Rolling Blackouts Grip Central US

Uptosnuff

Uptosnuff

Member
Location
Great Plains, USA
Ever since Valentine's Day rolling blackouts have gripped 14 central states in the US from the norther border to the southern.

Frozen Wind Turbines and lack of natural gas the culprits, they say.
CNN
New York Times

Texas has been hit worst, but we are getting the blackouts here, too. No power during -20 degrees is no fun. :(
 

Things seem normal here in the Twin Cities. But, then, everything here is built for this kind of weather. Snow is cleared within a day of any major snowstorm and homes are built for the cold. When I first moved here, one thing I noticed right away was that the schools looked like prison to me because I was used to the open architecture of Southern California schools. Quickly, I learned there is good reason for the way buildings are constructed here. We can remain warm and comfortable without the wind whistling through our homes even in sub-zero temperatures.

I recall being in Houston in the summer and seeing people run from air conditioned buildings to air conditioned cars and back. We do similar here, except it is for the cold - run from warm buildings to warm cars and back. Condo living is ideal in this climate because we hire a contractor to do our snow plowing and our condo came with two underground parking spots that we own - no parking hassles of having o move cars to facilitate plowing, no scraping ice or snow off the windows or having to warm up the car. We even have a car wash stall so we can rinse the salt off our cars before parking in our spots. Especially in retirement when we can generally choose where and when we go out, condo living has served us very well.

Edit: All that said, we would be in serious trouble as Texas is now, but if the opposite situation occurred with extreme heat instead of the cold. Any time the weather does something not normal for a given area, there will be serious fallout. I hope that Texans come out of this one in good shape, and hope for better things down the road.

Tony
 
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That would be terrible being without power during this cold spell. People have died trying to stay warm in their cars or running space heaters in their garages. :(

I was wondering why wind turbines in colder climates don't freeze. It turns out, those turbines are equipped with heaters and other tools to keep them from freezing. Those in Texas didn't have them.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottc...imates-dont-freeze-de-icing-and-carbon-fiber/
 
If the scientists are correct, climate change is going to bring more of these Polar Vortexes into the Northern Hemisphere as high pressure in the Artic forces huge amounts of cold air to migrate South...for days, in the Winter months. What has been a "freak" occurrence in the past, may now be something we have to contend with every year, or two.

Relying on wind and solar power might work in warmer climates, but cloudy days with freezing temperatures and snow quickly make those resources inadequate. It appears that even natural gas is not immune from these temperatures, as there are reports of those pipelines freezing up.

Texas appears to be in a unique situation, as their power grid is solely managed in Texas, with no access to resources in the rest of the nation. It will be interesting to see how the authorities in that State respond to this crisis.
 
Speaking of blackouts, this Texas mayor forgot about leadership and his responsibilities to his constituents. In his post, he calls them "lazy." I wonder what he expects them to do?

"No one owes you [or] your family anything; nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you during trying times like this!" he said. "Sink or swim it's your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I'm sick and fired of people looking for a damn handout."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-boyd-mayor-colorado-city-texas-resigns-power-outages/

As a result of his insensitivity, his wife was fired from her job. Now with his family having no income, he became contrite and apologized.
 
I think alot of utilities just worry about average daily use for their infrastructure with almost no allowances for deviation or extreme condition changes. There is literally no back up in many with utilities that operate under the premise it's easier and/or cheaper for fix it than replace or upgrade it.

Also accounts for little to no back up planning. This is an example of what would happen in an emf attack or event.

Best wishes to those affected I've been without power after snow storms and hurricanes and it's not a picnic. Always think safety no matter what trick or technique one uses to improvise. Also even though cold if it's a sunny day open the shades on those windows then close them when the sun leaves. Any little thing helps but always think safety.

Good Luck
 
Years ago, I was without power and water (electric well pump) for 5 days in below 0 temps. There was a shelter at a nearby firehouse, but they wouldn't take pets. I had three cats. Idid not want to comeback home and find three "catsicles", so I stayed with them. I kept the place warm with candles, but only when I was awake-(the cats and candles). I hope you can get some relief. You gotta just muddle through the best you can. Spring is just days away. It really is.
 
Whenever I hear of black/brown outs (rolling or otherwise I am grateful for the oil lamps on the tables and in cupboards, some more antique (older than I) some not; as well as the camping gear. Mostly they are used when someone impolitely lights a cigarette in the house (oil lamps do a fair job of clearing the air; have to use the better kind of lamp oil though, the cheap stuff stinks.
The old ways still work!
The larger oil lamps can also go a fair way toward heating a room.

Enjoy!
 
I have suffered through occasional power outages because of ice storms, bad wind storms, car crashes and even critters getting into where they shouldn't. What was different about this one was it was during a frigid cold spell. Local conditions were not impacting generation. From what I gather, it had to do with the Texas problems that affected us because of my utility belonging to the southwest power pool. So, what is to prevent this from happening again from a member state getting into trouble with it's utility and causing power outages through the rest of the power pool? I am not happy with the "explanation" from SPP. I do not fully understand why this affected my state the way it did. They say it was because of lack of natural gas resources. Well, I know for a fact the generating capacity of my utility. It was producing more electricity than we were using here. They say there are lots of benefits to being a member of this power pool. Hmmmmm
 
We never got a "rolling blackout"!! Just no electric at all for 72 hours! We stayed in our home for 10 hours at -3 degrees outside..When it got to 43 inside we evacuated to our son's home where he was getting 1 hour on and 1 hour off rolling blackouts..
 
Open question for anyone. If you go to some other place, is there a way to get a notification that your electricity has come back on? What could you set in your house to indicate this. I guess if you had an indoor alarm system with cameras, you might be able to look.
 
We didn't have any problems in our area, but during the height of this crisis, the TV and radio stations were all broadcasting messages asking everyone to minimize their electricity usage.....No laundry, leave the oven off, lower the thermostat, etc., etc. I got the impression that the entire central US was right on the brink of a major collapse of our electrical grid.

I hope this incident forces the nation to Finally take some meaningful action to upgrade/protect our infrastructure.
 
Jules said:
Open question for anyone. If you go to some other place, is there a way to get a notification that your electricity has come back on? What could you set in your house to indicate this. I guess if you had an indoor alarm system with cameras, you might be able to look.
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My power company sends me text messages. "There is an outage in your area. Rest assured we are working on it. Power is expected to be restored by (date/time)." Then they text when power is restored and advise you to call if you're still without power.

In the past 5 years the longest I've been without power was about 6 or 7 hours, and only had 3 outages; the long one was during a major upgrade and the other two were due to severe wind and heavy rain, fallen trees and such.
 
Don M. said:
We didn't have any problems in our area, but during the height of this crisis, the TV and radio stations were all broadcasting messages asking everyone to minimize their electricity usage.
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One local furniture store had every light on including the table lamp displays!!
 

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