Electric blackout - Is it all over Texas?

[sideways]

Electric blackout - Is it all over Texas?

They didn’t run out of gas... still confused

[Bort]

There is something screwed up about this. Freeport, clute, no power. Lake jackson, richwood, power.
I bet River Oaks has power while lots of Houston no power. Dallas has big number of outage, yet my son in Richardson has power.

Money gets power.

River Oaks has been without power since last night.

[Traildust]

There is something screwed up about this. Freeport, clute, no power. Lake jackson, richwood, power.
I bet River Oaks has power while lots of Houston no power. Dallas has big number of outage, yet my son in Richardson has power.

Money gets power.

No power down our road since 5am......Whataburger and Popeyes in town had a couple hundred people in line and everyones lights are on!

[Mtltx]

Some insight from a man in the field:

This is coming from Me, a lineman. And I hope this maybe simplifies some things for some people who are very confused with the “rolling blackout” situation. And hopefully this post will help keep my phone from ringing so much, I know it’s frustrating for everyone.
Today I get home from work, and my electricity is off due to the rolling blackouts. My electric provider is Oncor. Oncor, like TNMP (who is my employer) is a big utility. At the other end you have the Electric Reliability Commission of Texas (ERCOT). Now ERCOT is who controls and manages the electrical grid in Texas. Now they see it from where the generation begins, then transferred to high voltage transmission lines, then eventually ends up in a substation where voltage is stepped down to be delivered to your home. So then you can have your Heat/AC, Internet, lights etc.
Times like this when temperatures are very low this increases demand to the system. Which goes back to those substations, transmission lines, then all the way to the generation stations. Increased load on the system can cause problems in several areas. Some equipment may not be able to take on all of the extra load which then starts leading to problems (power outages).
So what ERCOT initiates to break up the extra load that’s been put on the generation stations is a “blackout”. A “blackout” is a way to shed load, relieve the device of all the extra that it’s been taking on, before something breaks down and can’t be repaired. Sometimes entire towns lose power and sometimes is just part of a system. How they pick what they keep on and what they turn off I have no idea, it’s just what they do.
Once they see relief on the system they are able to get things back up and running again. Now this next part I’m sharing is from a friend who works with substations on a daily basis. This explains what happens once power is ready to come back on.
“The problem is the load that it puts on the system when everyone has their electric heat on. It is pure resistive load which in turn is a lot of amperage. The circuits have a limit just as our transformers do. So I am asking that everyone turn their electric heat off. When your lights come back, wait 45mins to a hour before you turn it back on. I know it’s cold and miserable but this will allow the load to settle down and not have the initial inrush current which causes more outages. Try your best to stay warm and be patient. We are out in it working and doing all we can to get your lights on as soon as possible.”
It’s a hard time for everyone. Bashing the lineman, our supervisors, the phone operators, ranting and complaining on Facebook, none of that will change a thing. At the end of the day us utilities have no say so when a “blackout” occurs that’s all on ERCOT. All we can do as Linemen is make sure when it’s time for the lights to come back on, they come on.
Hope this makes sense to some of you and answers a lot of questions. Stay warm and stay safe. And while you’re at it, say thanks to all those blue collar men and women out there. The mechanics keeping those oil and gas wells running, the ones out keeping the roads free and clear, and definitely don’t forget those healthcare workers!
L

Thanks for the explanation and for having to work out in these conditions. One question though, why is it that the blackouts occur during cold weather and everyone using heaters and it not happening during the 100 degree days during the summer. I would assume everyone is running their AC the same if not ore as everyone running their heaters. Either way it’s just a slight momentary discomfort in our comfortable lives.

[sp-bow]

Ummm...how do you watch without power. Please explain


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Cell phone. They haven’t turned it off yet.

[Tcooper93]

Cell phone. They haven’t turned it off yet.

Thanks Mr Wizard


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[Dale Moser]

Some insight from a man in the field:

This is coming from Me, a lineman. And I hope this maybe simplifies some things for some people who are very confused with the “rolling blackout” situation. And hopefully this post will help keep my phone from ringing so much, I know it’s frustrating for everyone.
Today I get home from work, and my electricity is off due to the rolling blackouts. My electric provider is Oncor. Oncor, like TNMP (who is my employer) is a big utility. At the other end you have the Electric Reliability Commission of Texas (ERCOT). Now ERCOT is who controls and manages the electrical grid in Texas. Now they see it from where the generation begins, then transferred to high voltage transmission lines, then eventually ends up in a substation where voltage is stepped down to be delivered to your home. So then you can have your Heat/AC, Internet, lights etc.
Times like this when temperatures are very low this increases demand to the system. Which goes back to those substations, transmission lines, then all the way to the generation stations. Increased load on the system can cause problems in several areas. Some equipment may not be able to take on all of the extra load which then starts leading to problems (power outages).
So what ERCOT initiates to break up the extra load that’s been put on the generation stations is a “blackout”. A “blackout” is a way to shed load, relieve the device of all the extra that it’s been taking on, before something breaks down and can’t be repaired. Sometimes entire towns lose power and sometimes is just part of a system. How they pick what they keep on and what they turn off I have no idea, it’s just what they do.
Once they see relief on the system they are able to get things back up and running again. Now this next part I’m sharing is from a friend who works with substations on a daily basis. This explains what happens once power is ready to come back on.
“The problem is the load that it puts on the system when everyone has their electric heat on. It is pure resistive load which in turn is a lot of amperage. The circuits have a limit just as our transformers do. So I am asking that everyone turn their electric heat off. When your lights come back, wait 45mins to a hour before you turn it back on. I know it’s cold and miserable but this will allow the load to settle down and not have the initial inrush current which causes more outages. Try your best to stay warm and be patient. We are out in it working and doing all we can to get your lights on as soon as possible.”
It’s a hard time for everyone. Bashing the lineman, our supervisors, the phone operators, ranting and complaining on Facebook, none of that will change a thing. At the end of the day us utilities have no say so when a “blackout” occurs that’s all on ERCOT. All we can do as Linemen is make sure when it’s time for the lights to come back on, they come on.
Hope this makes sense to some of you and answers a lot of questions. Stay warm and stay safe. And while you’re at it, say thanks to all those blue collar men and women out there. The mechanics keeping those oil and gas wells running, the ones out keeping the roads free and clear, and definitely don’t forget those healthcare workers!
L

This is quality postings.


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[SB09]

Electric blackout - Is it all over Texas?

Thanks for the explanation and for having to work out in these conditions. One question though, why is it that the blackouts occur during cold weather and everyone using heaters and it not happening during the 100 degree days during the summer. I would assume everyone is running their AC the same if not ore as everyone running their heaters. Either way it’s just a slight momentary discomfort in our comfortable lives.

The major problem I heard directly from the ERCOT leader person was that the severe cold weather caused some of their supply generators to go down. We were at 74k MW capacity. As of right now we have 44k MW capacity. So, 2/3 of our normal capacity(like what we normally have in summer time) is out of commission at the moment.


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[BigThicket Luke]

No Power at my place in Pearland all day. My mom has an office in the Heights though and it has power.

[MAP]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MAP View Post
I'm in New Braunfels and have had power the whole time......I'm going to be pizzzed if it goes out after I say this haha

Are you serious? I’ve had power maybe 2 hours total today in NB

Yes I've had power this entire time, until alittle earlier. I just fried some backstrap at 8:30 and right when I made my plate all the power went out, it came on again at 10. I'm right here in Gruene, maybe it has to do with all the nursing homes right here?

[Shane]

Helpful map to track the outages by county across the state.....

https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas?fbclid=IwAR34Etlz8cuPruMT8yYo4czIOD0blmx3jMxCq6AHNipPetFUUJg_jj1fDX4

[topshot]

Pardon me, but I am not understanding what you are saying here. Can you perhaps elaborate or explain this so a dummy like me can understand how frozen gas drilling equuipment has any effect on the current supply of natural gas?

Natural gas is not produced and flowing into a gas pipeline until AFTER the well is drilled and hooked up to a gathering system and pipeline. The current supply of gas is not affected by frozen drilling equipment. This makes no sense.

I should have said the gas processing plants are shutting down as liquids freeze inside pipes, disrupting output. My apologies, for the confusion, I've been up working since 3:45am and clearly need a rest.

[Killer]

Wow what a mess no power sucks in the worse way. You don’t miss it until it’s gone!

[SB09]

It seems we are on the 30min on, 30min off schedule. I’ll happily take that. Keeps the house semi warm along with the fireplace. Hope everyone is staying warm as they can tonight.


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[Greenheadless]

Thanks for the explanation and for having to work out in these conditions. One question though, why is it that the blackouts occur during cold weather and everyone using heaters and it not happening during the 100 degree days during the summer. I would assume everyone is running their AC the same if not ore as everyone running their heaters. Either way it’s just a slight momentary discomfort in our comfortable lives.

The resistive load of an electric heater uses WAY more energy in turning the temp per degree than an inductive load like an AC.

In short, AC’s are way more efficient at changing the temp in you house.

Also, think, most try to change 100 degree outside to 70 degree inside when hot. Tha5 is a 30 degree swing in temp.

Folks now are trying to make 10-20 degrees into 60-70, a 40-50 degree swing.