Want to help blacked-out Texans? Californians are being asked to conserve electricity

[JI7]

Though they’re half a country away, Californians can help bring relief to Texans gripped by blackouts by conserving electricity.

The California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid, issued an advisory Tuesday asking Californians to ease off on electricity use to help people thousands of miles away.

“California and other states typically rely on each other via energy imports and exports,” the ISO said in a statement posted on social media. “So conserving electricity in California can relieve stress on the grid elsewhere in the US.

“We’re going to be encouraging voluntary conservation over the next several days of freezing weather in the Midwest and South, to help relieve stress on electricity grids there. Energy conservation during the evening hours can potentially help free up supply for those in states experiencing severe weather conditions.”

The ISO’s request represented an informal call for conservation, unlike the “flex alerts” declared in hot weather with specific requests for adjusting thermostats and turning off major appliances.

A vicious storm has left more than 4 million Texans without power and sent officials scrambling for explanations about what went wrong with the state’s power grid. Although some Republican officials were blaming frozen wind turbines, many experts were pointing to natural gas pipelines that froze and an overly deregulated energy system that left the state vulnerable.

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/article249298415.html#storylink=cpy

[niyad]

1. Ummmm, I thought TX was its own separate, unconnected grid??

[jmbar2]

2. That's my understanding as well

The repuq politicians didn't want regulation, so they did it their way. And they want to secede?

[roamer65]

3. ERCOT in TX for the most part, yes.

[Blue_true]

6. No. Their grid is connected to the national grid at a few points.

Those connections can feed energy into the whole state.

[Scruffy1]

7. It is complicated.

In El Paso county we are not part of ERCOT. The same goes for the Texas panhandle. It is my understanding that ERCOT has the ability to get some electricity from other sources and to sell to other suppliers. This is how ENRON made some illegal money by rigging the market. I just don't think they have the capacity to make up a huge shortfall of 30 megawatts. I'm lucky to be here. It never got below about fifteen overnight so we didn't have pipes freezing to any great degree I know of. All electric plants require some water and if you lose that you are shut down. I've seen gas Cogeneration plants built and they require a whole lot of pipefitting. Even gas turbine plants need water for cooling and other uses.

[brewens]

4. We in Idaho were asked to conserve electricity over those Enron brownouts in California.

You can imagine how well that went over. It gets hot here too in the summer. I complied but wasn't too happy about it. So Californians, you want to be cooler about this than we were, but don't let them forget about it.

[left-of-center2012]

5. I thought Texas is not part of the national grid

Texas wanted to go it alone so that when the United States collapsed
Texas would have it's own electrical power.

They didn't trust Uncle Sam.

[captain queeg]

8. I figured there must be a few interconnection points

But being their own grid they probably have to beg neighbors for help. I’m sure it’s not automatic.