HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state.
"This is a warning to all those who think that renewable energy is the sole answer [to the state's power needs]," said Geoffrey Gay, an attorney representing Fort Worth and other North Texas municipalities in utility issues. "We can't put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to any form of generation. We need to consider the cost and the reliability issues, in addition to the environmental impact."
Susan Williams Sloan, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, said those technical challenges are not insurmountable. She said part of the solution is to locate turbines in diverse areas of the state. "When the wind is not blowing somewhere, it's always blowing somewhere else," she said.
The S-T also has this recent story, calling for Texas to hook up with the rest of the country's grid. _________________ Cogito, ergo non satis bibivi
Could you slide your shorts down please?
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:30 am Post subject: Re: Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency
TheDude wrote:
Quote:
"This is a warning to all those who think that renewable energy is the sole answer [to the state's power needs]," said Geoffrey Gay, an attorney representing Fort Worth and other North Texas municipalities in utility issues. "We can't put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to any form of generation. We need to consider the cost and the reliability issues, in addition to the environmental impact."
Because, of course, wind is the only renewable energy source we use in Texas...
Joined: Feb 20, 2005 Posts: 2798 Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:49 am Post subject: Re: Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency
The very big planned expansion of nuclear power in Texas (something like 10 new reactors) should free up gas-fired generators from base load service. They can then be used to balance the grid in a loss of wind incident such as this one. _________________ Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state.
So much for wind power, eh?
It is what it is. Place the proper significance on it, but no
more than that.
You left out(deliberately??) in your quote numbers
from the article that may change how one looks at the matter.
While wind power went down 1,400, demand went up
4,412 unexpectedly. The cold appears to be much more
responsible than wind. So much for cold weather, eh?.
The total demand is shown as going from 31,200 to 35,612.
No figure appears in the article however as to the percentage
of customers, residential or industrial, who were cut off. And
the article was completely silient on the frequency of a stage
1 or stage 2 event.
Without this type of information, one can't make a reasonable
assessment of the importance of the event.
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject: Re: Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency
The amount of taxpayer subsidies to wind is generous. One of the most expensive "subsidies" which is difficult to quantify is the inherent variability of wind.
By law a utility company must buy wind generated electricity. This creates a market for wind power. A utility company must accommodate the highs and lows of wind power at a huge cost. Conventional power plants cannot run at optimum efficiency but instead must shift through highs and lows to accommodate wind power.
Wind power advocates rarely like to advertise the extra cost this is adding. They only like to mention the cost of the windmill which IMHO is disingenuous. This is why wind power is at least 4 times more expensive than conventional power. Once you include the extra "cost" of wind power screwing up the rest of the system it gets mighty expensive.
--------------------
Germany coal
Quote:
Germany Plans Boom in Coal Power Plants
Despite the Chancellor's push for climate protection, energy companies' plans for 26 new coal-fired power plants are likely to win approval
Germany is often touted as a success story by wind power advocates. Germany has the greatest installed wind capacity in the world so I guess that makes it the world capitol success story for wind. If success means you have to build an extra 26 coal plants I wonder what would be considered a "failure"?
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