Current Events > Question about electricity grid situation in Texas

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Reading that the incredible demand for heat is overwhelming the grid and causing blackouts.

My question is, doesn't texas get up to like a million degrees during the summer? How come this doesn't happen when everyone is running their ACs 24/7?

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Electrical heating systems draw more power than ACs being plugged in to some breaker @ 120 volts

A house with a heating system at 120v is really wimpy and wont generate enough heat to keep an entire house warm with the onslaught of cold

Most baseboard heaters for example run on 240 volts of power, in this scenario usually BOTH the neutral wire and hot wire are both driving electricity instead of an AC working at 120volts and using only the hot/black wire as power and expelling out energy back via the neutral wire


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It takes more energy to get a house from 10 degrees to 70 than to cool a house down from 100 to 70

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Electricity production has been hampered because natural gas wells and wind turbines have frozen
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it's happening in Mexico, too

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Electricity production has been hampered because natural gas wells and wind turbines have frozen

Why did wind turbines freeze? They have wind turbines in northern Alberta

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The components that Texas relies on for energy production were not designed to run in weather this cold. Its less about the energy demand

Coloradough posted...

Why did wind turbines freeze? They have wind turbines in northern Alberta

They didn't protect them against the cold because they're in Texas.

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Coloradough posted...

Why did wind turbines freeze? They have wind turbines in northern Alberta

Texas didnt design theirs for cold weather because it would increase costs. I am not knowledgeable about whether they were way off or if the costs were unrealistic. They also dont share their energy...other parts of texas that do share energy are doing fine though.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1361680242939752458?s=21

Peak demand during this cold snap is actually lower than demand is during a heat wave in Texas.

The problem is on the supply end. Everything in Texas is built to run just fine in extreme heat, but not extreme cold. Gas wells are freezing, pipelines are freezing, wind mills are freezing, and a lot of natural gas is also used to heat homes, not just generate electricity. This is all because of a massive natural gas shortage, which is why natgas costs have skyrocketed from $3/mcf to $600/mcf in like 2 days.

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CruelBuffalo posted...

The components that Texas relies on for energy production were not designed to run in weather this cold. Its less about the energy demand

Yep and it doesn't help that they have their own separate grid, something no one else has. If a state has a separate grid then they must prepare even harder for severe weather, including anomalies caused by climate change.
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texas has its own grid, because of course they do, and a huge chunk of their power comes from natural gas power plants. everything besides solar generates electricity by spinning a turbine, fossil fuel plants do it by burning fuel to boil water and use that steam to do it. apparently the big issue right now is that their power plants aren't designed to run in prolonged freezing temps, so some of those pipes filled with water are freezing and stalling the power plants.

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What theyve been saying in Houston is that a lot of the smaller energy generating companies that were supposed to account for a noticeable percentage of our power went tits up the first night. Then another chunk went down the next day.

They were apparently completely unprepared for the cold weather.

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divot1338 posted...

What theyve been saying in Houston is that a lot of the smaller energy generating companies that were supposed to account for a lot of our power went tits upthe first night. Then another chunk went down the next day.

They were apparently completely unprepared for the cold weather.

the cold weather = the historic freeze taking place

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The Trent posted...

the cold weather = the historic freeze taking place

These were largely these fly by night solar panel scammers so yeah they werent building it as anything but a financial racket.

Not for long term safety. That said Ill happily accept whatever power solar can provide.

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https://twitter.com/ctraywick/status/1361800663890591751


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If anyone in Houston gets in a bad way it sounds like two of the Gallery Furnitures are being used as shelter. Food, heat, water, etc.

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