Power blows past $9,000 cap in Texas as heat triggers emergency

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Electricity prices briefly surged past a $9,000 a megawatt-hour price cap in Texas as extreme heat sent power demand skyrocketing and forced the state’s grid operator to declare an emergency.

As temperatures in Dallas climbed to 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39 Celsius), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued an emergency alert, calling on all power plants to ramp up and asking customers to conserve. At one point on Tuesday afternoon, the region had just 2,121 megawatts left in power reserves, less than 3% of total demand on the system.

The prospect of supply shortages sent wholesale electricity prices surging past $9,000 a megawatt-hour for several minutes, triggering a limit set by Ercot to avoid runaway prices during extreme events. They remained near the cap at around 5 p.m. local time as demand began leveling off and the region’s supply margins widened.

Power contracts traded on the Intercontinental Exchange were similarly headed for record settlements, said David Hoy, an electricity trader at Dynasty Power. “It’s almost guaranteed now,” he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/power-blows-past-dollar9000-cap-in-texas-as-heat-triggers-emergency/ar-AAFL62t?li=BBnbfcN

[Haggis for Breakfast]

1. TX should just bill the Chinese . . .

[TexasBushwhacker]

2. We got a couple of robocalls from the electric company

in Houston, asking us to turn our thermostats up a few degrees.

[CDerekGo]

3. and folks look at me cross-eyed

When I tell them i want to live off of Solar and Wind

[blogslut]

4. Texas produces more wind enerGy than any other US state

Granted, it needs to be more but we're working on it.

[Lochloosa]

6. But if the wind stops blowing you're screwed.

Oh wait. It's Texas.

[blogslut]

9. That's not how wind energy works

The electricity generated is stored. Incidentally, the turbines are designed to stop when the wind is too high. I know you're being silly but, I can't help an *actually* kind of gal.

[Yeehah]

11. Honest question...

Lacking a pumped storage facility, how is power from wind energy stored?

Thanks.

[blogslut]

13. Batteries and/or compressed air

https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=488

[Yeehah]

14. Anywhere this is being used on a large scale?

I'm aware of a 10 MW battery in Holland, but nothing on the scale that could support the grid.

[blogslut]

15. I have minimal knowlege

Sorry

[Disaffected]

18. Short answer is

no. Much too expensive.

[walkingman]

10. Yep, we got plenty of hot air here. In all seriousness we could easily produce a lot of solar energy

in Texas if not for the dominance of the fossil fuel industry. I wish we could head that direction.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. Still 100-deg. in Dallas at 7:00pm.

According to the NWS, they're in for a long stretch of this heat.

[nocoincidences]

7. This is my first month

with a net-metered solar installation. I have 25 panels installed on my south facing roof, in Va. Beach where we have a LOT of sunny days.

I don't really have enough data to evaluate it, yet, but it can't be any worse than my electric bill has been the last few years!!

[912gdm]

12. I actually have a rep coming out tomorrow to look at putting panels on my garage/barn roof

My sister put panels on her roof last year and was saying she is getting a credit on her bill every month. She says 2-3 hundred, but I haven't seen a bills so I'm taking that with a grain of salt. But hell, any credit is worth it

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Shouldn't most of Texas be good for solar?

I live in New Mexico, and I recently had solar installed. I'm beyond thrilled with it. When I'm generating excess electricity, I'm actually selling it back to PNM. I won't make a lot of money off them, but it's going to be nice.

[Igel]

16. Perhaps, but TX is gearing for wind.

A lot of the build-out started in the mid-00s, 2004-06, before the financial panic, and came on line in 2009, 2010, 2011. It's continued pretty consistently, and mostly in west Texas. Transmission's a bit of a bear, since regulators and owners don't want the transmission towers/lines (so it's the same problem that NY State had, with land owners in the Finger Lakes, for example Skaneateles).

Check in at Galveston Harbor or drive the main routes from the Port of Houston and you see wind tower parts or turbine blades being offloaded or transported fairly frequently, so the build-out continues.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. Why not both?

I have no idea if it's remotely practical for a homeownder to install a wind turbine in the back yard, but solar panels on a roof are very easy to do individually.

No, I didn't do it myself. I did it through a company going around installing solar panels.

[Texasgal]

17. Several e-mails asking to conserve

between the hours of 3:00 and 7:00 PM

Yes, it's hot here and miserable.

[Coventina]

19. It's gonna be 113 here in Phoenix for the next several days.