Sunday, February 14, 2021

Record Cold Temperatures Are Straining The U.S. Energy Grid In The Midwest

Dallas News: Winter storm could bring rotating power outages to North Texas through Tuesday 

The short, controlled outages will begin as early as Sunday night if demand outpaces supply. 

Rolling power outages could sweep across the state through Tuesday if demand outpaces supply as expected because of the bitter cold. 

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, emphasized Texans should reduce energy consumption as temperatures dropped. The grid could reach unprecedented winter demands, said Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations. 

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: The real shocker are sky-high energy prices that consumers are now facing .... Energy Trader: We've Officially Hit "Holy S*it Levels" (Zero Hedge). 

Update: On a side note. Car manufacturers are heralding the day when only electric cars will be built .... General Motors to eliminate gasoline and diesel light-duty cars and SUVs by 2035 (Washington Post). But how can this happen when the existing energy grid cannot meet today's demand let alone the demand that millions of electric cars will need in the near future? Am I missing something?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, you're not missing anything. Almost 2 decades ago Texas was in the same position with a very hot summer. I asked waiter who was a big backer of electric cars what would happen with several million cars recharging added to a system at max. His response was instructive.

Anonymous said...

I heard that it would cost $1T to revamp the UK electrical grid to handle a transition to EVs.

A BC hydro executive said that if on averga more than 3 house on a 25-house street had Teslas, it would collapse the grid.

https://twitter.com/Franktmcveety/status/1360820426612432897?s=20

Anonymous said...

That's of little concern to those saving the world. Whether the world wants saving or not.

Anonymous said...


Indeed, Anon 11:49. Never let reality intrude on a good plan.

Anonymous said...

Well they are the ones that are going to be making the money off of everyone whether they like it or not. Or if they don't make money, they'll get the taxpayers to bail out their losses.

Unknown said...

Am I missing something? Absolutely. And it has been missing since the first day I found your excellent blog two or three years ago. You comprehensively fail to understand that the influence of humans on the planet has fostered ecological collapse and climate change. You are always well behind the 8-ball in this regard. You need to integrate contemporary peer-reviewed science papers on Earth System Science into your feeds. Just take note of the Pentagon's view of climate change.

The linked paper is an excellent starting point in a journey to understand what's coming down the pipe, and the second link is my interview with the lead scientist, Will Steffen.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/33/8252.full.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQX89RQlpfE&list=PLnkfiv0vlhEZ59AUGzPMVkolyFk2CY3yy&index=7&t=240s

Anonymous said...

a tip to those who comment:
a. learn to make a real link
b. do not expect a reader to spend 15 minutes watching a video

Anonymous said...

An URL is as good as a link. A URL is better than an link in that person can see, where it will go.

A 15 minute video is hard to want to watch. A person could name the video, give a phrase describing it with the length and leave it up to the gentle reader to decide.