4WD
$50 site donor 2025
GTG’s have lots of support equipment that needs regulated temperature control … Heat trace load alone often surprised folks who have not worked in countries that end in a, or eh?
THIS is Texas? 6º F
- Thread starter RTexasF
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4WD
$50 site donor 2025
They already have approval to upgrade South Texas Project … hope this helps move that forward.
Two natural gas combustion turbines with one steam turbine. Something like about 120 from each combustion turbine and 80 from the steam turbine. About 5% went to co-generation so only about 300 megawatts on the grid.
Just got power back, was 36 hours with no power. Low of 14°F both Monday and Tuesday. High was 17°F on Monday, is up to 34°F right now.
Luckily I have a gas fireplace, but that is not really designed for heat, more for appearance.
Temp inside house got down to 43° F inside with the fireplace going the whole time, back rooms were in the 30's. Not looking forward to that gas bill for sure.
Never lost water (master shower quit flowing, not sure why, not an exterior pipe, but have PEX, so not worried about breaking pipes).
Had no internet and phones had no signal. Hard to be totally out of touch. I only had occasional texts going through as well.
Roads are starting to thaw as well, but my driveway is solid ice now.
Luckily I have a gas fireplace, but that is not really designed for heat, more for appearance.
Temp inside house got down to 43° F inside with the fireplace going the whole time, back rooms were in the 30's. Not looking forward to that gas bill for sure.
Never lost water (master shower quit flowing, not sure why, not an exterior pipe, but have PEX, so not worried about breaking pipes).
Had no internet and phones had no signal. Hard to be totally out of touch. I only had occasional texts going through as well.
Roads are starting to thaw as well, but my driveway is solid ice now.
I hear Panama is nice. Going to check it out soon.
If your going to live in a banana republic it may as well be warm.
North west Arkansas just below the Missouri border one odd weather event after another the last few years.
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I wonder if that chopper has an internal combustion engine. LOL.
I disagree. ERCOT can only do so much within a budget.
For example, normal building codes assure new homes to be built structurally strong enough to survive 120 mph winds. Could every single home be built to withstand 200mph winds? Yes, but at extreme costs. ERCOT, like other utilities prep enough to cover probably 99.9% of the conditions expected. This deep cold is a very rare event for Texas, its the 0.1% that is stressing the system.
This is going to pass soon and Texas will be just fine.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
This is true. I think the main concern by some I've seen is that Texas has spent north of $70 billion on wind. That would have built Vogtle at least 3x (assuming costs for subsequent plants would be cheaper). That's 7,500MW of firm capacity vs the current 30,000MW of flamboyantly unreliable capacity and its gas-backing. While that looks like a huge rift, consider that wind was at 800MW this morning and showed up at 1,600MW when it was expected to be 6,500. The nukes would have been 7,500MW, meaning reliance on gas would have been 7,500MW less.
I hope this event spurs some re-evaluation of capacity value vs just capacity cost. Wind + gas are cheap but that combination has exposed its vulnerabilities during this event and if the trend continues, will be even worse in the future.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Just read one STP reactor lost 1300 MW capacity with cooling water issues … doubt it’s winterized enough …
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Wasn't cooling water, it was a pump sensor for the cooling water (there was nothing wrong with the pump or the water) that yes, tripped because the turbine is outside (no turbine hall). The reactor was still online, just wasn't producing power, as this was on the gen side. It was STP-1, I know a lot of the folks working in the industry were thinking that an override would have been the most appropriate course of action given the state of the grid and value of that power. Since there was nothing actually wrong with the unit, I tend to agree.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
just saw on the local news that the record low for Colorado was in a small town in northwest Colorado in 1985.
-61 F
Not a typo thats minus 61.
-61 F
Not a typo thats minus 61.
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That's rough rough ^^^^^^^^^^^^
36 hours without power is quite awhile if it was from a "rolling" blackout...
This whole circumstance lays clear what... Really good windows and a very well built and insulated structure around help, really good insulation helps, and exterior walls made of thick plywood or particle board can help too.
My step father's house that was 3,400 sq ft with a 24 foot vaulted ceiling in the front entry had a low temp of 67 in 5 days without power and using be the gas logs ( which were really not put in for a true heating purpose) in the living room after the blizzard of 1996.... High temps mid 20s and low temps in the upper single digits that did warm up into the mid 30s and lows in the upper teens.
That house was built extremely well and was very, very well insulated.
A neighbor had their house drop to mid 40s after just 2 days. . They left their house at that point.
I praise the grip of ice-cleats that I use on my shoes and boots when there is ice on the ground. When you use them it is like being glued to the ground even when there is a 1/4 inch or more of ice covering everything. The hospitals her in Pittsburgh PA get patients with broken bones from falls on ice every time we get ice on the ground, and people here are use to ice and snow ever winter. If you do not have ice-cleats you are better off staying at home until it melts. Broken bones can be a painful thing and a broke hip or neck of the femur can be life threatening and may even cause death. Falls on ice are nothing to fool with, and they happen very fast once you star slipping. And the older you are the worse the damage and the slower you heal. I have seen it happen too many times to try to walk outside without ice-cleats when there may be ice hidden under the snow. I keep one set of cleats in the car and two sets in the house.
So my warning to you in the south who are not use to ice, is if you do not have ice-cleats just stay home until it melts. Seriously, I am not kidding, especially if you ain't no 21 year old any more.
So my warning to you in the south who are not use to ice, is if you do not have ice-cleats just stay home until it melts. Seriously, I am not kidding, especially if you ain't no 21 year old any more.
Great and I mean GREAT post here ^^^^^^
A broken femur neck can potentially... Lacerate a femoral artery or femoral vein...
And a person will be gone from this world very, very, very quickly.
Feb. 15 when you posted this, the temperature in Dallas was colder than we had in Toronto Canada.
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