“We’re asking Texans to conserve power when they can,” Jones said in a statement, asking residents to push up thermostats to 78-degrees Fahrenheit or above (25.5 Celsius) and not run power-consuming appliances during peak hours through the weekend
Lake and Jones didn’t reveal new information on Friday’s outages beyond Jones noting that the six plants went down between noon and 4 p.m. that day
Been waiting a week for more details on how and why those plants started acting up. Nothing.
Is this going to be a consistent problem over the summer?
Richmond said ERCOT is “taking a top-down approach” in determining when to tell companies to delay needed repairs and “doesn’t take into account what these complex machines need to make sure they get maintenance done.”
“When you start to tell generators during the season they’re supposed to be doing maintenance that they can’t, then you’re trying to squeeze more out of plants than what is safe and reliable,” she added.
I find this concerning. We should take our lumps and get this maintenance done during the spring.
If there’s not enough reserve capacity to do maintenance, that seems like an easy fix for a governor and a legislature. He’s not powerless to entice others to cover that shortfall.
"Texas’ power grid doesn’t exactly have the best of reputations, especially during inclement weather. Whether it’s a snowstorm or an extreme heatwave, the Lone Star State’s isolated power infrastructure seems to have a bit of an issue staying afloat when demand for power increases. And now, charging electric cars certainly isn’t helping.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) announced last week that six of its power generation facilities went offline following a high demand for power amid a heatwave. During the outage, the six stations would have produced enough electricity to power more than half a million homes. Electric automaker Tesla, which is now headquartered in the state, followed up by asking owners of its vehicles to avoid charging their cars during peak hours in order to help prevent a further increase in demand for electricity."
By the way- it aint conservatives buying Teslas. Why is Elon hell bent on alienating his consumer base? Maybe thats why the stock is tanking? Anyways- thats a separate thread. Back to Texan “Electrical Reliabity”.
Its all because the Lonestar state wants to be proud and independent, disconnect from the greater US grid and deregulate the industry- thus leading to crappier electric infrastructure and poor reserves in times of stress.
Ted I’m sure has some lovely property in Cancun with hella AC to ride out the worst this summer brings.
