Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts

Tue Feb 16 17:49:22 UTC 2021

On 2/16/21 8:50 AM, John Von Essen wrote:
> I just assumed most people in Texas have heat pumps- AC in the summer 
> and minimal heating in the winter when needed. When the entire state 
> gets a deep freeze, everybody is running those heat pumps non-stop, 
> and the generation capacity simply wasn’t there. i.e. coal or natural 
> gas plants have some turbines offline, etc.,. in the winter because 
> historically power use is much much less. The odd thing is its been 
> days now, those plants should be able to ramp back up to capacity - 
> but clearly they haven’t. Blaming this on wind turbines is BS. In 
> fact, if it weren’t for so many people in Texas with grid-tie solar 
> systems, the situation would be even worse.

You'd think that mid-summer Texas chews a lot more peak capacity than 
the middle of winter. Plus I would think a lot of Texas uses natural gas 
for heat rather than electricity further mitigating its effect on the grid.

Mike