails for drinking water is reminiscent of the conditions associated with 3rd world nations!


Perhaps Governor Abbott would care to explain as to why Arkansas, despite experiencing the same winter storms as Texas, managed to keep its wind turbines operating, its electrical grid functioning and its water systems running?


The public utilities on one side of the highway continue to function while the failure of the power and water systems on the other side has resulted in being declared a disaster area requiring emergency assistance!

 

[diz]

View attachment 67319355


On the right side of the highway in Arkansas they have electrical power, heat and running water - on the left side of the road in Texas, much of the state remained in the cold and dark for days, where lining up with pails for drinking water is reminiscent of the conditions associated with 3rd world nations!


Perhaps Governor Abbott would care to explain as to why Arkansas, despite experiencing the same winter storms as Texas, managed to keep its wind turbines operating, its electrical grid functioning and its water systems running?

Well sure, Arkansas has got a lot less Democrats than Texas. I looked it up and Texas was the #3 state in the country for Biden voters, and the parts where they live is where things went the most wrong.

 

[dcsports]

View attachment 67319355


On the right side of the highway in Arkansas they have electrical power, heat and running water - on the left side of the road in Texas, much of the state remained in the cold and dark for days, where lining up with pails for drinking water is reminiscent of the conditions associated with 3rd world nations!


Perhaps Governor Abbott would care to explain as to why Arkansas, despite experiencing the same winter storms as Texas, managed to keep its wind turbines operating, its electrical grid functioning and its water systems running?


The public utilities on one side of the highway continue to function while the failure of the power and water systems on the other side has resulted in being declared a disaster area requiring emergency assistance!

Probably better to look at a fact check before posting something like this, The reporter was actually trying to show the difference in snowplowing of the road in Texarkana - a place where the two cities straddle the state line. The area got 12 inches of snow. Local officials noted that the difference was in the timing - in the morning, both sides were covered. Later in the afternoon, both sides were clear. At the time this picture was taken, few people were on the road anyway, and snowplows on the Texas side were being used to clear the airport.

Does Photo Show Half-Cleared Road on Texas-Arkansas Border?

Keep in mind that a photograph shows a single moment in time.

www.snopes.com

 

[diz]

Is it worth mentioning the part of Texas that borders Arkansas isn’t in ERCOT too? Those two sides of the road are on the same power grid.

 

[Variant]

No it didnt, look at the charts. 90% of the power was still being supplied by coal, NG and nuclear. Wasting time and money on windmills just made things worse.

The windmills had nothing to do with the power failure. Failing to winterize plants made them fail at an unacceptable rate.

They arent cheap. They dont generate a lot of power, they require WIND which means they dont always work, and they have to be far away increasing tranmission costs. Plus you have to have actual tradiotional base power to smooth it out. Lots of cons, and the main pro is they dont produce carbon. Is it worht it?

Windmills are among the cheapest available sources of power and require zero fuel.

 

[Variant]

Well, there are regulations. And ERCOT would disagree with you on the standards.

They are the ones that just lost power for a week due to a lack of winterization regulations in their "heavily regulated" industry.

 

[Variant]

Again - we're talking about different things. Energy in general is heavily regulated. The reason the grid is separate is to avoid the heavy handed federal regulations regarding sale of energy on the grid. The power plants do have to follow federal standards.

It's a weird semantic argument to continually say that an industry is "heavily regulated" when someone points out a thing about that industry that has little to no regulation at all.

I think you might just have a wildly different idea about what heavy regulation entails.

 

[diz]

It's a weird semantic argument to continually say that an industry is "heavily regulated" when someone points out a thing about that industry that has little to no regulation at all.

I think you might just have a wildly different idea about what heavy regulation entails.

See, some see a regulator making the decisions about how something in a market is done and consider that market to be “regulated”.

A market is regulated when a regulator requires participants to do A,B, and C.

A market is not “deregulated” because "the regulator didn’t decide to require X”.

Regulators decide not to do many things. The regulator decided not to require all plants to be painted purple. The regulator decided not to require all plant operators to wash their underwear daily.

No matter how regulated a regulated market is there are still literally an infinite number of things the regulator decided not to do. Picking one of them and saying something like “the regulator didn’t require all plants to fly a pink flag from their highest point so the market is deregulated” is pretty silly.

 

[ElChupacabra]

I seriously doubt that. I think the market forces will dictate how green we go and the government will help provide the funding for infrastructure through incentives, grants and budgetary legislation.

Yep. Solar and wind still do not generate enough power to be the sole source for energy, and whether they ever will depends on technological advances. For the time being though, they are being used effectively as supplemental power, which reduces the reliance on just fossil fuels.

 

[Tbird19482]

Just what does how they plow their roads have to do with the power grid?
Having plow trucks and salt/sand to put down on the road may be different on one side then the other but it doesn't have anything with the power grid
Have a nice night