Texas is the perfect example of how not to run an electrical grid by not allowing other states to assist in an emergency.
Texas is the perfect example of how not to run an electrical grid by not allowing other states to assist in an emergency.
No, it isn't. Any decent datacenter will have on-site generation in event of power grid failure, anyway. When I was an intern, the company I worked for would routinely go off grid during the summer at a call from the electric company. The electric company actually gave us significant incentives to do so, because us running on our own 12MW generator was effectively like the grid operator farming out a 12MW peaker unit.
The power company has a long list of who has backup power. I know of one factory where the generator was installed in the 1920s on a boiler from the 1880's - it is horribly inefficient, but the power company still gives the owners incentive to keep it working because for 4x the normal cost of power and 12 hours notice that generator can run the entire town it is in, which they do every 5 years when things really go wrong with the grid.
What is your definition of regularly, and what qualifies as getting it fixed? I know lots of places that had things scheduled, but on the day of, something "came up" that the test was pushed. I've seen others where they tested by only firing up the generator, but didn't actually use it to power the facility. I've also seen repair tags that sat "unlooked" at for years.
Not every facility is managed/financed the same for such a blanket statement as yours.
Ok!
> We live in the digital age, so almost everything depends on data
Data that I can't consume if my house is browned out and my router doesn't work (on top of heating/cooling, lights, and other basic living-related services that are less essential than the almighty ONT). > As in all mechanical devices, generators have a tendency to either break down(Let's not forget about associated switching gear.) or become subject to maintenance cut backs instituted my buffoons in management
Famously, power infrastructure relies on no moving parts whatsoever since the abolition of contactors, relays, rotors (but not stators), turbines (both water and wind), and control rod actuators, though even before abolition, none of these devices needed any maintenance. > We cannot depend on human errors, we can depend on the electric grid, if properly handled and maintained
The electric grid, which famously has no human or mechanical errors like line sag or weirdly-designed interconnects or poorly-timed load shedding. > Depending on generators just adds another link in the failure chain.
Weird way to frame a redundancy layer, but sure. > Texas is the perfect example of how not to run an electrical grid by not allowing other states to assist in an emergency.
Again, weird way to frame this. You're actually technically right about this, but the redundancy offered through a better-integrated interconnect goes both ways, rather than just externalizing weaknesses in TX's own interconnect design.Agreed, the datacenters need to be extremely durable. What's more durable than proving you're able to withstand a power outage event? The grid does go down from time to time; they need to be ready to handle it. That's not a Texas-only kind of thing; power outages happen all over the US.
If the datacenter can't handle the outage that was announced as a probability ahead of time, they have no business running critical applications.
In this case it's not really Texas 'not allowing' other states to help but the other states not allowing Texas. Conceivably federal law could be updated to remove those regulations and Texas would absolutely connect to the interstate grid at that point.
That, of course, ignores the fact that those regulations are in place for a reason. Texas refuses to play by the rules, and the impact of that is that they don't get help when it's important. It is unfortunate, but a direct consequence of the choices they made.
Super abusive. Let’s do away with safety systems that literally save human lives. Heck Texas doesn’t like them so let’s do away with them for the whole nation? How many people died during the last couple heat and cold induced grid outages in Texas? I lost count after a couple dozen. But those people were weak or poor anyway right? Texas strong!