What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by WillPostForFood on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:57PM (#26162124)

You are right if they were trying to reduce load 50%, that's basically impossible for the reasons you mention. They were only trying to get it down 20% and it might have worked if they could have effectively rolled the blackouts. A lot of people have natural gas heat. It doesn't work when the power is out (no ignition, no thermostat, and no fan), but doesn't put a huge load on the electric grid when it is on. For a well insulated house, you are probably running the heat for much less than 50% of the day. We run on average 6-8 hours in the winter. A rolling blackout where power was off for 1 hour, on for 2 would have exceeded their target savings, and shouldn't have affected heating or demand.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by gkop on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @10:36PM (#26162337)

> A lot of people have natural gas heat. It doesn't work when the power is out

That doesn’t have to be the case. I have gas heat [0], that works fine when our power is out.

(Not intending to detract from the rest of your point)

[0] a basic Williams wall furnace on a 50 year old thermostat.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by WillPostForFood on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:23PM (#26162666)

How does the thermostat work? I've had the old mercury switch style thermostats before, but those work by completing a circuit, so I assumed they were dependent on power being on.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by gkop on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:55PM (#26162867)

Googling tells me it’s “a pilot millivolt system”. I guess the downside of this design is that the pilot* is always lit, consuming a certain amount of fuel. Neat old quick start guide for a similar thermostat: http://nebula.wsimg.com/b2bc334b6de3591406ddd01974f01830?Acc...

* pilot is manual piezoelectric; doesn’t require electric power

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by pixl97 on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @12:17AM (#26162994)

How does it blow heat around the house?

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by Johnny555 on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @01:05AM (#26163249)

Not very well, I lived in an apartment with one of those in the hallway, had to set up a fan to blow warm air to the living room or bedrooms or it got way too cold on cold nights. (which fortunately, were rare where I lived). It'd definitely be better than nothing in an extended power failure, but forced air heat is more comfortable

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by gkop on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @01:02AM (#26163238)

It’s a wall furnace in the center of the apartment, I guess it blows via convection, outward on both sides of the wall.

These heaters are super common in California, and some larger homes have multiple of them. I assume they’re not as efficient as more modern solutions, but they are certainly reliable and low-maintenance.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by JamesBarney on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @12:55AM (#26163204)

I don't know about North Texas but I don't think gas furnaces are that common in Houston or Austin.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by fuzzfactor on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @02:38PM (#26170557)

These type were quite common when natural gas lines were first run to households in Houston:

Dearborn gas heater example just like the one I had:

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...

In The Heights many original homes have a smaller version(s) built into the wall, sometimes a tiny one right there above the bathtub.

After converting to showers sometimes it's right in your face while standing.

Without a full set of built-ins, there were natural gas petcocks in each major room for portables or relocatables like Dearborns.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by ineedasername on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @09:59AM (#26166966)

Propane gas is relatively common, but wither way:

1) Natural gas has been a problem because the moisture in it has been freezing pipes

2) The cold has caused the pressure in propane tanks to drop, impairing their functionality.

None of this might have been a huge problem if Texas didn't keep its power grid almost completely separate from the rest of the country. That has meant they can't easily bring in capacity to cover their own lack. Though even moderate winterization would probably have significantly reduced the problems. It's not like they have to prepare for continuous -10 F.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by WillPostForFood on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @11:56AM (#26168549)

I don't know what the geographic distribution is, but overall the state is split evenly between between natural gas and electric heat (45% each), with the remainder being misc sources like propane.

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