3 ms·
It sounds like their grid suffers from excessive fragility due to fragmentation and variability of infrastructure. I would also think there would be more automa
by ratsmack 6y ago
It sounds like their grid suffers from excessive fragility due to fragmentation and variability of infrastructure. I would also think there would be more automated switches in the system to moderate load balancing automatically.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoTheir grid prioritizes lower cost over reliability/durability of generators. If you don't pay for and govern capacity [1], it isn't there when you need it. [1] https://cpowerenergymanagement.com/why-doesnt-texas-have-a-capacity-market/ https://cpowerenergymanagement.com/why-doesnt-texas-have-a-c...
- crmd 6y agoI live in New York City and pay a very high electric rate, however I’ve had less than 30 seconds of downtime (and on only one phase!)in the past 12 years, including through hurricane Sandy. So as an engineer I can’t be mad at my electric bill. Redundancy is expensive but worth it for me.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoI agree entirely. It's a sales job to the general public.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoIt seems a lot of this could have been avoided simply by winterizing the most high-producing sources of power (nuclear and nat gas). These plants are PLENTY capable of running in extreme cold and snow.
- cure 6y agoWind turbines have no intrinsic problems in extreme cold (cf. the Nordic countries, for example), but you have to make the investment to weatherize your turbines. Texas didn't prepare properly. Perhaps because they didn't want to spend the money, or because the people in charge think climate change is not real and won't affect them. I wonder how many "100 year" storms it is going to take for the latter to change. Probably more than just this one, though.
- tharkun__ 6y agoWith the added benefit of being able to blame renewables if it happens. Like they did/tried.