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Country wide power outage is due tonight !


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I think my information is correct!  My wife is on 24 hours O2 with a concentrator. Our doctor informed me that the power grid will go off from 6:00 till 11:00 pm tonight. Mexico has an agreement with USA power grid and Texas will be drawing power from Mexico due to their weather emergency. Please have your alternate lighting devices handy.

I have no other information at this time.

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Yep.

https://www.informador.mx/jalisco/Apagon-en-Jalisco-anuncian-cortes-aleatorios-de-energia-en-12-entidades-20210216-0060.html

Big reason is a bunch of those windmills froze up solid in Texas.  

Also from the Informador:

Quote

The number of deaths due to the freezing wave in the north of the country rises to eight in the last hours while in the region there are still 20% of users affected without electricity service, business closures and temperatures of up to 15 degrees below zero are recorded in some areas.

In Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, the death of an elderly adult who slipped on the ice when leaving a supermarket was reported, while the town of Río Bravo, in Tamaulipas, documented the death of two day laborers due to hypothermia.

 
 

These deaths are in addition to those previously recorded of a motorcyclist who skidded on the frozen pavement in Ciudad Juárez and the death of three homeless people and an older adult in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, the second largest in Mexico and the most affected by the disaster.

 

 

Man, we got off light here.

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9 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

Gee, that's exactly what the QAnon :() senator said. Do you believe in Jewish space lasers, too?

Frozen widmilks is not the reason given by those in charge of the energy grid.

Didn't realize you followed them.  Not your style.  Mine either.

Nope, here's just one of many sources reporting this:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/frozen-wind-turbines-texas-power-outages-b1802596.html

Quote

Frozen wind turbines have caused almost half of Texas’s wind generation capacity to go offline in the midst of an “unprecedented storm”.

The Lone Star state is under a state of emergency after freezing conditions swept the region, causing dangerously icy roads and leaving nearly 3 million people without power.

 

Texas wind farms typically generate a total of 25,100 megawatts of energy, the Austin-American Statesman reported. On Sunday turbines accounting for 12,000 megawatts had iced over, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s power grid, confirmed.

You can wipe the egg off your face now.  :D 

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1 minute ago, gimpychimp said:

I read that there will be rolling blackouts in several states between 6 and 11pm, and that the power is for those States in Northern Mexico who have experienced the bad weather and snow.

Here in Central Mexico also. Between 6PM and 11PM today in the city of San Luis Potosi.

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The frozen turbines account for a very small part of the problem.

"While ice has forced some turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives record electricity demand, that’s been the least significant factor in the blackouts, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid."

 
 

 

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13 minutes ago, gringal said:

Would someone be kind enough to translate the pertinent information from the long quote.  Are we losing power here from 6 pm until much later, for certain?

It says Tues 6 to 10 pm, rolling and random cutouts for:    The states that will be affected by the "rotary and random load cuts" are Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Colima, Estado de México, Michoacán, Nayarit, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.

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We've installed numerous hybrid solar systems with auto backup energy storage this past year....some folks have had concerns there might be outages due to Covid....I'm glad it isn't due to that, and they'll be well served regardless.      These are going to become much more common and cost effective / affordable than they were previously.     

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Interesting....  what would you say is the length of time your average battery installation will power a house if power were cut?  

Also maybe someone will report later about how long 'each' random power outage lasted during this 'event'.

 

 

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8 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

The frozen turbines account for a very small part of the problem.

Agree, it is mostly demand driven, use has far exceeded any previous levels and the capacity of the grid to provide the needed amount of energy.....it is not really a supply issue in terms of generation.

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In the Dallas area they have rolling blackouts since about 4am Monday.  My sister reports 45 minutes on then 45 minutes off. She was off 5 minutes ago. She told me that wind turbines are in fact off for protection from damage, and power plants shut down for the cold because they were not designed to operate in the current temps. She said the power usage has been higher than the hottest day last year, 

.Dallas expects zero ( -17.6 C) tonight and another round of snow  further south Houston expects freezing rain tonight. 

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4 minutes ago, RickS said:

Interesting....  what would you say is the length of time your average battery installation will power a house if power were cut?  

Also maybe someone will report later about how long 'each' random power outage lasted during this 'event'.

 

 

Hi Rick,   there really isn't an "average" per se.....the systems can go from keeping basics going for 2 to 4 hours, to essentially unlimited per the photo here, since the hybrid systems function fully as an offgrid as well as grid-tied.    So with enough storage to last the night, the solar and batteries work the next day to power the house and also recharge again.      Hope that helps, feel free to PM or email.

P1000321.JPG

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16 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

The frozen turbines account for a very small part of the problem.

"While ice has forced some turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives record electricity demand, that’s been the least significant factor in the blackouts, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid."

 
 

 

Further detail

But the vast majority of energy the state generates is through natural gas. In October 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that renewables generated 22% of the state’s energy, while gas generated 51.8%.

In ERCOT’s plan for this winter, it expected that thermal and hydro resources, i.e. gas, coal and water, would need to generate 67,000 megawatts per hour during a high demand event to support the state. This didn’t take into account a historic snow storm where demand would increase and supply would be threatened.

On Monday, frozen instruments and a limited gas supply forced 30,000 MW/h of power offline. This was half of what ERCOT believed they would need. According to the agency, wind turbines account for less than 13% of the total generation that was lost. The majority of which was coal and gas.

So yes, there are some issues with renewable energies during extreme weather events, but those issues are only a sliver of a larger problem that has left hundreds of thousand in the dark.

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4 minutes ago, conejorapido said:

Further detail

But the vast majority of energy the state generates is through natural gas. In October 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that renewables generated 22% of the state’s energy, while gas generated 51.8%.

In ERCOT’s plan for this winter, it expected that thermal and hydro resources, i.e. gas, coal and water, would need to generate 67,000 megawatts per hour during a high demand event to support the state. This didn’t take into account a historic snow storm where demand would increase and supply would be threatened.

On Monday, frozen instruments and a limited gas supply forced 30,000 MW/h of power offline. This was half of what ERCOT believed they would need. According to the agency, wind turbines account for less than 13% of the total generation that was lost. The majority of which was coal and gas.

So yes, there are some issues with renewable energies during extreme weather events, but those issues are only a sliver of a larger problem that has left hundreds of thousand in the dark.

Yes the 13% sliver. 

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29 minutes ago, RickS said:

Interesting....  what would you say is the length of time your average battery installation will power a house if power were cut?  

Also maybe someone will report later about how long 'each' random power outage lasted during this 'event'.

I don't think there is such a thing as an average battery installation. It has to be worked out by the technicians. Do you want to go off grid, and pay only a CFE monthly member fee ($5)? The cost of replacing batteries every few years, or ten years for newer technologies. Do you just want backup for short outages? This wouldn' t cost very much at all, $200 to $400 including wiring, if you already have an inverter, etc. Gasoline generators are a pain, because today's gasoline has so many adulterants that its storage time is as little as 6 weeks. Diesel has at least one year, maybe much longer. Solar off grid is the best way to go long term, with a fast payback, if you can keep your house using under 20 amps of power. Electrical storage systems are developing in leaps and bounds at this time of history.

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When we first moved here, we decided to install solar and have been extremely happy. At the same time, hubby wanted an in-ground generator for possible electrical outages. I thought it wasn't necessary, but I wasn't that bothered either way. So, we got a propane one which easily runs the whole home with no problems. Thanks for the heads up about this evening.

BTW, this is the first time (and probably last since I'm so stubborn) that he has it in writing that he was right! 

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True, only 22 percent though another source says 24 percent.  When you lose even 10 percent in a situation where every kWh is needed, you have to resort to rolling blackouts as is the case in Texas.  

The experience in Germany with these things freezing up even worse than Texas really calls into question their reliability in critical situations.

Short of being blown away in hurricanes or tornadoes the gas turbines are going to function with high reliability.

We have a generator for backul that can run our water system and refrigerator.  Power here used to be considerably less reliable than it is now.

But I kept the generator and keep it ready to run.

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36 minutes ago, Mainecoons said:

True, only 22 percent though another source says 24 percent.  When you lose even 10 percent in a situation where every kWh is needed, you have to resort to rolling blackouts as is the case in Texas.  

The experience in Germany with these things freezing up even worse than Texas really calls into question their reliability in critical situations.

Short of being blown away in hurricanes or tornadoes the gas turbines are going to function with high reliability.

We have a generator for backul that can run our water system and refrigerator.  Power here used to be considerably less reliable than it is now.

But I kept the generator and keep it ready to run.

Plus all the dead birds!!!

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1 hour ago, RickS said:

Absolutely there were frozen windmills.... taken off line as to not destroy the inner workings. AND some power plants in deep south Texas were shut down as they are not designed to run in that low of temperatures.

Amen...roughly 30% of Texans are without electricity. Ours went out around 2:00 AM Monday and is not back on. We're hoping by next week and fortunately I booked a hotel for Monday night, just in case, with the ability to cancel by 4:00 PM and boy am I glad I did. Hard to find a single room anywhere in the RGV and I just keep reserving one day ahead at a time. Frozen wind generators and frozen natural gas lines just about destroyed the power grid. Today they are down 15,000 MW of power compared to demand and more people have actually been "disconnected" today. It's a mess. Something I would expect from CFE but no, it's Texas!

We know that nearly ~30% of Texans are without power right now and most have been without for over 24 hours.  We feel for you.  Most of our team is without power as well and we are doing our best to service customer inquiries.  We urge customers to prepare to be without power for a good portion of today, if not longer.  

Please know that Real Simple Energy and retail energy providers do not receive any information that is not public.  We access the same websites and info feeds you do, from TDSPs and ERCOT.

What info are we watching?

Today we are paying the most attention to a chart on the top left of ercot.com.  It shows Texas-wide generation supply and demand.  Right now the orange line is about 15,000 MW lower than it should be due to power plants being unable to operate.  Until this orange line turns upward and rises 5,000-10,000 MW, most Texans will continue to be without power. Unfortunately, this morning it has been going the wrong way as well (green line), and even more Texans have lost power in the last few hours.  Let’s hope ERCOT gets this back on track.

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