Rolling Power Outages Outrage!

@Beth Gallagher Were your kids in Oregon affected by the big power outage? I am lucky here that the power is going as I am all-electric. Also lucky to be near the dams that keep ongoing. I hope they get your power going soon. I was surprised to see so much of Texas under such harsh conditions. One would expect it in the Panhandle, but for Dallas/Ft Worth down to Hill country and then over to Houston, to be hit so hard with low temps and wind chills is very surprising.

 

I have been on icy roads every winter my entire life. I used to wear out a set of studded tires every winter and at least two sets of chains on my personal vehicle. When I delivered packages in the mountains, I went thru a set of chains every other day. Lots of close calls and getting stuck requiring a winch truck to pull me out. The closest was a rancher that saw me hit a snow-covered pothole and it spun me around and the rear of my delivery truck was hanging off the edge of a 150' drop. Lucky it stopped there, caught by the berm and the rancher chained his truck to a huge fir tree and put his winch cable on my front bumper, and reeled me back on the road. Needly to say I was shaking for the rest of the day.

One of the big problems we see around here is the ones with 4 wheel drives that can go fast and don't realize they have the same stopping distance as a 2 wheel. The new automatic 4 wheels are best, but still, people get in too much of a hurry.

 

My degree is antique and in Broadcast Engineering, but I understand the electrical grid fairly well. I nor no one else can explain how the outages help anything other than to cover for a poorly planned and managed grid system. It is impossible to provide electricity for all of Texas with their current system.

1st energy such as wind or solar should only be used when another fossil fuel generating plant is of sufficient size to provide customers with ample power on its own. The idea should be to shut back the fossil plant to a lower level thus saving fossil fuel, and then switch on the wind turbines to fill that extra needed draw. What is happening is these turbines and solar farms are being used to provide the daily draw of power. The fossil fuel plants are too small and more should be built to provide the grid with ample power all on its on.

So what is happening is when severe cold or heat hits and more power than the combined sources can supply is required, they simply black out an area. There is no other way to do it because of lack of planning and also the assault on fossil fuels by those that don't understand basic electricity or the environmental damage required to mine all the copper and aluminum for wire plus the elements needed for producing massive batteries for solar and capacitors for direct AC sources.

In my area, the dams provide way more than we need so the rest is sold off to California. Since Calif demands more electricity than we have a surplus, Oregon has built thousand of wind turbines lining the Columbia Gorge and destroying everything from geese flights to natural wind currents and in some places shake the ground a mile away disrupting the natural cycle of things. All this electricity goes to mismanaged California.

Another thing to understand about the grid is the regulating capacitors they use to smooth spikes. Some think this storage energy like batteries. Their storage capacity is brief and to regulate only. If the generating source is shut off the draw on these drains them in microseconds or less. The bottom line is our electrical grid is in dire straights. We need more fossil fuel and hydro plants that can meet the need on their own. The current system is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The other solution is fewer people which isn't going to happen with open borders.

I hope that helps explains the mess we are in @Trevalius Guyus and why you get rolling blackouts and why when wind turbines stop, you are short of power. I love wind turbines when used correctly and on a smaller more individual scale. To use them to feed a grid to supply needed daily draw is borderline insanity and criminal.

 

There was a story on Fox this morning detailing that exact problem

 

Well, where we live, northern Colorado, everything is going fine. Colorado is one of the "Rocky Mountain" states that is well-prepared for cold weather, ice and definitely blizzard conditions. When we lived here, 28 miles south of Denver, for 5 1/2 years, we never once had a electrical outage. Seriously, not once! Now, during the 10 1/2 years we lived in northeastern Florida, we had a few short outages, but when Hurricane Irma hit us, it went out for 2 1/2 days. Thank God, that was all.

And, I will also say this about northeastern Florida, aka Jacksonville: northern Florida is darn sure the coldest part of the state during Florida's so-called "winters". There were mornings we could see our breath outside with a light coat of ice on things! We seen the temp at 23 degrees at 5AM. To keep on the safe side, and also highly suggested by our boat mechanic, we had our boat (same one we still have) "winterized" there. Winter coats, not Parkas, were sold at Walmart, etc. there. Hard for some to believe, but very, very true.

There are those that live in Colorado, and surrounding states, that don't have 4-wheel drive or even snow tires on their vehicle. That can be bad during winter driving! We have both AWD, 4-Lock and All Terrain Tires on our Dodge Durango. Our old '92 Dodge RAM 1500, had the same, because it was bought here in Colorado as was our Durango. When we sold the 1500, in Florida, the tires were old, so we had regular tires put on instead of the bigger "snow" type tires.

Not only do we use our 4-Lock for driving in snow here, we put the vehicle in that when we are launching our boat. Going up a slippery/wet boat ramp, without 4-Wheel Drive can be a little tough.

 

Our power came on about 2 a.m., so we were nearly 24 hours without power. Today we have power but no water. We have a stockpile of bottled water in the garage and a swimming pool full in the back yard, so we can flush toilets and make coffee.

We stayed in the den last night, huddled around the fireplace. It wasn't horrible but not something I'd want to do very often. I was able to cook dinner and my mother-in-law entertained us with stories about her youth.

My husband has just left to take her home to check out her water well and around her house.

 

I don't know. I assume there are so many broken pipes, etc. that the pressure is down to zero. It was fine around 6 a.m. but has dwindled down to a trickle as the day goes on. All our neighbors report the same.

 

During hurricane preparations, we always fill bathtubs with water. I guess since this is our first severe winter storm, we should add that to any future severe cold. Of course we have plenty of water in the pool and several cases of bottled water in the garage.

 

Our gas stove has "igniters" but a match will get the job done. Baking was the last thing on my mind as I sat in the dark with candles flickering.

My sister in law just called, looking for my husband. Apparently they have a broken water pipe and she said water is pouring into their living room. My poor hubby is everyone's "go to"; he's still at MIL's taking care of whatever happened over there.

 

I read someplace this morning that the state of Texas is not tied into the national grid. Some thing about wanting to be independent ,and a lack of faith in the network.

 

The wind turbines are frozen and the solar panels are covered with snow. Somebody needs to do better planning next time.