Rolling Blackouts Across Tennessee and Alabama

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DRAGON64

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Rolling blackouts across both states for sure, and probably many others. Apparently the grid is not strong enough to handle the load from a cold winter here in the southlands...(?) It's not as if we get any snow or anything down here...

725025-324c4a2998f609b0068d711158fb8f4f.jpg
 
Not feesible with our current situation, so we opted for high capacity Bluetti Power station:

https://www.bluettipower.com/
We also have a gas generator. Neither are worth deploying as the outages only last 15 - 20 minutes at a time. Luckily we only had two today, hopefully that is the end of that nonsense...
 
So if all future cars made are only electric to stop the polluting emissions and suddenly the electric grid becomes overtaxed causing rolling outages...most will have to resort to generators?!? 😆

Also it'd be quite ironic to use a portable generator to charge an electric car.

BTW- I have a hybrid and would've already bought an electric if it made sense for me, so this isn't an electric car bash statement.
 
Not feesible with our current situation, so we opted for high capacity Bluetti Power station:

https://www.bluettipower.com/
We also have a gas generator. Neither are worth deploying as the outages only last 15 - 20 minutes at a time. Luckily we only had two today, hopefully that is the end of that nonsense...
I might have to look at one. We bought a generator 2 months before our last hurricane hit. We lost power for 5 days. I would have lost all my freezer goods. Instead, we we comfortable and our food was fresh.
 
Rolling blackouts across both states for sure, and probably many others. Apparently the grid is not strong enough to handle the load from a cold winter here in the southlands...(?) It's not as if we get any snow or anything down here...

View attachment 552842
Welcome to a preview of the future. Destroyed electrical grid. Dollar cost average into Generac stock, GNRC. Make a profit on stupidity.
 
Widely deployed electric cars with V2G could help avoid rolling blackouts in many cases.
That might make it worse.
I don't understand. The power company initiates rolling blackouts because there is more demand than capacity. If the utility can tap into EVs or home battery modules wouldn't that increase their capacity and decrease the need for rolling blackouts?
 
Texas declared a power emergency.
Texas added 30000MW nameplate wind capacity to their grid. Last 24 hours only 5000 was produced. If Texas wisely added 30000MW of fossil or nuclear capacity instead there would be no emergency and people would not be in danger of freezing to death.

There was nothing wrong with the grid, we are degrading it.
Screenshot from 2022-12-24 19-44-14.png
As of today Texas only has 6000MW of reserve capacity over current demand. Buy GNRC.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
 
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Texas declared a power emergency.
Texas added 30000MW nameplate wind capacity to their grid. Last 24 hours only 5000 was produced. If Texas wisely added 30000MW of fossil or nuclear capacity instead there would be no emergency and people would not be in danger of freezing to death.

There was nothing wrong with the grid, we are degrading it.
View attachment 552890
As of today Texas only has 6000MW of reserve capacity over current demand. Buy GNRC.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
Seems like ERCOT did not learn any lessons from the Feb. 2021 crisis.
Investigations showed it was due to the lack of winterization by the utility of its' natural gas infrastructure. Also unlike most utilities they did not plan ahead and keep a sufficient reserve to deal with emergencies. ERCOT is separate from the national grid by choice. Therefore they could not tap into other grids to deal with the emergency.
This had nothing to do then, and nothing to do now, with the choice of electrical generation.
More detailed info here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis
 
Like the National Highway System?
You can pay them now, or pay them later.
;)
We're broke. We can't pay now and we can't pay later. Just stop adding unreliables to the grid and use those resources instead for 365/24/7 power generation and people won't die and will be able to afford energy and food at the same time, problem solved.
Screenshot from 2022-12-24 20-50-20.png
 
We're broke. We can't pay now and we can't pay later. Just stop adding unreliables to the grid and use those resources instead for 365/24/7 power generation and people won't die and will be able to afford energy and food at the same time, problem solved.
As mentioned earlier, a major reason for the crisis in Texas in 2021 was because pumping stations and pipelines for natural gas froze because they were not winterized. BTW, that's a "reliable" fossil fuel.
There are a host of other reasons, both economic and political.
And what do you define as "the problem"?
Why do you think that utilities are switching to sustainable energy sources in the first place?
 
Rolling blackouts across both states for sure, and probably many others. Apparently the grid is not strong enough to handle the load from a cold winter here in the southlands...(?) It's not as if we get any snow or anything down here...

View attachment 552842
I think that’s a photo from about 1964 or 1965 in North Dakota, where I grew up. We made tunnels in the school yard.
 
I don't understand. The power company initiates rolling blackouts because there is more demand than capacity. If the utility can tap into EVs or home battery modules wouldn't that increase their capacity and decrease the need for rolling blackouts?
Increase EV will increase demand for electricity. He did not say anything about batteries, but either way, charging the batteries can also increase demand while houses need to be heated.

The batteries do no magically charge themselves. Also, grid batteries are a dream right now. Even if we had them, for every 15 degrees in temperature drops below 50 F, the performance of batteries drops by around 10%. At zero, that would be at least 30% less efficient.
 
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Increase EV will increase demand for electricity. He did not say anything about batteries.
I said V2G, or vehicle-to-grid, which uses the considerable capacity of plugged-in EVs to stabilize the grid in times of high demand.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been widely implemented in existing EVs, but it’s coming.
 
I said V2G, or vehicle-to-grid, which uses the considerable capacity of plugged-in EVs to stabilize the grid in times of high demand.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been widely implemented in existing EVs, but it’s coming.
Either way, that will not help anytime soon. At this stage (today), it is a pipe dream.
 
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but either way, charging the batteries can also increase demand while houses need to be heated
The batteries do no magically charge themselves.
If a homeowner has a home battery module, it's likely being charged by solar panels during the day and contributing to the grid during evening peak hours. No electricity is being used from the grid to charge the batteries. If there are days and days of inclement weather and the solar panels cannot charge the batteries (unlikely here) then the system defaults to power from the grid. Homeowner gets a monthly credit for contributing electricity to the grid. There are utilities nationwide that have these programs, and scores of homeowners in my state are doing that right now.
 
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If a homeowner has a home battery module, it's likely being charged by solar panels during the day and contributing to the grid during evening peak hours. No electricity is being used from the grid to charge the batteries. If there are days and days of inclement weather and the solar panels cannot charge the batteries (unlikely here) then the system defaults to power from the grid. Homeowner gets a monthly credit for contributing electricity to the grid. It's called NET metering, and scores of homeowners in my state are doing that right now.
We are talking about now and not 20 years from now. The temps are low so the batteries and panels are less efficient.

How did this topic get on Green Energy? I was referring to the winter months and demand on the grid. This predicted to be a bad / cold winter.
 
There's no net metering in OZ. A new installation would get Au$ 0.04-0.05 for each kW contributed and be charged Au$ 0.4 for each kW used.
I've not connected to the grid for 6months since I installed 33kWh of battery storage.. Replaced the grid tie inverter with a hybrid inverter and batteries. It was the cheapest option..
A decentralised grid is the way to go for power security in difficult climate situations. Global warming means there will be more of these events. Simple maths tells you that if warming causes millions of extra tons of water to be in the atmosphere, it's going to be more energetic when a storm hits.
So put simply, I don't contribute to the grid. The economics of a 10:1 ratio don't work for me.
Good luck in the storms. Keep safe.
 
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I said V2G, or vehicle-to-grid, which uses the considerable capacity of plugged-in EVs to stabilize the grid in times of high demand.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been widely implemented in existing EVs, but it’s coming.
Yes of course, if there is a power emergency I will keep my EV plugged in to grid to drain it instead of conserving it for my family. Right.
 
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