The Texas grid operator has announced rotating blackouts amid winter storms and frozen wind turbines.
(Reuters) – Rotating blackouts were enforced in the U.S. state of Texas early on Monday to reduce demand on the electric system amid icy storms, the state’s grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said in a tweet.
“Traffic lights and other infrastructure may be temporarily without power,” the agency added.
The operator issued a level three energy emergency alert on Monday, urging consumers to reduce electricity use.
“We urge Texans to put safety first during this time.”
Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind power-generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a rare deep freeze across the state locked up turbine towers while driving electricity demand to record levels, ERCOT reported on Sunday.
According to a spokeswoman from ERCOT, of the 25,000-plus megawatts of wind-power capacity normally available in Texas, some 12,000-megawatts was out of service as of Sunday morning due to the storm.
Read rest at KDAL (Reuters)
Frozen wind turbines hamper Texas power output, grid operator says (American-Statesman)
Nearly half of Texas’ installed wind power generation capacity has been offline because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas grid operators.
Wind farms across the state generate up to a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy. But unusually moist winter conditions in West Texas brought on by the weekend’s freezing rain and historically low temperatures have iced many of those wind turbines to a halt.
As of Sunday morning, those iced turbines comprise 12,000 megawatts of Texas’ installed wind generation capacity, although those West Texas turbines don’t typically spin to their full generation capacity this time of year.
Read rest at GWPF
No thanks. Currently located in the southern California desert. Today’s outdoor temperatures: overnight low 40F, today’s high 67F. Morning low indoors 63*F. “Bio-mass” heating really helps. Looking ahead to the rest of the year – well heck, that’s my 80th birthday. I can do without the cold thank you very much.
Was watching an NBC newscast out of Texas a few minutes ago – they’re setting up “warming shelters”. Not the sort of operation that the average City Council would have a pre-planned procedure for in the sunny south.
From memory, January 4, 1974, Beaumont CA at 2,600 feet, 16 inches of the white “stuff” and later in ’76, Wrightwood at 6,000 feet, four feet of “stuff”. Twice in the 50 years I’ve been in the US is more than enough.
Drat. This was supposed to go under Steve’s reply to my earlier comment.
Ah, so we are seeing across a large swath of the country that “green energy” is non-existent energy when you really need it! I just read a report here along the Front Range of Colorado that some of the power operators are asking people to reduce their energy use due to wind turbines and solar panels not providing much electricity. And elsewhere are protos of helicopters trying to deice the giant turbine blades!
Will things like this get thru the heads of those pushing the “green folly” finally realize these so-called renewable energy sources won’t be there when they are most desperately need it? Ah, who am I kidding! Of course not. We just need more of it and shut down the last coal power plants.
Can’t say I’d care to be ‘homeless’ in Texas right now.
Look for the price of beef to go up. During a Blue Norther” cattle drift downwind, until they encounter a fence, and that’s where they die. Stock losses are going to be heavy.
Right along the Texas coast temperatures are well below freezing. The cold air is running into moist air over the Gulf- thunderstorms, coming ashore between Gulfport and Pensacola. What a mess…..
Try Denver where lows were -10F and high yesterday was just 1F. Or even worse up in Minneapolis where those would be considered warm temps!