Does Texas have a lot of peak generation natural gas plants? I remember that there was a surge of power companies plopping those down when natural gas was really cheap. The plants themselves are pretty much turnkey.
First I’d like to correct my numbers as I double checked them later. Wind was only up to about 4GW today and solar to 2GW.
Problem with natural gas is households. It’s much more efficient to heat houses with direct heat from burning natural gas than it is to first convert it to electricity and then to heat. So many fast depoly natural gas plants had several issues, one being cold and iceing of the equipment and the second being fuel.
Many houses heat with natural gas, even ones that don’t have electricity. Gas fireplaces, backup generators and gas stoves come to mind. My house heats water with gas. So when you have a situation like this it’s vest to prioritize direct heat since the problem is the cold.
So if you are operating a natural gas grid, should you prioritize supply to housing or power generation. The instant peak demand is too high to do both since 20% (wind and solar) were pretty much offline after Sunday night.
But yes, there are many quickfite natural gas generators, just not enough peak gas supply plus they were all spec’d probably to higher ambient temperatures, because Texas has a chronic need for power for cooling during the summer.
This is also a once in a 30 year event pretty much. Last time it was this cold in Houston was 1989.
Does Texas have a lot of peak generation natural gas plants? I remember that there was a surge of power companies plopping those down when natural gas was really cheap. The plants themselves are pretty much turnkey.
First I’d like to correct my numbers as I double checked them later. Wind was only up to about 4GW today and solar to 2GW.
Problem with natural gas is households. It’s much more efficient to heat houses with direct heat from burning natural gas than it is to first convert it to electricity and then to heat. So many fast depoly natural gas plants had several issues, one being cold and iceing of the equipment and the second being fuel.
Many houses heat with natural gas, even ones that don’t have electricity. Gas fireplaces, backup generators and gas stoves come to mind. My house heats water with gas. So when you have a situation like this it’s vest to prioritize direct heat since the problem is the cold.
So if you are operating a natural gas grid, should you prioritize supply to housing or power generation. The instant peak demand is too high to do both since 20% (wind and solar) were pretty much offline after Sunday night.
But yes, there are many quickfite natural gas generators, just not enough peak gas supply plus they were all spec’d probably to higher ambient temperatures, because Texas has a chronic need for power for cooling during the summer.
This is also a once in a 30 year event pretty much. Last time it was this cold in Houston was 1989.