Monday, June 14, 2021

ERCOT WARNS OF OUTAGES, NOT FOR COLD, BUT FOR HEAT

Texas Tribune

Texas’ main power grid struggled to keep up with the demand for electricity today, prompting the operator to ask Texans to conserve power until Friday.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said in a statement Monday that a significant number of unexpected power plant outages combined with expected record use of electricity due to hot weather has resulted in tight grid conditions. Approximately 12,000 megawatts of generation were offline Monday, or enough to power 2.4 million homes on a hot summer day.

ERCOT officials said the power plant outages were unexpected — and could not provide details as to what could be causing them.

“I don’t have any potential reasons [for the plant outages] that I can share at this time,” said Warren Lasher, ERCOT senior director of systems planning, during a Monday call with media. “It is not consistent with fleet performance that we have seen over the last few summers.”

The number of plants that were forced offline today is “very concerning” Lasher said.

“We operate the grid with the resources that we have available,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of the generators to make sure their plants are available when demand is high.”

The conservation request comes at a time of heightened anxiety around electricity following the state’s catastrophic February power outages that left millions without power for days. Those outages that were prompted by a severe winter storm may have killed as many as 700 people, according to an analysis of mortality data by Buzzfeed News. 

Of the plants offline, about 9,600 megawatts of power, or nearly 80 percent of the outages, are from thermal power sources, which in Texas are largely natural gas-fired power plants. That's several times what ERCOT usually sees offline for thermal generation maintenance during a summer day. Typically, only about 3,600 megawatts of thermal generation is offline this time of year.

“This is unusual for this early in the summer season,” said Woody Rickerson, ERCOT vice president of grid planning and operations, in a statement. He said the grid operator would conduct an analysis to determine why so many units are offline.

At this time, it “appears unlikely” that the ERCOT grid would need to implement outages, like it did in February, to reduce strain on the grid, said Warren Lasher, ERCOT senior director of systems planning, during a Monday call with media.

The high number of outages this week combined with expected record demand: The grid operator estimates demand for electricity could exceed 73,000 megawatts on Monday. The previous record for June was 69,100 megawatts in 2018.

"[Electricity demand] is really driven by temperatures, and right now it is 99 degrees in Dallas, 97 degrees in Austin, and 97 degrees in Houston," said Joshua Rhodes, research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin. He said at those high temperatures, people tend to crank up their air conditioning, which strains the grid. At the same time, he said, power plants have already had a rough year given the February outages that caused damage, which may be causing new complications.

Texans can reduce electricity use by setting the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher; turning off lights and pool pumps; avoiding use of large appliances such as ovens, washing machines and dryers; and turning off or unplugging unused electric appliances.

During the recent Legislative session, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bills 2 and 3 included a few key changes to the state’s power grid that experts said will begin to address some issues, such as requiring power companies to upgrade plants to withstand more extreme weather and creating a statewide emergency alert system. However, it will likely take years before those changes are fully implemented.

The legislation also changes ERCOT's governing board to replace what lawmakers called "industry insiders" with appointees selected by a committee comprised of selections by Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan.

The state likely won’t require companies to make weatherization upgrades until 2022 at the earliest.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The city just had elections of city commissioners what was said about changes to improve the city and the citizens "NADA" nothing about pot holes, nothing about traffic lights nothing about flooding nothing about the airport having only two flights nothing about city engineers improving traffic nothing about reducing salaries and reducing top heavy employees with top heavy salaries and NOT EVEN NOTHING ABOUT BIKE TRAILS only that there was a mandate for more trails...
nothing about PUB and their high electric rates and their thievery.
I guess maricones is a more important topic.

Anonymous said...

Ángel Mende and judge Javier Garza were caught in a room by the judge wife. And he wants to be bisd superintendent

Anonymous said...

El Paya Jerry McHale, the city's dumbass, is now throwing White Boy shit at city candidate Pedro Cardenas -

"DO WE GO WITH AN EXPERIENCED BEN OR AN IGNORANT PEDRITO!?!?"

Ben Neece endorses this?

He must; he's not reining-in El Paya Jerry! Neece has lost my vote.

Anonymous said...

The Republicans blind adherence to the the stupid redneck ideal that they will not be regulated by the Feds comes at a cost to the people of Texas. We paid in Spades this winter and we’ll pay again this summer because of the outdated concept. Today’s markets are international and national and this head in the sand policy does not serve Texans. Our energy markets should be handled on the basis of free market principals based on supply and demand. The bigger the market, the greater the efficiency. The Republicans are not supporters of the free market as they tout themselves, they are protectors of big energy, stifling of the energy market by creating controlled, closed markets. Get ready for rolling blackouts and brown outs that shut down computer systems at the cost of millions to Texas businesses.

Anonymous said...


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Anonymous said...

BULLSHIT PERIOD

Anonymous said...

First, Republicans wanted to FREEZE us to DEATH!
NOW
Republicans want to BOIL us to DEATH!

rita