Rolling Brown Outs

[TX69]

With the new EPA regulations is Texas going to have more rolling brown outs this summer?

 

[Saltyag2010]

I asked and those don't exist in Corpus Christi

 

[stdreb27]

It will take a year before the refs take effect once they offer them up for comment.

 

[AcidFlashGordon]

My feeling is that once all these Obuttfuck-mandated EPA regs go into full effect, there will be quite a few rolling brown-outs and even some full-on blackouts throughout the country, especially in those areas where the electricity is not supplied by hydroelectric plants.

 

[azkcr]

I imagine something similar will happen to what the carbon black plants are doing around here to meet the new standards..... Upgrade...
Which costs money, which will bring the cost of end items up.
All the wind farms that have gone up will abate some of the issues

 

[mitchntx]

As rolling reserves dwindle, brown-outs or black outs are possible during peak loading.

Since deregulation, Texas grid has seen an erosion of reserve power simply because the "competitive market" isn't a market that promotes new industry.

If it took a year or two to build, license and get a plant on the grid, it makes sense. But no company or financial institution is willing or can afford to tie up billions of dollars in a 5-year project where the rules governing the project change so rapidly.

 

[mitchntx]

All the wind farms that have gone up will abate some of the issues

Not taking into account that the wind farms are 100% dependent upon the weather, delivery of the power generated is a HUGE headache.
Read up on VAR and the impact it has on power delivery. You just can't plug into the grid ...

 

[azkcr]

I'm in the middle of all of it. I've heard a lot about the greats and the not greats of wind generation.
And yes, you can't just plug into one of the grids. Otherwise we would only have 1 instead of 3?
And of the 87years my family has been in the panhandle, there might have been 6 calm days. Lol

 

[robertc1024]

I think most people are unaware how close we already get to the brown outs every summer. A good friend of mine works at the LCRA - monitoring their power network. He has quite a few stories to tell about situations where we were on the cusp of it.

 

[mitchntx]

I'm in the middle of all of it. I've heard a lot about the greats and the not greats of wind generation.
And yes, you can't just plug into one of the grids. Otherwise we would only have 1 instead of 3?
And of the 87years my family has been in the panhandle, there might have been 6 calm days. Lol

Sorry ... LOL

I guess the real point I was trying to make was it's a technical headache syncing one plant to the grid and maintaining 60Hz once synced with a plant fueled by a "reliable" power source.

Plunk hundreds of small power plants down all over landscape whose power source is unpredictable and it becomes technical nightmare when the rolling reserve dips below 10% and we rely of the 15% of the power they generate.