Rolling Brown Outs

[azkcr]

Power went out for three hours at 5am this morning

And so it begins.....

no one's spending a dime (so to speak) on upgrades in the coal buisness.

Ya. It's the dirtiest source right? Ain't no hippies gunna use electricity made from coal to brew their soy latte!

 

[Vaquero]

If coal takes a big hit, Colorado and points north are screwed.

 

[PhulesAu]

Just sat thru +/- an hour, un-powered along with about 4000 other people.

 

[Younggun]

That is unrelated. We aren't even close to hitting rolling brown out/black out usage.

Transformers fail, poles break.

 

[azkcr]

I was being sarcastic

 

[F350-6]

If coal takes a big hit, Colorado and points north are screwed.

You mean all those blue states?

 

[Vaquero]

You mean all those blue states?

I wouldn't call Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas blue.
But they might be.

 

[Tony2]

If coal takes a big hit, Colorado and points north are screwed.

If coal takes a big hit we may be screwed. Those base load plants Mitch talked about are large coal fired generators and right here in Texas.

 

[mitchntx]

Energy generated in Texas by fuel source

42% - natural gas
35% - coal
9% - nuclear
>1% - hydro
12% - renewables

Texas ranks about 7th or 8th of all grid regions in coal fired energy production and 3rd in natural gas fired energy production while 19th in nuke and 3rd in renewables.

http://www.eia.gov/state/data.cfm?sid=TX#ReservesSupply


I can't find average ages of coal fired plants anywhere, but I know in my part of the world, most are over 30 years old. Over the years, they've all been retrofitted with scrubbers in order to reduce emissions. However the new CSAPR rulling makes all that obsolete.

And remember, the implementation is widespread, affecting maybe a hundred units across numerous states and grid regions. The infrastructure to build the volume of equipment needed to bring older plants into compliance doesn't exist creating further problems in implementation.

 

[TexasR.N.]

I had a friend call yesterday and ask if I had power. He has lost it twice in a week now, and said he had talked to someone whom he knows in the Waco and this person reported power outages as well. When my friend called the power company, he asked if there were rolling brown outs going on. The rep at the power company said they were unaware of the outage, and denied any rolling outages.

I just bring this up because the thread title caught my attention. I didn't seem like it was that hot to start the outages, but then again I'm no EE and don't work in the electrical utilities field so what do I know?

 

[mitchntx]

Electric Reliability Council of Texas

You can watch, in almost real time, the max capacity and demand graphs for the Texas grid.

Did your friend pay his bill?

 

[TexasR.N.]

Electric Reliability Council of Texas
You can watch, in almost real time, the max capacity and demand graphs for the Texas grid.

Thanks for the link.

Did your friend pay his bill?

Should have. Between his SSI disability, food stamps, medicaid / medicare, section 8 housing benefits, welfare check, and working under the table I know he has plenty of cash.

 

[Younggun]

99% of power outages are simply a matter of equipment failure. Lots if old equipment on the grid.

Also factor in spring time an new growth on trees causing limbs to sag in to lines, electrical usage going up on equipment that hasn't had a ton of stress over the winter, as well as higher temps making it harder for the equipment to keep cool and you have a recipe for outages.

There is a reason I worked almost 80hrs each of the last 3 weeks and it wasn't due to rolling brown outs

 

[TexasR.N.]

99% of power outages are simply a matter of equipment failure. Lots if old equipment on the grid.

Also factor in spring time an new growth on trees causing limbs to sag in to lines, electrical usage going up on equipment that hasn't had a ton of stress over the winter, as well as higher temps making it harder for the equipment to keep cool and you have a recipe for outages.

There is a reason I worked almost 80hrs each of the last 3 weeks and it wasn't due to rolling brown outs

Understood. If we had one of those simple "thumbs up" smiley I'd place it here.

 

[Tony2]

99% of power outages are simply a matter of equipment failure. Lots if old equipment on the grid.

Also factor in spring time an new growth on trees causing limbs to sag in to lines, electrical usage going up on equipment that hasn't had a ton of stress over the winter, as well as higher temps making it harder for the equipment to keep cool and you have a recipe for outages.

There is a reason I worked almost 80hrs each of the last 3 weeks and it wasn't due to rolling brown outs

Theres another problem. Maintenance rational has changed in the old days we checked equipment for problems before there were problems. Now with a large part invester owned and even before that started its run it till it breaks. Good buisness sense untill you cant keep up with your obligations

 

[mitchntx]

The other side of that issue is in the old days, much of the technology was mechanical. Took a lot of specialists and special tools to repair, maintain and troubleshoot.

Digital equipment is much more reliable. However, when it goes out, it can be a nightmare to diagnose.

 

[TAZ]

Theres another problem. Maintenance rational has changed in the old days we checked equipment for problems before there were problems. Now with a large part invester owned and even before that started its run it till it breaks. Good buisness sense untill you cant keep up with your obligations

Exactly. Preventative maintenance has gone the way of the Do do bird in alt of cases. Small example. In my area tree trimming was an annual event. Every spring the crews would show up and trim trees away from the power lines and other equipment. Past 5 years or so not a soul shows up unless I call or we have a problem. When a consumer does call its like pulling teeth to get any help. I've had smoother discussions with insurance companies. Infrastructure as a whole doesn't rate anymore. We'd rather spend the $$ on new stadiums and welfare.

 

[Younggun]

I actually noticed the company we contract for of a broken pole swaying in the wind. Base is rotted off at the ground and the lines are holding it up.

This was last year and about 300 yards from the service center. It's still there.

 

[Tony2]

The other side of that issue is in the old days, much of the technology was mechanical. Took a lot of specialists and special tools to repair, maintain and troubleshoot.

Digital equipment is much more reliable. However, when it goes out, it can be a nightmare to diagnose.

This is true. I love the new digital control systems but I miss the old hands on pneumatic and electronic.

 

[Vaquero]

I remember the old allis chalmers balance beam voltage regulator controls.
Digital is much easier to set correctly.