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ERCOT has called for conservation and conditions are very tight indeed today. Solar is making a massive, determinative difference, producing 12 gigawatts on peak. #txlege #txenergy #energytwitter
ercot.com/gridmktinfo/da…
ercot.com/gridmktinfo/da…
Gas & coal outages are 40% above expected levels, which is actually an improvement from the last few days, but not in the high or extreme range. Demand response from large customers will likely make a big difference. Outages are still unlikely.
The communications from @ERCOT_ISO again are lacking. Should be telling tell people to pre-cool their homes, since there was plenty of capacity this morning and midday. Also, though the conservation call goes from 4 - 8pm, the following hour still looks tight. #txlege
#ERCOT grid update: Things will be tight on the grid today and tomorrow — very tight. ERCOT projecting 82.9 gigawatt peak @ 4pm and a spread between supply and demand of only 1800 megawatts tomorrow around 7pm. #txlege #energytwitter 1/
Solar power is having a massive impact on the grid this summer. Without it, we would be in serious trouble and have a much higher likelihood of outages. #Solar will top out right at or above 12GW and... (cont.) #energytwitter #txenergy
... is still producing ~9GW in the hour of tightest reserves. The 3+GW of batteries in ERCOT are mostly providing backup reserves in case of shortage (like when a major power plant goes offline like a nuke did last week) but is also injecting 500MW to the market when needed. 3/
Yesterday at 6:31CT, one of the four nuclear units in Texas stopped producing power. A new fast acting backup reserve (ECRS, which is mostly batteries) stabilized the grid & prevented bigger problems. ERCOT has said nothing about this outside of what's below but... (cont) #txlege
...this is potentially a big deal. The public deserves answers about what this means for this week. If it doesn't come back by Tuesday, the probability of rolling outages is higher than it otherwise would be. ERCOT is projecting a margin of only 2,582MW at 7pm Tuesday. Not good.
I still think at this point the power will stay on, but it's becoming more important to tell the public to pre-cool homes early in the day & try to use less between 6-8pm. Would be better for this to be systematic and valued, so ERCOT would have another tool to deploy if needed.
85% of customers are without power in Harrison & Marion counties in the midst of a deadly heat wave. Storm last night was devastating; power not expected for a week in some areas. Would be nice if the Governor could stop vetoing bills long enough to declare a disaster. #txlege
Shelby County: 75% of customers without power.
Gregg County: >50%
Upshur County: 70%
Camp County: >50%
Franklin County: 50%
This is a major disaster and hardly anyone outside of East Texas is talking about it. #energytwitter #txlege
ketk.com/news/local-new…
Gregg County: >50%
Upshur County: 70%
Camp County: >50%
Franklin County: 50%
This is a major disaster and hardly anyone outside of East Texas is talking about it. #energytwitter #txlege
ketk.com/news/local-new…
Currently 81,000 homes or businesses are without power in @SWEPCoNews' territory in Texas. That's nearly half of their customers. They're requesting mutual aid. #txlege
In late May, we at @8riverscapital announced a breakthrough improvement in hydrogen production – 8RH2 (Gen 2), invented by the inimitable Rodney Allam and the wider 8 Rivers team.
A here description for #energytwitter. hydrogeninsight.com/innovation/bre…
A here description for #energytwitter. hydrogeninsight.com/innovation/bre…
Why does 8RH2 matter?
Simple – it’ll produce hydrogen from fossil gas while capturing essentially 100% of carbon emissions, at a price that can truly allow hydrogen to decarbonize a screed of sectors and industries.
I’m biased, but 8RH2 will transform how we get to #netzero.
Simple – it’ll produce hydrogen from fossil gas while capturing essentially 100% of carbon emissions, at a price that can truly allow hydrogen to decarbonize a screed of sectors and industries.
I’m biased, but 8RH2 will transform how we get to #netzero.
What's transformational?
Low cost and >99% CO2 capture, with maximum H2 recovery (none burned). 8RH2 is simple–see below.
Basically, a CO2 heating loop integrated with an H2 production loop. The CO2 loop creates the heat & captures the CO2 and the H2 loop, well, makes the H2
Low cost and >99% CO2 capture, with maximum H2 recovery (none burned). 8RH2 is simple–see below.
Basically, a CO2 heating loop integrated with an H2 production loop. The CO2 loop creates the heat & captures the CO2 and the H2 loop, well, makes the H2
In 2009 Georgia and South Carolina both began construction on new nuclear power: Georgia's Plant Vogtle and South Carolina's Plant Summer. Cost overruns were so extreme that by 2017 the main contractor, Westinghouse, went bankrupt.
bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2…
bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2…
That bankruptcy triggered a Go-No Go decision in each state. South Carolina officials decided to cancel Plant Summer. Georgia Public Service Commissioners ignored extensive public comments, energy experts, and their own PSC staff, and voted to continue.
One of them, @timechols, was then and continues to be a shill for nuclear energy. He lied to the media about the facts of the project which was reported in an article prepared by the @EnergyandPolicy. Open records request revealed the lying by Echols.
energyandpolicy.org/georgia-psc-de…
energyandpolicy.org/georgia-psc-de…
SB 7, the biggest grid bill of the session, is scheduled to be up next after the current bill. I'll live tweet about it when it starts. Check out the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter about what to look for in today's debates linked in the tweet below. #txlege #energytwitter 1/
Chairman Hunter says let's talk about #SB7, the lobby annuity bill. Points to the gallery and says its the "owner box" up there and it "should be down here," pointing to the gallery. He says it's about, like the Pink Floyd song, "Money."
And so it begins. Buckle up. #txlege
And so it begins. Buckle up. #txlege
Hunter says the bottom line of this bill "What's the cost to the taxpayer." He says generators don't want anything but "an open check book."
Yep.
He says he "put a billion dollar limit in here." Hunter says he keeps asking what will it cost? "They can't tell me."
Yep.
He says he "put a billion dollar limit in here." Hunter says he keeps asking what will it cost? "They can't tell me."
Senate B&C Cmte starting in a minute. Agenda lists only "pending business," but, among other things, they will consider PUC Sunset bill which could become a vehicle for all sorts of amendments. #txlege 1/🧵 capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/His…
Live video feed here: tlcsenate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph…
Live video feed here: tlcsenate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph…
Also up for discussion for today is #HB5, to potentially create a successor economic development program to the one that ended in December last year. Details from @bradj_TX here:
They have paused the hearing while they wait for @CreightonForTX #txlege
This is fascinating. A few brief observations:
"Demand on the New England regional power system fell to its lowest level in over a quarter century Sunday, thanks to the holiday, mild weather and ... an ever-growing number of solar panels."
rtoinsider.com/articles/31993…
"Demand on the New England regional power system fell to its lowest level in over a quarter century Sunday, thanks to the holiday, mild weather and ... an ever-growing number of solar panels."
rtoinsider.com/articles/31993…
1/ First, apologies that it's behind a paywall, but here is the key chart, and...
2/ ...Here is the key stat, and...
"ISO-NE said Tuesday that demand on the grid was the lowest it had ever recorded since the RTO began operations in 1997. The 6,814-MW demand between 2 and 3 p.m. shattered the previous record, 7,580 MW, set May 1, 2022."
"ISO-NE said Tuesday that demand on the grid was the lowest it had ever recorded since the RTO began operations in 1997. The 6,814-MW demand between 2 and 3 p.m. shattered the previous record, 7,580 MW, set May 1, 2022."
The fossil fuel industry wants to roll back NY's methane accounting standard, the more accurate 20 Yr. GWP. Why? To cover up the damage they cause & slow down climate action. Here’s what you need to know. A thread. #energytwitter @howarth_cornell bit.ly/3TXwuLY
Methane is a potent GHG but dissipates faster than CO2. Instead of using an outdated 100 year global warming potential metric, NY law, the CLCPA, uses the 20 year GWP to capture the climate damage caused by methane. bit.ly/3TXwuLY
The difference in using the 20 year GWP versus the 100 year GWP are profound. NY’s Climate Plan calculates that the state’s net total emissions were 338.5 MMT CO2e in 2019 per the 20 year GWP. Compare that to 165.5 MMT CO2e net emissions in 2019 using the 100 yr GWP.
A thread of reflections on today's documents as I and the rest of #energytwitter pour through them. /1
The first is on heat decarbonisation, where the headline is that Government will extend the Boiler Upgrade Scheme until 2028. No details on how it'll be paid for though. But it presents a puzzle. /2
The BUS was meant to be a stopgap until the Government's market mechanism starts in 2024. This compels boiler suppliers to provide a certain percentage of their sales as heat pumps, effectively forcing them to cover heat pump costs to get consumers over the line. /3
Hi #fusion, @USFusionEnergy , #energytwitter, a paper by myself, @wilson_ricks , Egemen Kolemen, and @JesseJenkins on the value of fusion for a decarbonized US electric grid is now available online - In Press at Joule. Read it here: authors.elsevier.com/c/1glnc925JENl… .
There's also a Research Digest, control.princeton.edu/research-diges….
We study the value of fusion plants as a function of their operational parameters (costs of operation, pulsed vs steady-state, ability to ramp power levels) & whether there is attached multi-hour thermal storage.
We study the value of fusion plants as a function of their operational parameters (costs of operation, pulsed vs steady-state, ability to ramp power levels) & whether there is attached multi-hour thermal storage.
Over a range of future scenarios and plant operational parameters & abilities, we found that fusion plants would need a total capital cost of ~$3/W to ~$7.5/W in order for to reach 100 GW of deployment in the US Eastern Interconnection. 100 GW is ~today's US fission fleet.
PSA: Early adopter language about electrification is repulsive to the mainstream.
There's too much early adopter language right now, to finish by 2050 we need to be hitting mainstream #ASAP.
#electrifyeverything
There's too much early adopter language right now, to finish by 2050 we need to be hitting mainstream #ASAP.
#electrifyeverything
If you can replace what you're saying with "vegan" or "crossfit", change your language.
The hype and politicization of electrification is making me have to back away from it. That sucks.
"Combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) represent the cheapest source of dispatchable power on an unsubsidized basis, with an LCOE of $54-$107/MWh. The LCOE of paired onshore wind+battery (4-hour) systems ranges from $53-147/MWh, while solar+battery (4-hour) is at $65-209/MWh."
Just a little late-night Sustainable Energy Factbook 2023 tweeting. bcse.org/market-trends/
"It is estimated that well over 1,000GW of potential power projects today are awaiting access to some segment of the nation’s power grid."
Looks like @FERC will put everything on the table regarding @pjminterconnect 's capacity market, and it's hard to not see this as a proxy trial for capacity markets in general.
So, where do we go on resource adequacy?
#energytwitter #powergrid #electricity
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So, where do we go on resource adequacy?
#energytwitter #powergrid #electricity
[1/6]
Can market-based resource adequacy survive? #WinterStorm Uri discredited energy market only solutions, but the capacity market victory lap was hardly over when Elliott less dramatically called capacity markets into question.
[2/6]
[2/6]
With our economic theories looking very shaky, do we have to retreat back to administrative planning?
[3/6]
[3/6]
Still no "in depth operations review of resource availability" during Elliot from #ERCOT.
No presentation has been made to the @PUCTX about the 14.2GW of thermal generation offline 12/23 at 9am or the 30GW offline at some point 12/22-12/24. #txlege #txenergy #energytwitter 1/
No presentation has been made to the @PUCTX about the 14.2GW of thermal generation offline 12/23 at 9am or the 30GW offline at some point 12/22-12/24. #txlege #txenergy #energytwitter 1/
SPP put out some easy to read bar charts, so here's one I made, based off @cohan_ds info (I adjusted the rated capacity based on SARA report minus the mothballed plants).
Does this look like a major improvement to you? #txlege #energytwitter #ERCOT
Does this look like a major improvement to you? #txlege #energytwitter #ERCOT
I detailed the many coal & gas plants offline during Elliot in this thread 12/29. #ERCOT has this info, of cousre. It was posted on their website in raw form in December. It's now two months later, still no comprehensive report or root cause analysis.
🐍🧑🏫💻This semester I taught a new course about Data Science for Energy System Modelling, for which I built a website with energy-focused Python tutorials:
fneum.github.io/data-science-f…
@openmod @protontypes #energytwitter
fneum.github.io/data-science-f…
@openmod @protontypes #energytwitter
It includes hands-on introductions to various libraries useful for modelling energy systems and processing data: Python, numpy, matplotlib, pandas, geopandas, cartopy, rasterio, atlite, networkx, pyomo, pypsa, plotly, hvplot, and streamlit.
Topics covered include:
- time series analysis (e.g. wind and solar, prices load)
- tabular geographical data (e.g. location of power plants, LNG terminals, industrial sites)
- converting reanalysis weather data to renewable generation (e.g. ERA5)
- time series analysis (e.g. wind and solar, prices load)
- tabular geographical data (e.g. location of power plants, LNG terminals, industrial sites)
- converting reanalysis weather data to renewable generation (e.g. ERA5)
I wonder which one of us gives off the air of being more outraged at the moment? 🤣
For the record, all I did was call his article "amusing" and say it "quite spectacularly jumps the shark". Never attacked his character, yet the dude with 282100 followers leaps to ad hominem.
For the record, all I did was call his article "amusing" and say it "quite spectacularly jumps the shark". Never attacked his character, yet the dude with 282100 followers leaps to ad hominem.
As most on #energytwitter can attest I'm actually quite nice to most folks + in person.
Let's just say I have good reasons to be critical of takes fired casually from the hip when it comes to E. Asia/geopolitics/climate/energy.
Let's just say I have good reasons to be critical of takes fired casually from the hip when it comes to E. Asia/geopolitics/climate/energy.
In which the best Noah can do on short notice is to desperately pull up presumably what was one of the first (dated) Google results, red-faced at having written an article on coal in China that didn't even mention the words "steel" or "cement".
A quick thread on why Small Modular Reactors might represent a bigger problem for nuclear power than competition from wind and solar:
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
On #energytwitter, there's an exhausting ongoing fight between renewables and nuclear advocates.
Exhausting because these two forms of zero-carbon energy should be working together.
Dispiriting because of the amount of low-quality information that gets slung around.
Exhausting because these two forms of zero-carbon energy should be working together.
Dispiriting because of the amount of low-quality information that gets slung around.
But one way in which the nuclear industry is deeply interested in learning lessons from renewables is in mass production.
Traditionally nuclear power has been built on hulking 1,000-megawatt power plants. Much of the smart money of late has been looking at ways to shrink these.
Traditionally nuclear power has been built on hulking 1,000-megawatt power plants. Much of the smart money of late has been looking at ways to shrink these.
The Texas energy-only market is, to reprise Churchill, the worst form of energy market except for every other. It needs to evolve but should not be abandoned.
Big Senate hearing about the future of the #ERCOT market tomorrow. #txlege #txenergy 1/
douglewin.substack.com/p/a-reliable-a…
Big Senate hearing about the future of the #ERCOT market tomorrow. #txlege #txenergy 1/
douglewin.substack.com/p/a-reliable-a…
In the last 2 yrs, generating companies added 2,000MW of gas plants and they added another 393MW *last month* alone! There are 2,500MW w/ signed interconnections & another 10,000MW in the interconnection process.
There's no need for a PCM or the state to buy gas plants! 2/
There's no need for a PCM or the state to buy gas plants! 2/
Electric generating companies are also adding wind, solar, and storage, making Texas among the top states in all three. That's good! It saves consumers a lot of money: $1 billion a month last year through August! (And lowers pollution, too!)
#energytwitter
utilitydive.com/news/texas-sol…
#energytwitter
utilitydive.com/news/texas-sol…
Part of what keeps me here, specifically on Australian #EnergyTwitter, is what we can learn when we dig into triumphant tweets like these. 🪡 1/
Incredible things *are* possible with solar 🌞
ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-…
We can appreciate that without abruptly adding all renewable sources together... 2/
ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-…
We can appreciate that without abruptly adding all renewable sources together... 2/
In fact, DYK Australia made it back up & over our historical highest renewable energy share only a few years ago?
ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-… 3/
ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-… 3/
There is massive potential for more #EnergyEfficiency in Texas. EE reduces customers' bills, increases reliability & creates jobs. There are 158,882 EE workers in Texas, according to an @E4theFuture report. Many more could be created by #txlege. 1/
ee.e4thefuture.org
ee.e4thefuture.org
There's massive potential for more EE jobs. #Texas is among the worst states for #EnergyEfficiency goals, and we're 36th per capita in EE jobs.
Even so, EE is the 3rd largest energy sector in Texas w/ 31,000 EE businesses employing nearly 159,000 Texans. #txlege #txenergy 2/
Even so, EE is the 3rd largest energy sector in Texas w/ 31,000 EE businesses employing nearly 159,000 Texans. #txlege #txenergy 2/
Over 6 million TX homes are >20 years old & pre-date statewide building codes. We could create jobs and make the grid more reliable and resilient by improving the energy efficiency of these homes which could lower energy use (and bills) by >40%. #energytwitter 3/
About 800,000 Texans are heading into tonight w/out power. It doesn't have to be this way. Distributed energy resources (local generation & storage) along w/ weatherization for homes and buildings could make the grid much more resilient. #txlege 1/
douglewin.substack.com/p/local-outage…
douglewin.substack.com/p/local-outage…
I often hear people say that local outages aren't problems with the power grid. It the job of policymakers & regulators to make sure *all* of it works and is reliable—not just part of it.
The grid is divided into transmission (ERCOT) & the distribution sides... (cont.) 2/
The grid is divided into transmission (ERCOT) & the distribution sides... (cont.) 2/
Unfortunately, this tweet from last night turned out to be true. 250,000 accounts (probably ~600,000 Texans) are without power right now. About half of those are in Austin/Travis County. Tree limbs are falling all over the place in my South Austin neighborhood. #txenergy #wxtx 1/
Check on vulnerable friends, family & neighbors. Also, close blinds & curtains, put towels or blankets (makeshift insulation) wherever you feel cold air coming in, and then heat your home a few degrees warmer than normal. That way if you lose power, you'll stay warmer longer. 2/
I wouldn't normally advise that but, with temps in the 20s or 30s and little need for secondary resistance heat, demand is fairly low in ERCOT (62GW now compared to 74GW on Dec. 23) so a little extra warming of homes this morning won't cause problems. #txenergy 3/
