[But but obama...] Rolling power outages show why Texas needs renewables, nuclear and fossil fuels

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2021/02/16/rolling-power-
outages-show-why-texas-needs-renewables-nuclear-and-fossil-fuels/

If there is a silver lining to dark and brooding clouds of rolling 
blackouts amid bone-chilling temperatures and a dangerous snowstorm, it’s 
that those blackouts are protecting the state from a larger calamity.

No one likes the blackouts, least of all us. Texas is facing a disruptive 
and potentially dangerous situation as millions experience outages of 
varying lengths. People are stuck at home without heat and with nowhere to 
go during a pandemic. Businesses are closed and people who normally can 
work from home are grappling with power and internet outages.

But rolling outages are built into our system as a failsafe during extreme 
weather to avoid cascading blackouts. When the entire grid goes down, it 
can take weeks to restore power to everyone. We can – and will – debate 
the strength of this system after this crisis, but controlled outages are 
easier for power companies to deal with, which is why they are part of the 
playbook during an emergency.

In fact, several key design aspects of our unique, free market Texas power 
system are keeping at least some juice flowing this week and making it 
possible to get the power back on for everyone more quickly. This should 
be a reminder that, while tweaks to the market might be welcome, we 
shouldn’t abandon our free market approach. And we should certainly resist 
a government-managed move to all renewables.

Texas inhabits its own electrical grid, and power generation must meet 
demand at all times, as battery technology cannot store enough electricity 
to carry the state through an emergency (yet). And the Texas free-market 
approach has prompted investors from around the world to build a variety 
of power plants here, which is one reason why Texas leads the country in 
wind power in addition to deep investments in fossil fuels.

Wind turbines generate low-cost, pollution-free power, reducing our 
electricity prices and pushing older, dirtier fossil fuel plants out of 
service. But like any power source, wind has its downsides. One of the 
problems over the weekend was the extreme weather in West Texas caused 
about half of Texas’ wind power capacity to freeze. Wind turbines 
represented a portion of the power generators that went down; natural gas 
was also in short supply for power plants, as utilities put a priority on 
supplying natural gas to residential customers for heating.

But a grid with a variety of resources is resilient. And the Texas free-
market system includes mechanisms to encourage power companies to get 
their turbines turning as soon as possible, and to lure more power plants 
onto the grid during emergencies.

According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas website, wholesale 
power prices shot up as high as $9,000 per megawatt hour on Sunday. 
Typically, those prices are below $100 per megawatt hour. In other words, 
anybody with a power plant in Texas, no matter how old or expensive to 
run, had an incentive to fire it up this weekend. The end result is more 
electricity, though as it turns out not quite enough, as some plants 
struggled with blackouts.

This is likely why ERCOT managed to mostly keep the lights on Sunday 
night, and why we’re dealing with rolling blackouts instead of cascading 
failures.

We need all of our fuel resources to keep our grid agile and reliable. 
Each fuel type, nuclear, coal, natural gas, solar and wind, offers 
benefits and drawbacks. So until something better comes along, we are 
going to need nuclear and fossil fuels.



-- 
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering.  95% of COVID infections 
recover with no after effects.

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Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed 
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.