What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by cavisne on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:15PM (#26161796)

backup generation (gas) is not working. As mentioned. When your only on-demand source of generation is only profitable in peak periods its a recipe for disaster.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by woeirua on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:25PM (#26161891)

Again, this is not what is actually happening. Texas has heaps of on demand natural gas generators. They froze up with the storm and failed to turn on. Has nothing to do with renewable.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by newacct583 on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @10:19PM (#26162244)

Texas gas plants aren't "backup generation". Those are always available, almost always on, full-time-operated facilities.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by angry_octet on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @01:09AM (#26163268)

Yes in Texas gas is used for base load.

Strangely the rules under which some of them operate involve them paying for gas at spot prices (or at least during peak demand), and with spot gas prices being so high (due to pipeline failures limiting supply, and gas for heating having precedence) they had the option to stop generating...

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by 8note on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @10:47PM (#26162402)

It sounds like in texas's case, the backup generation (renewables) aren't built up enough to take over for when traditional power goes down

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by kortilla on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:37PM (#26162752)

Renewables aren’t backup generation. They can’t be activated on demand to cover dips.

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