August 18, 2011 - new report assesses Texas, SW blackouts

Last February’s blackouts in Texas and the Southwest disrupted life for millions of electricity consumers.  When the weather became unusually cold for the region and an ice storm struck, a number of electric generators suffered outages, and natural gas supplies became curtailed.  As a result, real-time wholesale power prices rose to 40 times their previous level, and grid operators were forced to resort to rolling blackouts.  Even as the grid struggled to maintain its integrity, policymakers called for an investigation of what happened – and how to prevent a repeat performance.

This week, after six months of inquiry, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) have released a report on the incident.  This report – linked here as a 357-page PDF – concludes that most of the electric outages and gas shortages were due to weather-related causes, but noted that proactive steps to protect reliability were lacking.

For example, although many generators did in fact winterize their plants so they could operate in cold conditions, the report concludes that no state, regional or NERC standards required generators to take this step.  The report notes that electric outages were generally caused by weather-related mechanical problems that could have been prevented by proper weatherization – measures to prevent frozen sensing lines, equipment, water lines and valves.

The report similarly concludes that the natural gas shortages and outages were mostly attributable to the lengthy cold weather, the resulting and unprecedented high demand for gas, and simultaneous reductions in supply.

Will this report change the way we protect the reliability of our grid?

February 17, 2011 - Texas blackout aftermath

When Texas experienced rolling blackouts earlier this month due to severe weather and disruptions to generation and the electric grid, over one million customers lost power intermittently.  Imposing rolling blackouts on customers is an extraordinary measure rarely seen in U.S. power markets.  Typically, utilities and regional transmission organizations will do everything they can to ensure adequate electric supply for all customers.  So what went wrong in Texas?

That question has been on the minds of electricity customers, and is now drawing increased attention by regulatory agencies.  On February 7, less than a week after these outages, the nation’s electric reliability organization North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) announced a joint investigation in coordination with Texas Reliability Entity, Inc. and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, to understand exactly what happened and what can be done in the future to prevent such electricity curtailment.  In its announcement of its investigation, NERC noted that it will examine whether the recent shift towards greater reliance on natural gas to produce electricity played any role in the outages.

Now, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has initiated a staff inquiry into the outages and the restrictions of natural gas and electricity service in Texas and other western states.  This inquiry, docketed as Docket No. AD11-9-000, focused on disruption to the bulk of power system in Texas and Arizona as well as disruptions to natural gas delivery in Texas, in Mexico and elsewhere in the southwest.  Notably, FERC’s order opening this investigation states that this will not be an enforcement investigation; rather, this investigation will identify the problems and gather facts, leaving the decision on whether to initiate enforcement proceedings to a later date.  FERC has designated a staff task force to conduct this inquiry.

Meanwhile, Texas’ main electric grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is taking a look at its own internal procedure with an eye to improving its response to situations such as this.  Over the course of the day on February 2, 82 power plants with the combined generating capacity of 11,000 megawatts went offline.  During the peak of the outage, 80,000 megawatts was offline.  Of these, 59% were powered by natural gas, 40% by coal, and 1% by wind.

We shall soon see what these inquiries find.

February 3, 2011 - ERCOT rolling blackouts over?

Following on yesterday's report of rolling blackouts in Texas: grid operator ERCOT has reported that the need for intermittent power cuts may have passed, although ERCOT noted that scarcity of available generation might again lead to the need for blackouts.  As the storm moves away and life gets back to normal, we're seeing some of the impacts of the blackouts.  For example, the Houston Chronicle reports that the Houston fire department responded to 30 elevator rescues yesterday - 10 to 15 times as many as on an average day.  Rolling blackouts are unpredictable; even if you know the grid operator is imposing them, you might not know exactly when they'll strike.  ERCOT and utilities tried to avoid cutting power to key elements of social infrastructure like hospitals, but anyone who got stuck in an elevator when their building lost power probably didn't enjoy the experience.

ERCOT continues to ask consumers to reduce their consumption of electricity, particularly during times of peak demand.

February 2, 2011 - weather leads ERCOT to rolling blackouts

What happens when bad weather strikes the power grid?  Depending on the storm, and the region, some customers may lose power if distribution lines are damaged.  More serious cases, like when key generators are tripped offline, may lead to more serious consequences.

Groundhog Day 2011 in Texas provides an example of the more serious consequences: power prices rising to 40 times their previous level, coupled with rolling blackouts.  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75 percent of the state: about 22 million customers in areas including Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Abilene and the Rio Grande Valley.

Thanks to the weather, apparently there just isn't enough power to go around.  Reports indicate that ERCOT has imposed rolling blackouts after multiple power plants were disabled by a major ice storm.   Rolling blackouts are an extraordinary measure, seen more often in other countries than in the U.S.  When the utility cuts your power, unless you're connected to distributed generation or storage, your lights will go dark.

Beyond the rolling blackouts, the price of energy may lead to other consumer impacts.  Reuters reports that hourly energy prices in ERCOT rose from $50 per megawatt-hour to $2,000 per megawatt-hour, a forty-fold increase.  (Although individual residential ratepayers may not feel that price spike directly, it would translate into paying $2.00 per kilowatt-hour if they did - and large commercial and industrial ratepayers who buy power at wholesale in the market are exposed to these prices directly.)  Sounds like a good time for demand response!

July 21, 2010 - balancing wind into the grid; underperforming community wind turbine; China's Three Gorges Dam flooding

License plate seen in Maine:

From Energy Policy Update

How much wind can we really integrate into today's power grid? An interesting article in the Oregonian highlights the challenges. Take, for example, what happened on May 19, when the wind shifted and Bonneville Power Authority grid operators had to make room on the wires for 1000 turbines' worth of wind (nearly 2000 MW). This is a lot of power: more power than the BPA control area needs, more than the amount of hydro production that could be ramped down, and more than BPA could export to neighboring control areas. So what did BPA do? It told wind generators to feather their blades and cut their production -- a less than ideal solution.

In a parallel scenario, Venezuela is undergoing rolling blackouts. Venezuela relies on hydroelectricity for 70% of its power, and a long-lasting drought has crippled power production. Critics also point to chronic mismanagement and underinvestment by the nationalized companies that operate the power grid.

The City of Saco, Maine, is in a bit of a pickle over its community wind project. Back in 2007, Saco bought the turbine and tower for $207,000 from Entegrity Wind Systems. (As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Kittery also bought a turbine from Entegrity. It did better than Saco's, but Kittery's turbine underperformed as well.) At the time, community-scale wind was all the rage. The Maine Legislature had directed the Maine Public Utilities Commission to organize a stakeholder process to evaluate the state's opportunities for community wind. Although this process ultimately resulted in a report concluding that community wind was not generally economic under current conditions, many people and communities decided to pursue small- and medium-scale renewable project for their civic, educational and environmental values.

When Saco bought the turbine, Entegrity told Saco that the unit would generate 90,000 kilowatt-hours annually (about $12,600 worth of electricity) for 10 years. The unit came online in February 2008. It never performed as well as Entegrity had represented. At some point, former Entegrity head James Heath offered to buy the turbine back for $130,000. Then the turbine broke. In the meantime, Entegrity Wind Systems went bankrupt. The City was left holding the underperforming turbine.

Now, the Saco City Council is considering its options. Repair the turbine? Sell the turbine? Negotiate with James Heath? Litigation?



In other news: China's Three Gorges Dam is facing record flooding, comparable to the 1988 floods that killed over 4000 people. The dam had been touted as offering protection against floods. So far the dam is holding, but the massive reservoir is within 20 meters of full. More water is on its way.

A new report by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Maine Development Foundation suggests that Maine businesses' most critical challenges come from health insurance costs, energy, taxes, regulations and transportation, in that order. A Lewiston Sun Journal editorial calls for an end to "destructive regulatory practices" that drive money, businesses and people out of Maine.

WCSH 6 reports on the plans of Ocean Energy Institute founder Matt Simmons to transform Maine into the "Silicon Valley of ocean energy". The Ocean Energy Institute has previously expressed interest in exploring links between offshore wind and ammonia production for energy storage.