Texas Freeze Raises Cost Of Charging A Tesla To $900

AdrianC

RichardD1970 said:

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

I would still argue it is far more likely to happen in the UK as opposed to Texas.  I personally think our grid is flying by the seat of its pants (no new nuclear etc) and a lack of provision for increases in load post 2030.  Power stations take years to get off the drawing board  never mind construction.

National Grid would disagree with you.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero/5-myths-about-electric-vehicles-busted

Pah. What do they know?

Ectophile

missile said:

"If anything, it shows how dangerous deregulation and isolationism are." That would be Brexit?

We haven't cut our high voltage DC links to France, the Netherlands, Belgium or Ireland.  That would be really stupid.

daveyjp

BBC reporting of one Texas homeowner who has a home electric bill of $3000.

It didn't say for how long a period, but suggested it was racked up in a very short period due to supply and demand pricing.  Smart meter anyone?

Herzlos

AdrianC said:

Herzlos said:

AdrianC said:

Herzlos said:

The main difference is that the UK gets cold weather every year and more or less plans for it.

Texas doesn't..

There's also a question of the scale of the temps...

There's headlines giving temps just below 0 in Texas. They're in Fahrenheit... They're about -20degC... And they normally don't even get near freezing.

The UK VERY rarely gets -20degC, and it would cause chaos if we did.

Things seem to run more or less fine when we're at -20C here

Umm, exactly how often do you think that happens here?

Can I remind you of the headlines a week or so ago?
https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2021/02/11/record-low-temperature-for-the-uk-this-millennium/

And when it DOES happen, it's in places like the Scottish Highlands, where they're far more used to low temperatures, snow and ice. Can you imagine the chaos if that hit London and the Home Counties...?

I didn't say it happened often, but I certainly remember it getting cold around 2010 because I had to work from home for about 3 weeks because the trains just gave up, but I don't remember any power or utility failures. The roads were fine as well but I remember my windscreen fluid (good to -20oC) froze so I decided not to travel very far.

Compare that with Texas, now...

Flight3287462

We have this old chestnut............

AdrianC

Herzlos said:

AdrianC said:

Herzlos said:

AdrianC said:

The UK VERY rarely gets -20degC, and it would cause chaos if we did.

Things seem to run more or less fine when we're at -20C here

Umm, exactly how often do you think that happens here?

Can I remind you of the headlines a week or so ago?
https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2021/02/11/record-low-temperature-for-the-uk-this-millennium/

And when it DOES happen, it's in places like the Scottish Highlands, where they're far more used to low temperatures, snow and ice. Can you imagine the chaos if that hit London and the Home Counties...?

I didn't say it happened often, but I certainly remember it getting cold around 2010 because I had to work from home for about 3 weeks because the trains just gave up, but I don't remember any power or utility failures. The roads were fine as well but I remember my windscreen fluid (good to -20oC) froze so I decided not to travel very far.

Your windscreen snoosh is not a reliable thermometer.

The lowest temperature recorded anywhere in the UK that winter was -21.3degC at Altnaharra, in what's recognised as the coldest winter for the UK since 1659. Altnaharra is the very definition of the back end of nowhere, 15 miles south of the north coast of Scotland, 70 miles north of Inverness... 
The SE of England had record lows of -14.2degC at Farnborough, -12 in Bedfordshire, and -10.5 in Gravesend.
Heathrow and Gatwick both closed, train services were halted all over the country, and people had to spend the night at Brum coach station, with average temps for December of -1degC - the first time ever a negative mean for the month had been recorded.
Large parts of NI and Wales had widespread water supply failures.
January had average temps of +3.8degC. February was one of the mildest of the previous century, but the Highlands had heavy snow again in March.
Oh, and the UK still got 30% of its electricity from coal in 2010, vs virtually none now.

[Deleted User]

Made me laugh people jabbering on about not being able to charge Teslas - modern fuel pumps need electricity Billy-Bob, you're not fueling your 10mpg penis extension truck either.

Texas' problem is them trying to be isolationist, they're not in the US national grid system (they have 3, an East, West and Texas) and so it came to bite. Literally 2 weeks ago, Texas Republicans were gathering support to secede from the US, now they are begging for federal funds.

lemondrops69

daveyjp said:

 Most of UK turbines are at sea.

Since when?

Onshore Turbines

8,663 Onshore Operational Capacity (MW) 13,739.625

Offshore Turbines

2,292 Offshore Operational Capacity (MW) 10,415.

daivid

lemondrops69 said:

Since when?

Onshore Turbines

8,663 Onshore Operational Capacity (MW) 13,739.625

Offshore Turbines

2,292 Offshore Operational Capacity (MW) 10,415.

The offshore turbines are 3 times as powerful/efficient, wow! I hope your dropping the decimals from the offshore MW was accidental, not a deliberate attempt to make one number appear much smaller than another (the onshore capacity). 

lemondrops69

daivid said:

lemondrops69 said:

Since when?

Onshore Turbines

8,663 Onshore Operational Capacity (MW) 13,739.625

Offshore Turbines

2,292 Offshore Operational Capacity (MW) 10,415.

The offshore turbines are 3 times as powerful/efficient, wow! I hope your dropping the decimals from the offshore MW was accidental, not a deliberate attempt to make one number appear much smaller than another (the onshore capacity). 

I think you have read the figure incorrectly it's 13,739. (point)625. I can round it up, the decimal is too small for some people to read.
Onshore 13,739MW
Offshore 10,415MW
This is installed capacity
However, off shore  turbines are much bigger. The onshore fleet is older, many are sub mega watt, 650/750kW, this is what bumps the numbers up. Whitelee is the biggest onshore UK farm, running Siemens 2.3MW turbines and on output of 539MW. The offshore fleet is much newer and they are all multi-mega watt and had turbines, generally now 3.6MW. The largest UK offshore wind generates 659 MW and has less turbines than Whitelee
So yes the offshore turbines are 3 times as powerful, more in fact 650kW x 5 = 3.25MW, efficiency is less of a factor.

Oh, BTW you can run turbines in sub-zero temps, they do in Sweden, they just need to be winterised. Obviously the ones in Texas wouldnt have been