Gas power saves Texas from power outages, as wind power collapses again! – Watts Up With That?
By Paul Homewood
Over the weekend, the US declared a State of Grid Emergency in Texas, as temperatures plummeted.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-declares-texas-grid-emergency-180011531.html
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/texas-power-prices-spike-more-165419011.html
An emergency order from the US Department of Energy allows the state’s grid operator to exceed certain air pollution limits to boost production amid record electricity demand in the state. The Electrical Reliability Council of Texas, whose service area covers 90% of Texas electricity customers, requested an emergency order Friday, warning that power cuts may be necessary. TRANSLATION – burn more coal and gas plants!
Fortunately, a repeat of last year’s blackout was avoided. But as we can see, it was gas power that came to the rescue, when wind power was virtually empty at the same time as demand skyrocketed:
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/balancing_authority/ERCO
Texas has 35 GW of wind capacity, but production ran below 5 GW throughout Saturday and dropped to 2 GW for most of the day. This is certainly not due to a lack of wind, but quite the opposite in fact. I don’t know if wind power collapsed because the wind was too strong or because of freezing. But either way it’s a weather-related issue.
Fortunately, ERCOT was able to utilize its abundant gas power capacity, both to replace lost wind power and to meet increased demand, peaking at 74 GW, about 15 GW higher than average. often.
Without that gas power, Texas would face disaster.
You can also forget about importing electricity from other regions, because arctic weather covers about two-thirds of the country, so there won’t be a surplus of renewable electricity anywhere.
Joe Biden still wants carbon-free electricity by 2035. How many million Americans will freeze to death if he succeeds?
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