US Central states, Texas break power use records again in heat wave

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

(Reuters) - Power use in Texas and other central states hit all-time highs Tuesday and could break that record again in Texas on Wednesday as homes and businesses crank up air conditioners to escape a brutal heat wave blanketing most of the country.

Electric grid operators across the country said they have enough resources to meet soaring demand and only took small steps, like asking utilities to postpone maintenance on power lines and generating plants, to maintain system reliability.

In addition, some utilities and energy service providers asked consumers to conserve energy and activated demand response programs that compensate homes and businesses to reduce usage.

The United States is expected to use record amounts of power in 2022 due mostly to rising economic and population growth in Sun Belt states covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and utilities in the Southeast.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-central-states-texas-break-132604595.html

[czarjak]

1. The Greg Abbott and Dannie Scott Goeb Grid is doomed without major adjustments. Fact!

[texasfiddler]

2. My solar array has been producing like crazy during this horrible Texas heat.

At least if the grid goes down now, my new hybrid inverter and batteries will keep us cool. Solar actually works during hot sunny weather. Yes the heat decreases the efficiency a bit, but I purposefully undersized my inverters because of this. It is still producing gobs of kWhrs.

[link:|

[NickB79]

3. That's my next big project

What kind of battery bank do you use? My roof can support 7.5 kW of panels, and I want to use a hybrid inverter with a small battery bank to sell power to the grid while being protected against blackouts.

[texasfiddler]

4. I used Outback 200PLR AGM batteries (20kWhrs).

They only have 800-1000 cycles @ 75% discharge, but I don't plan to be off grid more than 2 weeks per year worst case (hurricanes, freezes, etc.). Off-grid applications demand lithium for more cycles, but you will pay 2-3 times more for the same kWhr battery. I installed a Solark 12k to work with my enphase micro-inverters. I have an on-grid system with a backup ac coupled hybrid inverter (Solark 12k). Works like a champ during outages.