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Electricity Shortage Warnings Grow Across U.S.
- Thread Starter ATCclears
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I read that this morning too. That'll make me sleep oh so much better as my feet would be really wet if it ever failed, LOL.
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Probably because it's a lot easier to monetize your 'cause' if you can convince people that their cash (and your ability to spend it) is the only thing standing between them and whoever you are telling them the bad guys are
Bonneville Power Administration: Electricity
www.nwcouncil.org
Pretty good explanation of the amount of power that BPA actually generates.
Texas power grid operator urges residents to conserve energy as plants go offline
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking residents of the Lone Star State to conserve power after six power generation facilities tripped offline.
www.foxnews.com
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I wonder if they fixed that system that generated huge bills due to supply and demand during the freeze the last year or so ago.Texas power grid operator urges residents to conserve energy as plants go offline
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking residents of the Lone Star State to conserve power after six power generation facilities tripped offline.
Not sure which Texas utility it was, but it was ridiculous.
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At least according to the testimony of one energy executive they have not, but Texans will get their chance next Nov 8th
Former ERCOT CEO: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Pressed Grid Operator To Keep Prices At $9,000 Per Megawatt-Hour During Crisis
In testimony in a federal bankruptcy court in Houston, former ERCOT CEO Bill Magness said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pressed the grid operator to keep prices high.
www.forbes.com
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I work in the power line industry and have for approximately 20 years. My personal opinion is.
Electricity Shortage Warnings Grow Across U.S.
Electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year.www.wsj.com
1. California has to many people that don't want to clear brush around power lines or right of ways. they want it to look natural. I've heard this to many times about " oh don't cut my tree, your ruining my view. But will be the first to sue the utilities for there house burning to the dirt. Or the customers want to know why the power lines aren't underground.
2. You want to know who is sucking up all this power……. Data centers…. Go to boardman and see how many data centers are there and how many 230kv lines that it takes to feed them. Rumor is there planning on a hole lot more. And I mean a lot more.
3. Wind mills are a joke. If you look at what it takes to make them and the real life expectancy of them in my opinion it's a waste of time and money. It's not guaranteed power. The people that want them either live in the city and obviously don't have to live next to all the blinking lights…… totally ruined the landscape of the gorge. Or there farmers that are trying to subsidize there income from government programs, and poor wheat prices, high chemical and fuel costs.
4. There's a utility that owned by buffet that as soon as he bought it made cuts on employees and maintenance, and is still that way. My opinion is for profit gains.
5. The power providers in California are a joke, I've worked down there lots of times. Lots of right of ways where never secured by the utilities and now the land owners bubblegum and complain. You want to help with fires….. clear the right of way like BPA does on there right of ways. Clear it to the ground. People don't realize your not paying for Guaranteed power. I can see why California utilities have PSPS events. ( shut down the power) to many sue happy people, wining, crying, bubbleguming and complaining about how the power lines started a fire and burned there state down. When's my power going to be back on! You know how long my powers been off for? I work from home and I need power. Oh my gosh it's hot out and I don't have a/c or it's cold out and I don't have heat. The list goes on…..but yet after all this time they never get a generator. Instead they just want to bubblegum and complain. Just so you all know this is not always the case…. There are more people that are not this way!
Just my 2 cents…..
Texas in the news again for mismanaging their electrical grid. First the disaster during the snowstorm, now a shortage during a heatwave: https://amp.star-telegram.com/news/weather-news/article261433532.html
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Just ordered another 100W solar panel for $71 - first one I got for $65 - same panel/seller on Amazon, but they cut the value of the coupon.
PGE charges me $20 access/distribution/etc. each month to supply $5 worth of power each month to my shop. Because it is a shop, they require a separate meter and account. I am thinking of getting one of those battery/inverter/charge controller packages and run the lights/freezer off that. As far as I can tell, the freezer takes less than 100 watts to keep running. I have half a dozen power outages a year - sometimes more - part of life in the boonies where trees/limbs/etc. fall across the power lines (and the occasional car hits a pole).
My private road power is underground - the last quarter mile - the public roads are on poles.
My house transformer is sitting severely tilted on the ground. When I moved here you couldn't see it for all the vegetation around it, so I cleared the brush. I put in two requests to PGE to move it slightly so that it sat on level ground. Talked to them on the phone twice too. They came out and looked at it, said they would do it, and never did anything. I can't touch it (even it I could, it is way too heavy for me to mess with, and I shouldn't touch it anyway.
PGE charges me $20 access/distribution/etc. each month to supply $5 worth of power each month to my shop. Because it is a shop, they require a separate meter and account. I am thinking of getting one of those battery/inverter/charge controller packages and run the lights/freezer off that. As far as I can tell, the freezer takes less than 100 watts to keep running. I have half a dozen power outages a year - sometimes more - part of life in the boonies where trees/limbs/etc. fall across the power lines (and the occasional car hits a pole).
My private road power is underground - the last quarter mile - the public roads are on poles.
My house transformer is sitting severely tilted on the ground. When I moved here you couldn't see it for all the vegetation around it, so I cleared the brush. I put in two requests to PGE to move it slightly so that it sat on level ground. Talked to them on the phone twice too. They came out and looked at it, said they would do it, and never did anything. I can't touch it (even it I could, it is way too heavy for me to mess with, and I shouldn't touch it anyway.
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Just curious ... Given moderate sunshine and a 100 watt solar panel...how long would it take to charge a average12 volt AGM marine deep cycle battery? and, how long would a 2000 watt inverter then run a small chest freezer?I readily admit that I'm kinda dense when it comes to this stuff...
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I readily admit that I'm kinda dense when it comes to this stuff...
What Size Solar Panel To Charge 200ah Battery?
How many solar panels does it take to charge a 200ah battery? We e need to provide a bit more detail about the battery before answering this question. The capac
How long a chest freezer will run on a battery with inverter depends on the freezer, battery size and inverter efficiency.
I am still learning myself. Researching controllers, inverters and batteries. I am thinking at this point I probably want one more 100W solar panel, and some kind of controller/battery/inverter package all in one, that I can move around.
In addition to a larger 4KW genset for the house, I have a small 2KW "silent" very fuel efficient inverter genset for the shop to run the freezer and lights. When it is running the freezer it barely runs above idle, and IIRC it can run 12 hours on a full tank (probably more at idle). I am thinking if I run it 4-6 hours per day on a hot day, powering the freezer, then that will be enough to keep everything inside the freezer frozen.
I had a freezer fail back in 2020 (IIRC) and did not discover that it failed for 4-5 days (I need to get some alarms). When I did discover the failure a lot of the food was still frozen, and 2 days later I gave a lot of the food away, most of it was still cold or frozen (a full turkey in the bottom was still fully frozen).
I have a 27CF (IIRC) chest freezer which is about as large as consumer chest freezers get. I need to measure its consumption directly (I have a Killowatt meter, I need to hook it up to the freezer), but according to PGE, the shop only consumes about 300 watts per day - on average. That is not peak wattage but I think the freezer peak wattage is about 300 watts, and on average it is 30 watts or less, which is pretty good for the size of the freezer (according to its rating for annual KWH, that is about right - assuming it ran 24 hr/day).
A lot also depends on where the freezer is kept, ambient temp, etc.
My freezer is kept inside the shop which has no heat, and skimpy insulation. I keep it mostly full, and a lot of stuff inside it is itself inside small styrofoam insulated boxes about 1CF in size, many of which also have freezer gel packs in them - meds were shipped in these boxes, so I am reusing them; the idea is that if the power goes out the food in the boxes will last even longer. I also have the freezer turned up to almost minimum temps/max freezing/chill - to make things inside as cold as possible. It is also NOT a defrosting freezer - defrosting freezers vary their temps to get rid of frost, causing food inside to not be kept at a lowest temp.
I'll tell you about "Cycling Batteries". If you can't provide at least 6 amps (10 amp better) and 14 volts, you'll not get good life out of cycling batteries. Starting batteries have many thin plates, and cycling batteries have fewer, thick plates. Starting batteries are built to provide a large amp draw, such as a starter motor. Cycling batteries are built to provide a longer source of lower amp draw. AND survive numerous discharge/recharge cycles. But deep discharging and recharging will reduce the overall life of a cycling battery.
I readily admit that I'm kinda dense when it comes to this stuff...
Thoughts on freezers and brownouts.
A couple of years ago my garage freezer started having problems getting along with GFI breakers, temperature swing in garage winter in the teens sumer to over 100. When we moved into new house with "climate controlled garage ~50 - 80 degrees" I still had a problem on GFI circuits (so bypassed the GFI).
Decided to replace freezer, while researching new freezers I found out that most freezers are not covered under warrantee if not inside a climate controlled house. If you call for warrantee service and it is discovered that that shiney new freezer is in the garage that voids the warrantee.
Being as I had every intention of the freezer living in the garage and wanting operational GFI circuits per code I did my research and ponied up for a freezer that is garage rated and doesn't trip the GFI's.
Another observation regarding the anticipated brown outs I suspect these outages are just one more thing we may blame on the legalization of marijuana. Between all the electric cars and the grow lights...
For those living off grid or with frequent outages it maybe worth looking into freezers that run on NG or LPG.
A couple of years ago my garage freezer started having problems getting along with GFI breakers, temperature swing in garage winter in the teens sumer to over 100. When we moved into new house with "climate controlled garage ~50 - 80 degrees" I still had a problem on GFI circuits (so bypassed the GFI).
Decided to replace freezer, while researching new freezers I found out that most freezers are not covered under warrantee if not inside a climate controlled house. If you call for warrantee service and it is discovered that that shiney new freezer is in the garage that voids the warrantee.
Being as I had every intention of the freezer living in the garage and wanting operational GFI circuits per code I did my research and ponied up for a freezer that is garage rated and doesn't trip the GFI's.
Another observation regarding the anticipated brown outs I suspect these outages are just one more thing we may blame on the legalization of marijuana. Between all the electric cars and the grow lights...
For those living off grid or with frequent outages it maybe worth looking into freezers that run on NG or LPG.
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"A vast swath of North America from the Great Lakes to the West Coast is at risk of blackouts this summer as heat, drought, shuttered power plants and supply-chain woes strain the electric grid."
www.bloomberg.com
Above is link to article with title "Vast swath of US at risk of summer blackouts." Don't know what "are you a robot" is about.
Vast Swath of US at Risk of Summer Blackouts, Regulator Warns
Drought, plant closures and supply-chain woes threaten electric grid
www.bloomberg.com
Above is link to article with title "Vast swath of US at risk of summer blackouts." Don't know what "are you a robot" is about.
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No sweat, we can convert the EVs to run on D cells."A vast swath of North America from the Great Lakes to the West Coast is at risk of blackouts this summer as heat, drought, shuttered power plants and supply-chain woes strain the electric grid."
Vast Swath of US at Risk of Summer Blackouts, Regulator Warns
Drought, plant closures and supply-chain woes threaten electric grid
Above is link to article with title "Vast swath of US at risk of summer blackouts." Don't know what "are you a robot" is about.
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It will get really interesting when trucks are forced to be electric. High rate chargers for a truck take insane amounts of power. No way solar and wind will cover it, with the current technology.
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Renewable energy dependence could lead to rolling blackouts in Michigan this summer
Power outages expected in Michigan residents this summer as grid operators attempt to switch over to renewable sources of energy and close down coal and natural gas.
www.foxnews.com
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Climate worries galvanize a new pro-nuclear movement in the U.S.
Charles Komanoff was for decades an expert witness for groups working against nuclear plants, delivering blistering critiques so effective that he earned a spot at the podium when tens of thousands of protesters descended on Washington in 1979 over the Three Mile Island meltdown. Komanoff would...
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