ERCOT Issues Conservation Appeal to Texans and Texas Businesses https://www.ercot.com/news/release?id=90030206-5cf5-db8e-13d…
With extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is issuing a Conservation Appeal, asking Texans and Texas businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity, Monday, July 11 between 2-8 p.m. ERCOT also issued a Watch for a projected reserve capacity shortage from 2-8 p.m. At this time, no system-wide outages are expected…
Performance of the generation fleet Monday
Installed Percentage Available
Capacity At Tightest Hour
Dispatchable 80,083 85%
Wind 35,162 8
Solar 11,787 81
The problem with wind is that it is at max generation in the spring and fall of the year, and minimum production in the summer and winter months. Peak usage occurs in summer…with winter not far behind.
Power demand has been increasing a few percent every year. More people, more power need.
Texas has lots of wind power - but it is feeble in mid summer. 8% of rated capacity.
Half of TX electricity from Natural Gas. Something like 7% from nukes.
Solar doing good - and lots out in west TX - almost in next time zone - so get power later in the day into the evening hours. Of course, solar puts out less GWH in the winter - shorter days, lower sun angle, and potential for ice coated panels when you need it - and need it for cold nights.
FWIW, Bitcoin mining consumes 1% of total Texas grid capacity.
While Texas is likely to face more energy shortages in the future, ERCOT expects crypto miners to increase electricity demand by up to six gigawatts by mid-2023, more than enough to power every home in Houston.
Maybe they (crypto miners) could use some of their big profits to buy some more power generation capacity so they can mine more crypto!
I’m sure that some crypto people still have profits. The recent drop rolled the price of Bitcoin back to where it was in late November and early December of 2020. Any Bitcoin bought in 2018, 2019, or most of 2020 is still in the black. While there was a peak in December 2017, any Bitcoin bought then is at breakeven. Any Bitcoin bought in the first 4 months of 2017 or earlier is still at least a 10-bagger.
Solar doing good - and lots out in west TX - almost in next time zone - so get power later in the day into the evening hours. Of course, solar puts out less GWH in the winter - shorter days, lower sun angle, and potential for ice coated panels when you need it - and need it for cold nights.
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The amount of solar capacity in Texas currently is way too low. Texas was late in coming to the solar explosion. Solar is as good as dispatchable power when the temperatures are high and much cheaper than natural gas.
Jaak:“The amount of solar capacity in Texas currently is way too low.”
Not to worry. Before 2025, Texas will have both more wind power (already has) and more solar power generated than California by a large margin.
You get calls all the time here to add ‘free’ solar panels to your roof, letters from the power company, and out in rural west TX, 1000MW type solar farms are being built. Lots of sun there, not much rain. Good solar conditions and able to handle late afternoon power demands of central TX cities.
" Texas, already the U.S. state with the most wind energy capacity, is catching up to California in utility-scale solar capacity, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday."
EIA projected Texas will add a record 10 GW of utility-scale solar capacity by the end of 2022, compared with 3.2 GW in California. A third of all U.S. utility-scale solar capacity planned to come online in the next two years (30 GW) will be in Texas."
Jaak:“So Texans need to worry about rolling blacks for 2 more years.”
The problem is that wind (June 2022) was running at 8% of capacity due to …duh…lack of wind in the summer months during the day . We already have more wind rated capacity than CA.
Solar , even 2 years from now, will increase solar power to about 10-12 % of actual need. Half will still come from natural gas plants in the summer time, 8% from nukes.
Peak Power demand is growing by over 1 GW per day, year after year, due to increasing populations.