Texas power issues. Windfarms getting iced up. 67

[Alistair_Heaton]

That's a lot of capacity that's been lost. Must admit being Aberdonian we always associate Texas with hot and humid... Not snow storms.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...nd-turbines-texas-power-outages-b1802596.html

 

[RedSnake]

Nord pool (Scandinavia/Baltics) have a max price 3,0 EUR/kWh (when the power reserve is used).

The so-called power reserve is created by entering into agreements with players in the electricity market.

1. They enter into agreements with electricity producers who have reserve power plants.
Then the agreement is about the electricity producer to contribute with additional electricity production.

2. They enter into agreements with large electricity users and electricity trading companies, but then it is instead a matter of them reducing their electricity consumption.

New EU regulation requires.

In order to procure so-called strategic reserves as the power reserve, the EU regulation requires that a new method to calculate the risk of power shortages.

This also presupposes that there are targets for delivery security, a so-called reliability standard, against which the risk can then be assessed.

Best Regards A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[cranky108]

Something from above is about water pipe heave, which is a real thing, and if their water system is anything like ours, some of the pipe can be plastic that is a few years old, to cast iron that maybe up to 100 years old.
And because the water table is so high in Texas, the pipes are likely very shallow.

In 2011 the wind farms did freeze with ice on the blades, but maybe this time was different. Any other talk of them being unavailable is just banter, as with no wind they could produce zero.

The coal, gas should have been available, if they had fuel, and had been winterized.

The gas freeze up could have been reduced, and that is all that I should say.

Price contracts with no caps for consumers, is well, the fault of the uneducated consumers.

All of this just goes to show is that with going with green energy, the amount of reserves needs to be reevaluated, and likely should be included in the cost of that energy.
The reliance of making money on tax credits for green energy, and not looking at reserves does come at a cost. Not to say that was the major cause in Texas, but it likely had a contribution.

Maybe if so many of the electric plants had been winterized, and had fuel stored on site (which most coal plants did), this would have been different. But the reliance on gas plants, with just in time fuel delivery,is another part of the problem.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Saying that to the kid caused a bit of trouble in the area.

The sales team is setup almost like a pyramid selling scheme. And as far as I tell they get youngsters in from an area and tell them they can get huge bonuses etc if they hit sales targets. They are very careful to get kids with large extended family's in the area. They then give them a weeks training and a new polyester suit and send them out. The extended family all sign up for it to help them out then gets their mates to sign up as well. Then the problems start when they run out of that type. The make the sales targets impossible to sustain after the first quarter which of course there is no bonus to pay for training and the polyester suit. Then out the door... And they will have been lucky to make min wage in that period.

Saying that to the kid triggered the granny mafia in the area which luckily for me doesn't speak English. It took a couple of months until the other two got sacked as I expected and then it died down. But by that point they had signed up 80% of the locals onto this nonsense on two year contracts. I suspect come May their will be a repeat performance.

As you can see with the discussion above Europe is just as exposed as USA is when it comes to all this.

Yes us solar users can make our own etc... But all that does is increase the cost to those that don't paying for the redundancy in the big system.

 

[1503-44]

davefitz,
Its no coincidence that Texas has the same problems that California had.
ENRON headquarters used to be in Houston. They invented that mechanism you speak of.
California recalled their governor, whereas Texas sent theirs to Washington and ...
Enron to California.

A couple of other things turned up.
1, Texas grid does not pay for standby capacity, so there never is any. With that in mind, no surprise that the nukes were down.
2. Texas requires that power companies report their winterization activities.
3. Texas does not require that power companies do any winterization.


Pipes in TX are shallow, but not for water table reasons. Most soil in TX "never" freezes, so no burial depth, i.e. insulation blanket, is needed.

There are two problems with unregulated prices. "Uneducated" consumers and predatory practices of companies knowingly selling "lawyers only need apply" contracts to known uneducated consumers that did not state or hid the true risk. No difference to illegal loan shark practices, or doctors and engineers practising without a license. You can be near sure that these contracts, now that they are known to exist, will and need to be banned. The SEC would not allow any similar such contracts to be sold to any but "highly experienced" investors.

Allister, No. You are doing good work in spite of using solar. Spain was charging an extra grid connection fee, if you had solar panels and a grid connection. The logic was to share the grid and running cost expenses, even if you did not really use it much. You had to pay for the "backup" you were using. It is logical, but the new liberal government did away with that, because, as it increased the price of renewable energy, it was overly contrary to the legally required national policy goal of reducing fossil fuel use and meeting CO2 reduction targets. That is also logical, because those in reality have a greater cost. The "Solar Tax" was repealed.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

personally I don't have an issue with paying an amount for reserve. It could be cash or a set number of kWh injected.

 

[1503-44]

WARNING the following is a copy of a predatory power sale company's website responsible for that $17,000 bill mentioned above.

I won't print the company name, or provide a link.

Wholesale pricing icon
Get Wholesale Prices
Get access to wholesale electricity for $9.99 a month.
You’ll pay exactly the price we buy electricity at.

Pay-as-you-go-billing icon
Pay-as-you-go billing
Our prepaid billing system is easy and automated.
Get started by adding just $49 to your account.

circle checkmark icon
We Handle the Rest
We’ll contact your current provider to switch you over to #$%#%&**@.
You don’t do a thing.

This is all the warning you get!

The wholesale price of electricity is set by the grid operator, ERCOT, and can change every five minutes depending on supply and demand. When there is excess energy on the gird, prices drop and can even go negative, which means you are getting paid to use electricity (awesome!). And when demand is high like on hot summer days or winter storms, prices can spike. The highest the price can go to is $9/kWh (which has only ever happened 0.005% of the time.) Most of the time though, 96.9% to be exact, it is below the Texas Average of 6.8¢/kWh

Current price 1.4c/kWh

So, don't YOU want to click now?
Note that they only mention the average and highest high. Nothing about any other brackets. What if there were significant time periods at $1, $2 or $3.

A great example of black swans. They don't happen that often, but WHEN they DO, they will be significant and almost certainly life changing events. Consider those outliers very carefully.

 

[cranky108]

Yes we can install a GT and never run it, except to proof it, and we make money.

What a concept.

So should I ask, what type of crop should I never plant that I can make money on?

 

[1503-44]

Ask the farmers. I think milk is out of fashion. They have the current list..
Maybe "weed" qualifies too.

 

[CWB1]

Personally I would rather have the freedom to make mistakes than have ridiculously overpriced "protection" foisted upon me as it is overseas, that's one of the main reasons I chose to live stateside. Sure, some folks got stuck with a high bill this month yet I'd wager they didn't complain about years of low prices prior. We have always chose fixed utility pricing for the same reason we chose fixed rate mortgages - bc life's too short to gamble for little reward. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for folks choosing to ignore common sense/knowledge and enter a risky contract.

 

[dik]

Your choice of freedom is responsible for half a million... and counting. Your call...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[RedSnake]

We get compensated if there is a power outage for more then 12 hours minimum 120 USD and upwards and we can ask for compensation for damages.
Not delivering is a breach of the contract.

Best Regards A




“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Just to show that the USA is not special this is where I think things will fall over in the EU in the not so distant future.

https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/features/the-belgian-electricity-industry-in-chaos/

The strange thing to me is that the reactors in Belgium are French made and built. Its been an on going argument for years about them.


But exactly the same design and materials used reactors are operating in France and nothing has been said about them having issues. Which triggers my sniff test BS alarm.

 

[1503-44]

Perhaps just a lower price from France, or maybe a larger "incentive".

I certainly don't have any sympathy for hedge funds. They knowingly make money from other's misery and lose money by making others miserable. This is not that same situation. This could easily have happened to your sister, mother, or grandmother. Would you say the same?

What does sympathy cost anyway? Is somebody charging for it? Seems to be in very short supply.
Doesn't cost me all that much.

 

[RedSnake]

"BS alarm" I get.
But why some one would install a GT "Gin an Tonic" and never run it, I do not understand?
And how to grow them?

Best Regards A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

I just can't see the same reactor design built by the same people using the same materials not having similar issues with cracking etc to reactors built 300km away in a different country.

 

[1503-44]

That can be a long distance between the dots. It could easily depend entirely on QA/QC, or maybe just one inspector's previous evening.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Its quite interesting what they were finding in Belgium. Its worth while having a search on it. The problems are not small and they are pretty fundamental mostly to do with materials

 

[1503-44]

So the materials were not supplied with the same properties or qualities?

 

[RedSnake]

The reactors in Belgium where not even built by the same constellation of manufacturers and all of them isn't built the same year.
It's seems that material fatigue in different forms in the reactor vessel's steel rings are the problem.

Best Regard A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Its linked to aging and neutron exposure, There is also some hydrogen cracking thrown in for good measure.

I can't do it justice its extremely interesting both how they found it and how they NDT'd it.

Both reactors with the issues were built by RDM forging. And they built a lot more than 2.