So the day peaked at 85 GW of load, and they got down to only 130 MW of spare capacity. Just 0.15% from running out.
And they never asked for conservation?
Is it normal to go that close to the edge without trying to cut load?
And they never asked for conservation?
Is it normal to go that close to the edge without trying to cut load?
I mean, it's Texas - it's always blazing hot at the end of August, and that's to be expected. What's really changed over the past 25-50 years is that the plus 100 days have been starting earlier and earlier, and we've been having more of them. Thankfully, that wasn't the case this year.
At least with the heat, you aren't worrying that your plumbing might freeze and burst a pipe in your walls if the power goes out.
Fun fact, -40 is the same in F and C so it’s fine to omit the units for once!
I know this sounds like I’m just arguing for the sake of arguing, and maybe I am … but everywhere i’ve lived that gets to -40 there’s been an incredible neighborly energy. This is a situation where I would 100% just call a neighbor to flush my pipes, even if I don’t typically get along with that neighbor.
There’s something about places where you have to shovel 1 foot of snow twice a day just to park your car in the driveway that leads to people just giving a helping hand whenever it might make a difference.
Idk, YMMV but the only place I’ve seen people pipes freeze and burst was in Texas. And that includes living places where school doesn’t shut down during a blizzard and -40 temps.
And yes, these places definitely can be very noticeably racist but even then people would still absolutely do this for a neighbor.
Texas is simply hot and has been for our timelines. You could make the same silly comments about locations that have long and cold winters. Texas is hot we get it, you don't like it but it does not change that this summer has been great, it is a lot cooler than usual.
;-)
The grid actually had ~4 GW spare capacity (according to the graph) if it was needed, but it wasn't part of SCED.
The graph showed it increasing fast just before. Is it so unthinkable it could jump again?
Or is that they could get more (non-SCED) in time, it would just cost a ton so it's avoided if at all possible?
The "Physical Response Capacity" in that graph is the amount of capacity actually available, but it's not part of SCED. However it doesn't say anything about the timeframe it would be available in. Given that ERCOT didn't call for conservation, I would have to assume it was capacity that was "quickly available, but not cheap" rather than "not quickly available", but I don't know for sure.
Your second paragraph may be answered by this: https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/gridconditions. PRC units are available in real time, immediately on request.
I imagine the other ERCOT demand response programs were also dispatched.
Not sure how well it works, but they send out another email letting us know how we did compared to similarly sized houses in my area.
If demand goes over the edge, they will start doing rolling black outs.
I haven't paid much attention to them. Perhaps they should put a threat level code in the subject line.
Green = Go about your day
Yellow = Don't use your big appliances or hot water as much
Orange = Yellow, plus turn the thermostat to 80 and keep the doors closed
Red = Bitcoin mines offline. All buildings shut down ancillary consumption. A/C in common spaces set to 85. Prepare to roll blackouts.
We're at a point in time where I can't even tell if this is a joke or not.
Of course, there's zero chance of any sort of state governmental policy to help incentivize it in deep red state land.
But if recent history has shown anything, I would consider it a primary feature of any home in Texas to be relatively grid independent with its own generating capacity and storage.
https://www.gosolartexas.org/available-incentives
A lot of the incentives are from local power companies like Oncor, but one notable state-wide incentive is that solar installations are exempt from property tax by state law.
I dunno why people act like Texas is staunchly anti-renewable. TX state politicians have said some goofy stuff about "windmills freezing over", but overall Texans are extremely pro-wind and pro-solar. It's a huge economic driver for a large part of the state, and it's seen as an overall part of Texas's strong energy industry, complimentary to oil rather than as a competitor to it. George Bush and Rick Perry were both Republican governors but both were _very_ pro-renewable and oversaw massive booms in wind energy especially. In 2005 Texas (including Perry at the time) passed a law to invest billions of state dollars into building transmission lines specifically to make it feasible for renewable energy generation in west Texas to bring power to the populated areas in the east, which is attributed to the massive wind boom. Abbot, on the other hand, has sadly not been very pro-renewable, but much of the state still is.
Paying distributed generation export at retail rates or higher (DR, etc) makes plenty of sense because there are significant load, resiliency, and efficiency advantages to homeowners who are supposed to be the ones to benefit most from the grid.
Honestly, I would prefer they simply charged the cost of swapping meters and adjusted the flat infrastructure fee for solar users (when necessary) for cases where upgrades are needed in neighborhoods with excess solar generation. Instead, PEC is able to resell solar power for a very significant profit with their current rates.
Uncompensated demand curtailment is such a scam. Just pay people to curtail demand.