Rolling blackouts

[johnrex62]

Wow, never thought about that. Reliant, in the Houston area had been bugging the heck out of me to sign up on some sort of "wind power" plan. I resisted because I had no idea what it was, but finally went ahead and signed up for it a few weeks ago. Hopefully, that will mean my bill doesn't increase.

By the way, anybody know what that plan is all about?

Not sure, but if it is anything like the alternative power plans the City of Austin has been promoting it means they will charge you more for the bragging rights to say your power comes from a green source.

 

[Ken]

And its only going to worse in time.Being a electric lineman for many years I can tell you the electric system is OVER LOADED.Think about when you were growing up in the 1960,s 1970,s we did not have computers,microwaves,and 3 TV,s and all of the extra electric gadgets.I was on call the night back in 2000 when the east coast & midwest had a major blackout.We lost power to 16 out 17 of our sub stations,trust me it was not pretty,folks were starting to get a little crazy.Long lines at gas stations who had back up generators,mickyD,s had about 25 people in line waiting outside to get fed.The electric system is getting old with not many upgrades.Not to be gloom and dume but have a back up plan in place.coobie

The News media and law suits to keep a power plant from being built . It takes about 30 years of planning to build a new plant. Any changes has to be filed to Gov. for review.
Coal plants are declaired a health hazard. natural gas plants to expensive to run and nucler plant a dangerous type of generation. But if by chance a new plant is built then the Added power lines to feed the power is slowed by groups that spread false rumors of the lines. So the Not in my back yard people scream if there any changes.
Wind Generation cannot feed the power due to no transmission lines. who is preventing the lines. It sure is not those promoting the use of Electricty. ken

 

[NativeSon]

I saw on FOX news the other day, the amount energy produced by wind power nationally was something like .06%. The amount produced by burning wood was 2%.

The Green Technology is fine but it ain't going to keep us warn in the winter or cool in the summer. Their just going to charge us more.

Drill baby Drill!!!!!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

The local radio morning show was saying that the wind turbines need to shut down when they get iced up. Also said that the solar stuff don't work when its cloudy/super cold. Natural gas is expensive. I think the STP plant down on the coast has got things going its way really well.

So, I saw the news showing where purchases of electricity on the grid shot up to the max $3001 vs a normal $50-60. Now they are saying the customers are going to have to pay. I say, first, "Who the heck approved the purchase of $3001 energy. And 2nd, give us the names of all the suppliers who charged that much. The news didn't necesarily point out only the Mexican power company but they didn't spill any guts on whomelse. I think the ERCOT has about a week to straighten out any crap like this happening. This is gouging. If a hurricane is coming, you can't raise the price of plywood and generators just because. I see the power shortages as ERCOT's problem. Don't make the customers pay for their bad decisions. Write your congresspersons.

 

[clemsonfor]

I forgot the exact number but the US only has about 5% surplus in power production. And there is not much room to move power on power lines either. Power companies rightly do not want to have more capacity than needed. And neither do we since we would have to pay for the extra plant sitting around doing nothing. Course the Greenies want us to all be hugging trees and either freezing or sweating. Until it happens to them and then they will howl.

The idea that large numbers of people are going to be able to drive electric powered cars is going to hit the reality of the lack of power production and limited transmission capacity if the power could be produced.

But it does seem we need to boost power production just a tad. I do not ever remember having rolling power blackouts as a kid. It did not happen to us and I never heard of it happening to others.

Later,
Dan

The amount of electric cars and the strain they will put on the grid was even talked about on NPR a few weeks ago.

 

[clemsonfor]

By the way, anybody know what that plan is all about?

You signed up and still dont know what it is?

 

[clemsonfor]

The News media and law suits to keep a power plant from being built . It takes about 30 years of planning to build a new plant. Any changes has to be filed to Gov. for review.
Coal plants are declaired a health hazard. natural gas plants to expensive to run and nucler plant a dangerous type of generation. But if by chance a new plant is built then the Added power lines to feed the power is slowed by groups that spread false rumors of the lines. So the Not in my back yard people scream if there any changes.
Wind Generation cannot feed the power due to no transmission lines. who is preventing the lines. It sure is not those promoting the use of Electricty. ken

There building 2 new reators (mabe just one, not sure) at plant vogul on the savannah river in augusta. They have been building the site for years. I beleive they are at the preliminary stages of permits or have just about got them not sure? But there will be a new nuke plant in "GA. Those residents will pay for it, but it will sell surplus power to SC, FL , and AL and maybe a few others as well.

 

[clemsonfor]

So, I saw the news showing where purchases of electricity on the grid shop up to the max $3001 vs a normal $50-60. Now they are saying the customers are going to have to pay. I say, first, "Who the heck approved the purchase of $3001 energy. And 2nd, give us the names of all the suppliers who charged that much. The news didn't necesarily point out only the Mexican power company but they didn't spill any guts on whomelse. I think the ERCOT has about a week to straighten out any crap like this happening. This is gouging. If a hurricane is coming, you can't raise the price of plywood and generators just because. I see the power shortages as ERCOT's problem. Don't make the customers pay for their bad decisions. Write your congresspersons.

You can a little due to demand and wanting to retain stock, as well after the stuff goes skyhigh. Remember after the storms OSB here in the south was $15sheet in 2005. Last i bought some or looked a yr or so ago it was lbetween $5-7.

 

[dmccarty]

I saw on FOX news the other day, the amount energy produced by wind power nationally was something like .06%. The amount produced by burning wood was 2%.

The Green Technology is fine but it ain't going to keep us warn in the winter or cool in the summer. Their just going to charge us more.

Drill baby Drill!!!!!

The Wall Street Journal had a report/review on a book that covered the energy needs of the US. The net of the book is the green power is never going to provide a sizable portion of energy needed by the US. From what I could tell the numbers he used regarding energy usage and production where all from government sources not something he made up. I looked at some of the data that published by the Department of Energy. If you looked at how much energy is needed by transportation in the US and tried to provide that energy by electricity... Well lots of luck. It would cost trillions and take decades to build the Nuke plants, add to the power transmission infrastructure, as well as beef up the power handling in houses to charge up cars. And given the Green movement and NIMBYism it really would take even longer to build.

I searched for an hour last night for the previously mentioned book but it is hard to find a book without a title or author. :laughing: I meant to keep the section with the book review but it got thrown out.

Later,
Dan

 

[Western]

Maybe I'm just old or missed the headlines but seems to me, to go "green" as in electric cars??? would that not add burden to require more coal burning electricity to supply demand??

I love Solar and if it was affordable, it would be great to run my house on it. As far as wind power, love the idea, hate the look of it. The rolling plains of West Texas are starting to look like New York city at night.

As far as the contracts go, I have locked in rates in the past, usually because you can almost bet the power companies will lobby Austin for a rate increase each year. Unfortunately I didn't with my co-op and come to think of it, I cant remember them offering one. hmm


Another dumb thought. Why would you schedule maintenance on your power grid during one of the 2 most demanding times or during power draws like mid-winter, mid-summer???

Maybe it's me dunno, but I wouldn't tell my wife "honey I am going to change the oil and cleanup the tractor, I just have to wait for a rainy day"

And I'm not that old!