Rolling Brown Outs

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  • TX69

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

    azkcr

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.
     

    azkcr

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    ^
    Yep. You definitely know more about it than me. Haha
    I was just saying that being in the middle of it, I get to hear why "it's gunna be what saves Texas" and heard "it'll never work and be a waste".
    Also have heard some people want them down because it's "killing prairie chickens and birds".... DAMN HIPPIES, MAKE UP YOUR MIND
     

    IXLR8

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    Just put a liquid Fluoride Thorium reactor in every neighborhood. No need to hook up to the grid unless you want to. It was seen as a perfect solution to remote Alaskan communities. It is a sealed unit incapable of going critical.
     
    Last edited:

    mitchntx

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    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.

    The newest large scale, base-load plant is almost 25 years old.

    I work at one of them
     

    robertc1024

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    I wouldn't doubt you for a second. My dad managed two hydro plants for years. They are ancient now, but still function.
     

    Younggun

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    Just put a liquid Fluoride Thorium reactor in every neighborhood. No need to hook up to the grid unless you want to. It was seen as a perfect solution to remote Alaskan communities. It is a sealed unit incapable of going critical.

    Just did a quick google search on this. Pretty interesting. Especially the supposed reasoning it wasn't used when nuclear was first being developed.
     

    F350-6

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    Well the good news is there are several coal states that will likely have a hard time electing a democrat during the mid terms.

    On another note, someone is apparently expecting natural gas prices to skyrocket because of this. They've done a little drilling in my neck of the woods and I got a letter today offering to buy my mineral rights. The offer is roughly 3 times the amount I've been seeing for the last couple of years.

    The brown outs is another nice thing about living in the country. They could shut down 5 sq miles where I live and not save as much electricity as shutting down a couple of blocks in town. That's good news for me.
     

    AKM

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    Buddy of ours was supposed to build a few new power plants in Texas and 46 across the world but obama put a chink in that chain. He had collected several BILLION to get started building.

    It's a new design for nuclear plants the way they talk it has so many fail safes it would take a miracle to melt it down.


    Will work for Ammo
     

    Anger

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    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

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