Wind Turbines Freeze in Texas

[Raptor Witness]

Frozen wind turbines have caused almost half of Texas's wind generation capacity to go offline in the midst of an “unprecedented storm”  Independent 2-15-2021

___________________________________________________

As record lows are smashed in the Heartland of America, Texans, who are without power by the millions tonight, are hearing the savvy excuse that their problem isn't their government or their failed electric grid, but frozen wind turbines.

A polar vortex is all it took to put Texas back into the stone age. 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Raptor Witness

[aztek]

[rashore]

I know folks in a couple of states out that way that have been warned for rolling brownouts and possible blackouts. Many aren’t used to the cold, and losing power during the cold extra sucks. Hope everyone stays safe.

[Raptor Witness]

The Stone Age is no fun. Your water pipes can easily freeze in temperatures such as these, if there’s no heat to sustain them. When the thaw comes, the damage will reveal itself with buckets of horror, because as the temperature rises the ice will slightly expand, before melting, inside the pipes.

My advice, know where to turn off the water main, inside the house(often at the water heater,) and/or outside(have the necessary tool to do this, ready,) and don’t leave your home vacant during the thaw without turning off the water. 

This situation often leaves people off their guard. 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Raptor Witness

[Autochthon1990]

3 hours ago, aztek said:

The same exact thing is happening in Oregon due to frozen trees and wind knocking down power lines. Severe weather events can screw over virtually any power grid.

[Tatetopa]

Sad and crazy huh?  All of those ranchers should just forget about the royalties they get during the rest of the year and abandon these things. Small time operators should not try to play the big boys game. 

Before it started snowing, Texas was talking about seceding and that socialist idiot Biden is now authorizing disaster aid for them.  That is nuts, they were not even complimentary to him.

[Jon the frog]

It would be interesting to see a turbine turning wild when unbalanced by ice ! 

[Gromdor]

It's more than just the wind turbines.  The refineries and power plants in Texas aren't winterized like Northern States.  Iowa has the same stuff as Texas but ours is winterized because we are used to it.  Our piping is heat traced and insulated, sensitive items are in building or other wise enclosed, and we even use cold weather specified lubricants and coolants.

Normally Texas is fine because the temperature doesn't drop like this.  

[+Desertrat56]

7 hours ago, rashore said:

I know folks in a couple of states out that way that have been warned for rolling brownouts and possible blackouts. Many aren’t used to the cold, and losing power during the cold extra sucks. Hope everyone stays safe.

several of my co-workers in central Texas have been experiencing rolling blackouts.  Right now two of them told me they have had no power for most of the day and it is colder than it has been in decades there.   The office I work out of (remotely) has had rolling blackouts for two days now.  We have servers in Florida and we are able to log on to those servers to access some of the documents and data bases we need to do our work.

[+Desertrat56]

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

Sad and crazy huh?  All of those ranchers should just forget about the royalties they get during the rest of the year and abandon these things. Small time operators should not try to play the big boys game. 

Before it started snowing, Texas was talking about seceding and that socialist idiot Biden is now authorizing disaster aid for them.  That is nuts, they were not even complimentary to him.

It doesn't matter what people say, it matters how our representatives respond to emergencies.  Do you think Biden would be justified to ignore them just because they complain about him.  Someone in every state has complained about every president we have ever had.

[Gromdor]

22 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

It doesn't matter what people say, it matters how our representatives respond to emergencies.  Do you think Biden would be justified to ignore them just because they complain about him.  Someone in every state has complained about every president we have ever had.

Biden immediately granted an emergency declaration for Texas when Abbot called and asked for it.

[Tatetopa]

57 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

It doesn't matter what people say, it matters how our representatives respond to emergencies.  Do you think Biden would be justified to ignore them just because they complain about him.  Someone in every state has complained about every president we have ever had.

Why no, he could have just asked for a "favor though" like dirt on Ted Cruz and John  Cornyn not because they are political opponents, but because he hates corruption everywhere.  .  With a name like Cruz, he must have ties to the cartels, right?

Seriously, every president with the possible exception of 1 has jumped right in to help a state in distress.  Might be part of the unity thing. Disagreements in good times get suspended in times of distress and everybody pulls together.

[Raptor Witness]

3 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

Before it started snowing, Texas was talking about seceding and that socialist idiot Biden is now authorizing disaster aid for them.  That is nuts, they were not even complimentary to him.

Texas is already socialist .... and President Biden is just doing his job. 

Texas is having to buy spare electric power from the surrounding grid, while secession is on their lips.

Mother pukes a little snow on them, and their grid collapses ....  go figure.

Texas governor vows to fight U.S. curbs on oil and gas activity - Reuters 1-28-2021

My advice to the good governor, is to reconsider our Mother’s feelings at this crucial time. The Stone Age is not a good place to be.

[rashore]

3 hours ago, Gromdor said:

It's more than just the wind turbines.  The refineries and power plants in Texas aren't winterized like Northern States.  Iowa has the same stuff as Texas but ours is winterized because we are used to it.  Our piping is heat traced and insulated, sensitive items are in building or other wise enclosed, and we even use cold weather specified lubricants and coolants.

Normally Texas is fine because the temperature doesn't drop like this.  

To my understanding of some news and commentary from other places... Yes, not just the turbines. Refineries and plants are freezing up too. They aren't winterized at all for this somewhat rare for the region event. It usually isn't warranted.. though perhaps into the future they will start investing into upgrades. 

I heard an unverified rumor that some of the wind turbines were offered from the manufacturer to have "snow package", but Abbott approved install without the package. It's late in the day for fact checking that one for me, so if other folks maybe more local and in that news could post up. 

[tortugabob]

This is rich.  A helicopter burning fossil fuels spraying a fossil fuel based chemical on a wind turbine made out of fossil fuel based materials.  Where is Doug when you need him?

[+OverSword]

7 hours ago, Autochthon1990 said:

The same exact thing is happening in Oregon due to frozen trees and wind knocking down power lines. Severe weather events can screw over virtually any power grid.

Are they expending hundreds of gallons of jet fuel to get those trees off the lines?  

Edited February 16, 2021 by OverSword

[Gromdor]

1 hour ago, rashore said:

To my understanding of some news and commentary from other places... Yes, not just the turbines. Refineries and plants are freezing up too. They aren't winterized at all for this somewhat rare for the region event. It usually isn't warranted.. though perhaps into the future they will start investing into upgrades. 

I heard an unverified rumor that some of the wind turbines were offered from the manufacturer to have "snow package", but Abbott approved install without the package. It's late in the day for fact checking that one for me, so if other folks maybe more local and in that news could post up. 

  I don't particularly blame Abbot or the Electric companies.  They built their plants and infrastructure based on the normal environment and weather.  We had a plant up here in Iowa that was built to "Southern" standards.  It was a natural gas plant and they left the rear portion unenclosed with minimal heat tracing and insulation.  Icicles as big as a volkswagon formed on top of the units and fell down on the piping and equipment.  The unit was always frozen and would miss it's start up schedule with the Iowa Commission as well.  They ended up spending millions to acclimatize it to Iowa weather- and that was just the one plant.   That plant would have been fine in Louisiana or Texas under normal conditions and was way cheaper to build.  Two more plants have been built since then and both have been enclosed.

   If anything the only thing they are at fault for is not being able to adapt to radical changing weather.   The fact that they are de-icing wind turbines shows me that they are pulling all the stops out to get power back to the people.  There are calm days when the wind turbines don't run and here in Iowa (and I am sure in Texas).  They use natural gas plants when that happens.  Natural gas costs more than wind (obviously) so they only run it when there is no wind or during storms that can damage the turbines. Natural gas power plant - Energy Education

These plants as well as the coal plants are failing because of freezing- so they are desperately trying to de-ice and use the wind turbines in conditions where they normally are shut off.  Basically both systems are being shut down by the weather whereas in normal conditions one acts as a back up for the other.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Gromdor

[Raptor Witness]

Source 

I was watching Neil Cavuto tonight, as he was interviewing the police chief in Houston and he said the whole grid could go down, if the strain continues for much longer.

So apparently these outages are intentional .... to prevent the Texas grid from collapsing.

I would think extreme heat would drive more usage, so this is very puzzling.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Raptor Witness

[+susieice]

This whole story is just so sad. According to ABC news, there's been 15 deaths. Two were a mother and her 8 year old daughter. Mom tried running the car in the garage to try and warm up. They were overcome by fumes. Those poor people are not accustomed to or prepared to deal with that kind of cold or snowfall. They are using garden shovels to remove snow. Anything they have available. They will get more snow tonight. This is the storm we in the northeast will get on Thursday. Our snowstorms don't come from Texas. We are prepared to handle it. They aren't.

Politics be damned. Those people need help and they should get it without hesitation. I'm glad Biden responded. Same with Oklahoma. 

 

[Autochthon1990]

3 hours ago, OverSword said:

Are they expending hundreds of gallons of jet fuel to get those trees off the lines?  

Diesel fuel, but yes. What do you think Backhoes run off of?

[+susieice]

Europe is also experiencing an unusual snowy, cold winter.

https://www.dw.com/en/greece-rare-snowstorm-leaves-3-dead/a-56592957

[aztek]

here in nyc it is surprisingly warm, all the snow\ice mountains that were piled last week, are melting and water is everywhere,  feels like spring, at least today it did

[Raptor Witness]

2 hours ago, susieice said:

Politics be damned. Those people need help and they should get it without hesitation. I'm glad Biden responded. Same with Oklahoma. 

Hear Hear .....

They can’t help it if they are led by red faces at the state level, who failed to manage their electric grid properly and foresee this destructive peril coming. 

After all, my thread on the coming Polar Vortex was published here on January 6, 2021. That’s only five weeks of preparation time.

Originally published in “Politics,” Mom and I are OK with the move to “Conspiracies and Secret Societies.”

Snow on the beaches of Galveston, TX is definitely considered “Southtown, USA.”

Quote

 

A Polar Vortex Send Off for Heat Miser

By Raptor Witness,  January 8 in Conspiracies & Secret Societies 

• trump
•  
• heat miser
•  
• snow miser
• year without a santa claus
•  
• polar vortex

Raptor Witness     2,451

•  
•   #1  
•  

Posted January 8

Could the departure of Donald Trump, a.k.a. "Heat Miser" curiously coincide with a special visit by the Polar Vortex?

The long range forecast says .... "maybe so."

 

Source: 

 

•  

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Raptor Witness

[toast]

Isnt the Texas grid connected to grids of neighbour states to balance the need for electricity?

[Raptor Witness]

2 minutes ago, toast said:

Isnt the Texas grid connected to grids of neighbour states to balance the need for electricity?

I have read that Texas is buying power from other sources, but what is available, next door, may not be enough. 

It’s still a bit of a mystery. I would think that summer usage would trump winter by a wide margin, but perhaps not enough was budgeted for this winter.