ERCOT Admits It Cut Power To Texas Gas Facilities In February
Almost three months after the fact, officials at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) admitted late last week that the manager of the Texas power grid did indeed cut off power to many key natural gas infrastructure segments during February’s arctic freeze event that blacked out power to millions of Texas homes and businesses.
A report in the Houston Chronicle on Saturday noted that “ERCOT confirmed that it forced dozens of natural gas facilities to go offline during the February winter storm under a program that pays large industrial users to shut down when electricity supplies are short.” In a transparent effort to downplay ERCOT’s admission, the Chronicle’s writers go on to note that “There are thousands of oil and gas facilities in Texas. These contractual outages affected a small portion of them.”
But this admission by ERCOT comes two week after analysts at Enverus issued a report that found that 65% of the natural gas-related outages during the February freeze event were related to the fact that their supply of electricity was cut off to them.
Thus, while it may be accurate to say that ERCOT shut off power to a “small portion” of the state’s thousands of natural gas infrastructure facilities, the facilities that lost power were obviously crucial to keeping electricity flowing to Texans’ homes.
Regardless of how the media tries to cover for ERCOT, this is a stunning admission by the entity that is charged with ensuring that the Texas power grid remains “reliable.”
In light of all of that, and in light of the fact that ERCOT almost was forced to declare a capacity emergency during two extremely mild weather days in April, Texans might find it difficult to trust another statement by the grid manager last week. This one assured Texans that the grid will have plenty of capacity to meet demand even on the highest-demand days this coming summer, despite the fact that the grid was clearly shown to be woefully short of needed baseload capacity in February and April.
The Dallas Morning News quotes one senior ERCOT official, Warren Lasher, ERCOT’s senior director of system planning, assuring us that all is well:
“In three of the four primary scenarios, we expect to meet peak customer demands while maintaining normal operating conditions,” Lasher said. “Only in the fourth primary scenario, which reflects the potential for very low wind generation output on the peak summer day — only in that scenario would we expect to have to enter emergency conditions in order to maintain reliability while meeting peak demand.”
Ok, so, if the wind stops blowing in West Texas – which it does on a regular basis, even during the summer months – then ERCOT will presumably issue a release saying, in effect, ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ right?
Right. This is why we call it ‘intermittent’ power.
This seems a pretty good time to note that the main reason why ERCOT had to issue an emergency conservation warning to customers on April 13 was that, while their computer models anticipated that wind would supply 11 megawatts of power that afternoon when demand peaked on the system, the wind stopped blowing and wind power was only able to provide 6 MW that day.
If Texans truly do have to rely on ERCOT’s ability to predict whether or not the wind will be blowing during July and August, we are well and truly screwed.
What this all points to is the pressing need to add more reserve baseload capacity to the Texas power grid. Yet, it appears that the Texas legislature will likely succumb to the lobbying power of the power generator community and do nothing to mandate that that happen.
So, best advice, if you live in the 85% or so of Texas that is covered by the ERCOT-managed grid, you might want to either install a pool in your backyard or stock up on those cute little hand fans in order to try to keep cool on peak demand days this July and August.
See more here: shalemag.com
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Chris
| #
I was right, the natural gas didn’t stop because of the pipes freezing up. I thought that that couldn’t have been the cause. If so it would happen elsewhere where the temps get very cold. There are places that get much colder than Texas that have natural gas still flowing. I’ve seen peoples water pipes freeze but still turn on the stove with no problems. I had told some that it was done on purpose, they didn’t believe me. I thought that it was an experiment to see how many people would die if they cut power for a week in a small region.
Since we are looking at a possible extended solar minimum very cold temps will occur regularly and the gov who knew didn’t do anything to prep for it. Instead of contracting to build wind turbines these materials should have been used to build greenhouses. If the sun doesn’t continue to stay in a minimum we can still use the greenhouses so there is little loss. But as the article points out we will lose power when it is essential because we cannot control the wind.
Reply
Mark Tapley
| #
Hello Chris:
Greenhouses for what? They are only useful for a few special applications in the horticultural industry as far as I know. Natural gas often freezes up due to moisture from the time the gas leaves the well. Many wells produce over 90% water along with the small % of distillate and gas. The whole refining process is a bunch of heating and cooling and pressure that is also plagued with condensation and moisture problems. Water in the system from the vapor recovery unit at the top end to the labyrinth of vessel drain systems at the bottom is a constant battle against water. All of this is made a lot worse in areas like south Texas that normally don’t get much cold weather so don’t have the insulation and heat wrap that is required further north.
The unreliable, impractical, very inefficient wind mills are the most asinine energy situation possible when any other alternative is available. To put these monstrosities up, particularly in the no1 energy producing state in the country just shows how infiltrated and compromised we have become and how much power the Zionist syndicate has here and as the article about Australia shows. It is no wonder that they can instigate a 911, WMD’s, “War On Terror” or a fake vaccine for the cattle to line up to be injected. And these criminals and their political operatives do it with almost total impunity.
Reply
Chris
| #
My point about the greenhouses is that it would be a better investment than in wind turbines that don’t do much. The longer the solar minimum goes the colder the Earth will become. The colder the Earth, the shorter the growing periods. The shorter the growing periods the less food that is available. Greenhouses can help to extend the growing period by retaining a warmer environment. Some can be heated to be useful all year. I’ve seen them in Washington state.
Reply
Mark Tapley
| #
Hello Chris:
Yes, I believe even greenhouses would be a better investment than windmills and solar except for the insiders getting the kickbacks from the taxpayers as with the ethanol scam. I believe that greenhouse production is mostly limited to the high end market rather than basic food sources. Even so, protein and saturated fats determine the quality of the meal and the diet. Carbohydrates are not necessary.
In colder conditions than in most of the U.S. such as in Canada or the Ukraine, grains do well. Potatoes need cool conditions and are good food source if the skin is left on, although they are a heavy carb. Cattle also tolerate colder temperature well especially if it is relatively dry. These ruminants are well adapted for marginal land and pack a lot of protein in their bovine package.
The problem is not the climate but the government. Kissinger said “control the oil and control the nations, control the food and control the people.” The Zionists for years now have been doing everything possible to raise energy costs which raises food costs. The big majority of oil refining is done in the Gulf area. In the northwest the radical environmental movement has made it impossible to put a refinery. They are even shipping crude to China so it can be refined and shipped back. How asinine can it get. The senile self proclaimed Zionist Biden has vetoed the Keystone pipeline that will not only greatly raise the price of getting oil to the refinery (and therefore the finished product) but waste huge amounts of energy in the transportation process while greatly increasing the likelihood of accidental spills. Pipelines are an incredible advantage over any other mode of transport. We are going backwards in every way. The production and supply of cheap energy in this country should be a given. We have huge energy resources and the means to access them. Instead we are regressing to a third world rat hole of scarcity, low productivity and impoverishment.
Food will be next on the list. Since 1950 grain production has more than doubled in the world due to better farming equipment and techniques and even more so due to increased availability of commercial fertilizers that have drastically improved crop yields. The elite will do everything possible to reverse this trend as well. Just as food deprivation was the primary weapon used against the Russian and Ukrainian people in a land that had produced surpluses under the Czar, it will be the same in the U.N. Agenda 2030-21.
Reply
Judith Day
| #
So is Ercot responsible for the death of Cristian Pineda who froze in the family’s unheated mobile home?
Reply
Mark Tapley
| #
Hello Judith:
I don’t know what the specific circumstances were but there was no excuse for the energy debacle that occurred. There was no excuse for taking out clean, efficient, reliable coal powered generators to put in the inefficient, unreliable, and financially unjustified wind mills and solar cells in response to the fraudulent claim of climate change due to CO2 emissions.
The Green Energy scam is the product go the elite’s Club of Rome, designed to destroy the industrial economy by creating energy shortages that will be blamed on “climate change.” This is the future unless we reverse course. The attack on energy (that is really cheap and abundant) is just a first step in a cascade of shortages of all essentials including food. The Zionists must not only have an external enemy but must maintain constant pressure by using all types of contrived emergencies such as the long planned fake virus. That is the only way they can drive the herd into Agenda 2030-21. As to ERCOT and (((Sally Talberg))) that lived in Michigan, that is just a symptom of a much bigger problem. I have already discussed Abbott in the comment above. This is the situation all over this country. It will not change until people wise up to the fact that they are being plundered by an elite group of criminals. I think that most of them will not wake up until that U.N. army boot is kicking them in their fat asses. Then it will be too late. As Stalin said “one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.’
Reply
Greg Goff
| #
Ercot by their own admission is guilty of murder. People died as a result of shutting down the Nat Gas plants…. They give heavily to Democrats so don’t expect any justice here..
Reply