Small correction to the history. Demand kept rising during the evening as wind generation eroded because the wind speeds dropped over most of Texas. Plant was operated by "turning it up to 11" with ERCOT having secured dispensation in advance for consequent breaches of pollution/emissions limits. It's a risky operation, and some plants burst a bolt to coin a phrase, and tripped out with problems, eroding what little reserve was left. After midnight the reserve was essentially all gone, signed up to provide live replacement power, and frequency started to erode. ERCOT claim to have instituted some demand disconnection, but it does not appear to have reduced demand by much. Then at 1:52a.m. a further major plant trip with no spinning reserve caused frequency to plunge to 59.3Hz, knocking another half dozen plants offline. At 59.3Hz, automated demand disconnection is supposed to kick in, and it looks as though it did to the tune of about 20GW, outrunning the loss of generation and allowing frequency to recover and even overshoot 60Hz for a while. This was probably the main event causing disconnection of gas compressors feeding power stations, preventing recovery. Until that point gas supply had kept the capacity running, thanks to dry gas in storage replacing reduced onshore production because of the cold.
Official reports try to make ERCOT the heros, with claims that automatic disconnection was averted. I suggest a trip to Brooklyn via the bridge. Frequency traces don't lie.
“To comply, generators must either build their own backup power, such as battery energy storage systems (BESS), or contract with others to provide their backup power. “
Did Texas cover their eyes and not see the massive outage in Spain from a lack of spinning generation? Enough with the subsidized battery “solution”. It has the same low energy density and lack of dispatchability (is this a word?) that wind and solar have. Batteries have their place as critical backup to critical instruments and control systems with UPS’s but nothing can provide robust reliable power like a turbine generator or reciprocating generator.
I like that Texas has taken a baby step towards reliability and hopefully this baby step becomes a big step and a full sprint. China has been sprinting towards a robust and cheap grid with additional coal plants for almost a decade now. They laugh at these attempts to “green” our grid with batteries. And now that companies like GE are back ordered for the next 3 years exacerbates the problem. We are way behind the curve and need to get serious about our energy security.
I hope the rest of America wakes up and also smells reality.
I am a long haul trucker and try to count every time I pass an are of these wind machines- how many are not turning, how many are facing the wrong way and how many have major oil stains coming down from the generators.
Then there are all the solar farms. At least they are not such an eyesore, but how many rows are also not pointed at receiving the sunlight.
It makes a person wonder how much electrical energy is actually being produced. How many acres of land has been consumed to produce this part time electricity.
Are the companies who have made I am sure their share of money putting all these projects together, are they also responsible for keeping them in operation? There should be many more cranes visible and working at the wind farms and more people moving around at the solar farms.
I agree, Sid, that the rest of America needs to wake up to the damage that wind and solar are doing to the US power grid. If Texas enacts the new laws I discussed, there will be many abandoned wind turbines and solar farms. Texas is considering a law requiring owners to remove unused equipment, but it is not yet a law. Thanks for the comment, Sid. Ed
The headlines have been amusing - if not a little frustrating to listen to. Listening to people's inane comments always is.
It's a pity that we had to go down this road, as is the rest of the western world, but now the preferential treatment hopefully will be over here in Texas.
Whether this will cost us all more (ratepayers) is yet to be seen, those unintended consequences that may be hiding under the surface.
The other consequence may be that these sites get abandoned sooner than later. But either way that was always going to happen.
Yes, Joanna, Texas will be a pioneer if they get it done. The entrenched interests will not take it lightly, and lawsuits are likely, but hopefully it will happen. On abandoned wind and solar farms, Texas needs to move quickly to create the wind and solar equivalent of the Texas Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund to pay for all the equipment that will be abandoned. I'm sure you know that Texas Senate Bill 819 (SB 819) proposed creating an environmental cleanup fee for wind and solar projects, but it is not yet law. Thanks for your always great comments! Ed
yes - not a fan of SB 819 - but the section on cleanup was gutted as was most everything else. 100 ft set back for solar and 2x height of wind turbine setback - which could be as little as 600-800 ft from property line. Not much else worthwhile in this bill pretty toothless other than PUC collecting an application fee to build a facility.
There should have been a separate bill for clean up, but no-one wanted to tackle that one. Next Session!
The renewables lobby is still huge and now Texas Association of Business has joined their ranks, it is pitiful. ESG has not gone away. And as long as tax credits and all the other credits are available we will not see the back of renewables leaving this state.
Big business is just too deeply into the game of shuffling money and we will be left with the carnage! First the local counties, then the state and finally the federal government will take over all that land when no one else can clean it up.
Still working on SB 1754, passed the senate now waiting on the house committee.. It may die. It was removing tax abatements at the local county level (Ch 312). My little bit to try get something done. Please keep that one in your prayers, we are running out of time.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ruthsponsler1/p/texas-utilities-dont-want-to-pay?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=23kggy
WOW!
Small correction to the history. Demand kept rising during the evening as wind generation eroded because the wind speeds dropped over most of Texas. Plant was operated by "turning it up to 11" with ERCOT having secured dispensation in advance for consequent breaches of pollution/emissions limits. It's a risky operation, and some plants burst a bolt to coin a phrase, and tripped out with problems, eroding what little reserve was left. After midnight the reserve was essentially all gone, signed up to provide live replacement power, and frequency started to erode. ERCOT claim to have instituted some demand disconnection, but it does not appear to have reduced demand by much. Then at 1:52a.m. a further major plant trip with no spinning reserve caused frequency to plunge to 59.3Hz, knocking another half dozen plants offline. At 59.3Hz, automated demand disconnection is supposed to kick in, and it looks as though it did to the tune of about 20GW, outrunning the loss of generation and allowing frequency to recover and even overshoot 60Hz for a while. This was probably the main event causing disconnection of gas compressors feeding power stations, preventing recovery. Until that point gas supply had kept the capacity running, thanks to dry gas in storage replacing reduced onshore production because of the cold.
Official reports try to make ERCOT the heros, with claims that automatic disconnection was averted. I suggest a trip to Brooklyn via the bridge. Frequency traces don't lie.
Thanks, It. I tried to summarize all that in a few sentences to avoid bogging down the readers. Thanks for providing the details. Ed
“To comply, generators must either build their own backup power, such as battery energy storage systems (BESS), or contract with others to provide their backup power. “
Did Texas cover their eyes and not see the massive outage in Spain from a lack of spinning generation? Enough with the subsidized battery “solution”. It has the same low energy density and lack of dispatchability (is this a word?) that wind and solar have. Batteries have their place as critical backup to critical instruments and control systems with UPS’s but nothing can provide robust reliable power like a turbine generator or reciprocating generator.
I like that Texas has taken a baby step towards reliability and hopefully this baby step becomes a big step and a full sprint. China has been sprinting towards a robust and cheap grid with additional coal plants for almost a decade now. They laugh at these attempts to “green” our grid with batteries. And now that companies like GE are back ordered for the next 3 years exacerbates the problem. We are way behind the curve and need to get serious about our energy security.
Thanks for the article and insight!
I hope the rest of America wakes up and also smells reality.
I am a long haul trucker and try to count every time I pass an are of these wind machines- how many are not turning, how many are facing the wrong way and how many have major oil stains coming down from the generators.
Then there are all the solar farms. At least they are not such an eyesore, but how many rows are also not pointed at receiving the sunlight.
It makes a person wonder how much electrical energy is actually being produced. How many acres of land has been consumed to produce this part time electricity.
Are the companies who have made I am sure their share of money putting all these projects together, are they also responsible for keeping them in operation? There should be many more cranes visible and working at the wind farms and more people moving around at the solar farms.
Just my 2 bits.
Sid Abma
I agree, Sid, that the rest of America needs to wake up to the damage that wind and solar are doing to the US power grid. If Texas enacts the new laws I discussed, there will be many abandoned wind turbines and solar farms. Texas is considering a law requiring owners to remove unused equipment, but it is not yet a law. Thanks for the comment, Sid. Ed
The headlines have been amusing - if not a little frustrating to listen to. Listening to people's inane comments always is.
It's a pity that we had to go down this road, as is the rest of the western world, but now the preferential treatment hopefully will be over here in Texas.
Whether this will cost us all more (ratepayers) is yet to be seen, those unintended consequences that may be hiding under the surface.
The other consequence may be that these sites get abandoned sooner than later. But either way that was always going to happen.
Thanks for all the updates Ed.
Yes, Joanna, Texas will be a pioneer if they get it done. The entrenched interests will not take it lightly, and lawsuits are likely, but hopefully it will happen. On abandoned wind and solar farms, Texas needs to move quickly to create the wind and solar equivalent of the Texas Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund to pay for all the equipment that will be abandoned. I'm sure you know that Texas Senate Bill 819 (SB 819) proposed creating an environmental cleanup fee for wind and solar projects, but it is not yet law. Thanks for your always great comments! Ed
yes - not a fan of SB 819 - but the section on cleanup was gutted as was most everything else. 100 ft set back for solar and 2x height of wind turbine setback - which could be as little as 600-800 ft from property line. Not much else worthwhile in this bill pretty toothless other than PUC collecting an application fee to build a facility.
There should have been a separate bill for clean up, but no-one wanted to tackle that one. Next Session!
The renewables lobby is still huge and now Texas Association of Business has joined their ranks, it is pitiful. ESG has not gone away. And as long as tax credits and all the other credits are available we will not see the back of renewables leaving this state.
Big business is just too deeply into the game of shuffling money and we will be left with the carnage! First the local counties, then the state and finally the federal government will take over all that land when no one else can clean it up.
Still working on SB 1754, passed the senate now waiting on the house committee.. It may die. It was removing tax abatements at the local county level (Ch 312). My little bit to try get something done. Please keep that one in your prayers, we are running out of time.
Thanks, Joanna. You are doing great work. Good luck on SB 1754. Ed
I'll keep an eye on SB 1754. Ed
thanks - it seems it is dead... not going to get a hearing in the house. Next session will try again. Still a "green new deal" in Texas this session.
Sorry to hear that. Thanks for the update. Ed
Outstanding article, and I will cover on tomorrow's daily Energy News Beat stand-up!
Thanks Stu! Ed