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'Unplanned' outages hit Texas power plants in soaring temperatures
Officials with Texas' power grid operator pleaded with residents Monday to limit their electrical usage amid soaring temperatures and a series of mechanical problems at power plants.
The appeal, from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, comes four months after deadly blackouts during a winter storm left millions of people without power — and weeks after state legislators passed a package of measures aimed at fixing some of the problems exposed by the storm.
Officials with the nonprofit group, which oversees 90 percent of Texas' energy production, asked residents to set their thermostats higher, turn off lights and avoid using larger appliances until Friday.
A spokeswoman for the group told reporters that the outages accounted for more than 12,000 megawatts, enough to power 2.4 million homes. Some areas of the state, including Dallas and Tarrant counties, were warned about poor air quality and potentially dangerous heat, with the heat index approaching 110 degrees.
A senior official with ERCOT, Warren Lasher, said it wasn't clear why there were so many unplanned outages. But he said that the group is "deeply concerned" about the plants that are offline and that a thorough investigation is being conducted to better understand the problems.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DannyB on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:46PM (3 children)
Texas definitely needs nuclear because:
1. being such a tiny state, it lacks sufficient land to construct any solar, wind farms, and battery storage like Australia can do
2. being located at such high latitude[1], it lacks sufficient bright sunlight to make solar practical.
[1]Compare direct noon sunlight brightness in Texas or Florida versus, say, North Dakota where the annual funeral director's convention is held. Yes, that is a real thing.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:58PM (2 children)
https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/nuclear-energy-in-texas/ [npr.org]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:21PM (1 child)
I suspect that the Texas legislature will discover "technical reasons" why nuclear just won't work in Texas. Lobbyists have researched this subject and given the legislators many small foldable paper reports on this subject.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:29PM
Signed by Benjamin Franklin?