Manufacturing: Samsung Semiconductor Fabs in Texas Shut Down Following State-wide Power Shortages

[katzi]

Unreliable green energy strikes again. That, and the fact that many Texas homes do not use Natural Gas or Propane to heat their homes.

LOL you can't be serious...

 

[Minus Infinity]

Unreliable green energy strikes again. That, and the fact that many Texas homes do not use Natural Gas or Propane to heat their homes.

Unfortunately you can't harnass the energy of sheer ignorance and stupidity, as Texarse would have an infinite supply.

I think you got lost on the way to one of Trump's tweets.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Unfortunately you can't harnass the energy of sheer ignorance and stupidity, as Texarse would have an infinite supply.

I think you got lost on the way to one of Trump's tweets.

It is the very cost of going green. No sun to shine and the turbines are froze. Coal power plants are still running and selling electricity for $4000 per megawatt. Coal is contributing over half of the electric generation in the Southwest Power Pool. If Biden went 8 years and this happened in his 7th there would be many dead cause the coal plants would be shutdown and gone. Though this may just wake his sleepy ass up that you need coal.
You know nothing other than your despise for a political party.

And whoever said it's because they couldn't drive to work to get to the control panel... people actually believe that.

 

[R-T-B]

Kind of funny how in Europe the grid is much better connected between countries than the US is within the country.

This lack of general interconnection is purely texas politics. You won't find it elsewhere. It was and remains a dumb idea.

And whoever said it's because they couldn't drive to work to get to the control panel... people actually believe that.

Yes, because it's actually whats happening. It's not about how much snow. It's about snow prep. Texas has like exactly zero readiness in this regard.

I know someone living there and roads are absolutely closed.

 

[Paganstomp]

America's third world power grid since 2003. Just think what plugin in electric cars are going to do to it.

 

[dragontamer5788]

It is the very cost of going green. No sun to shine and the turbines are froze. Coal power plants are still running and selling electricity for $4000 per megawatt. Coal is contributing over half of the electric generation in the Southwest Power Pool. If Biden went 8 years and this happened in his 7th there would be many dead cause the coal plants would be shutdown and gone. Though this may just wake his sleepy ass up that you need coal.
You know nothing other than your despise for a political party.

And whoever said it's because they couldn't drive to work to get to the control panel... people actually believe that.

I'm seeing stats like Texas Nuclear lost 25% of its generation while Natural Gas lost 40% of its generation.

Its no small secret that South Texas Nuclear Power Station is offline: along with its ~1GW of power production. Texas is just completely unprepared for the winter. I don't know why some pundits are trying to turn this into an abstract political issue. The story is actually quite simple.

 

[Fouquin]

It is the very cost of going green. No sun to shine and the turbines are froze. Coal power plants are still running and selling electricity for $4000 per megawatt. Coal is contributing over half of the electric generation in the Southwest Power Pool. If Biden went 8 years and this happened in his 7th there would be many dead cause the coal plants would be shutdown and gone. Though this may just wake his sleepy ass up that you need coal.
You know nothing other than your despise for a political party.

And whoever said it's because they couldn't drive to work to get to the control panel... people actually believe that.

Natural gas and oil are both frozen because the pipelines are above ground and uninsulated. ERCOT's own investigative report says 30 gigawatts of grid power from natural gas, coal, and nuclear is offline, while 16 gigawatts of renewable (PVGR and wind) is offline. The impact to renewable generation can't exceed that of other generators, yet it gets all the blame for the reduced grid capacity.

Planting blame on a federal administration that doesn't own, nor operate ERCOT is incredibly funny though. The entire existence of ERCOT is to avoid federal regulation across any section of the grid, be that nuclear, gas, coal, or renewable. Texas makes their own bed, and now they get to sleep in it.

 

[Wirko]

Kind of funny how in Europe the grid is much better connected between countries than the US is within the country.

Sure it is. Except when it isn't. We had a large-scale narrow miss last month, when Europe's power grid fell apart into two separate power grids in a matter of seconds. Both survived, which I consider a miracle, given that one had a 6.3 gigawatt power deficit and the other an equally big surplus when it happened.

Power transmission grids seem to be underdeveloped and operating on their limits all too oftern, no matter where you go.

https://www.entsoe.eu/news/2021/01/...ynchronous-area-on-8-january-2021-2nd-update/

Natural gas and oil are both frozen because the pipelines are above ground and uninsulated. ERCOT's own investigative report says 30 gigawatts of grid power from natural gas, coal, and nuclear is offline, while 16 gigawatts of renewable (PVGR and wind) is offline. The impact to renewable generation can't exceed that of other generators, yet it gets all the blame for the reduced grid capacity.

Planting blame on a federal administration that doesn't own, nor operate ERCOT is incredibly funny though. The entire existence of ERCOT is to avoid federal regulation across any section of the grid, be that nuclear, gas, coal, or renewable. Texas makes their own bed, and now they get to sleep in it.

Cooling water installations in power plants froze too. Indeed, cooling water.

 

[Caring1]

I've always found the power issues in the states interesting. What are the main reasons this happens?

Stupidity.
Allowing large manufacturers to draw off the grid without their own generating facilities.
Imagine if they were self sufficient in power, they could even sell back to the grid and make even more in tax breaks etc.

 

[dinmaster]

a reason to hike prices for samsung? The whole thing happening in texas is going to push people to go solar/off the grid because it cant be counted on. i have a good grid here but i still want to move off of it because the prices are nuts, im a heavy user and it would we cheaper for me to go off grid, once you factor in the price per kwh and the delivery fees/taxes..

 

[Upgrayedd]

a reason to hike prices for samsung? The whole thing happening in texas is going to push people to go solar/off the grid because it cant be counted on. i have a good grid here but i still want to move off of it because the prices are nuts, im a heavy user and it would we cheaper for me to go off grid, once you factor in the price per kwh and the delivery fees/taxes..

You realize the clouds are out during this right?

 

[dinmaster]

You realize the clouds are out during this right?

You realize solar panels pick up uv right? it collects less, something like 85% less but still collects something.. cloudy solar power

 

[dragontamer5788]

You realize the clouds are out during this right?

ERCOT MIS

You know that we can look up how much power ERCOT is getting from Solar right now, right? Solar makes plenty of energy, even on cloudy days. (Solar of course makes more energy on sunny days)

 

[remixedcat]

Good tech companies in TX should Come to WV we have been impacted way less by this and we don't rely on silly little windmills... haha

 

[nexus290]

It is the very cost of going green. No sun to shine and the turbines are froze. Coal power plants are still running and selling electricity for $4000 per megawatt. Coal is contributing over half of the electric generation in the Southwest Power Pool. If Biden went 8 years and this happened in his 7th there would be many dead cause the coal plants would be shutdown and gone. Though this may just wake his sleepy ass up that you need coal.
You know nothing other than your despise for a political party.

And whoever said it's because they couldn't drive to work to get to the control panel... people actually believe that.

Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold. This is the headlines of an article I found from a Texan newspaper​

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/

Officials for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of Texas’ grid, said the primary cause of the outages Tuesday appeared to be the state’s natural gas providers. Many are not designed to withstand such low temperatures on equipment or during production.


By some estimates, nearly half of the state’s natural gas production has screeched to a halt due to the extremely low temperatures, while freezing components at natural gas-fired power plants have forced some operators to shut down.


“Texas is a gas state,” said Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

[Flanker]

Sucks for the people that are freezing
Stay safe everyone

 

[claes]

I thought this was an interesting article about the culture wars between liberals and conservatives surrounding this discussion, and details how energy production works in the US, highlighting this event and other blackouts in Texas history, but, trigger warning: it’s from a socialist magazine (that I generally disagree with). Don’t worry — they dig on liberals as much as they do conservatives.

Millions of Texans Are Freezing Right Now — Our Deregulated Electrical Grid Is to Blame

What Texans are suffering through is a failure of deregulation and markets — a neoliberal ideology promoted not just by the fossil-fuel-loving right, but even many environmentally conscious liberals.

jacobinmag.com

Not trying to get into a debate about economics or politics or whatever, but I felt that reframing the conversation in terms of profitability rather than fossils vs renewables is a helpful way to look at this problem.

(Gonna run to the liquor store now before I get trolled to death )

edit: please feel free to delete mods — not trying to start an argument as much as shift the debate

 

[BArms]

It's been said repeatedly by many that all those liberals fleeing California for Texas will bring all their problems with them. Well, the power outages just arrived

Sorry, I couldn't resist, lighten up y'all.

 

[Why_Me]

Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold. This is the headlines of an article I found from a Texan newspaper​

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/

Officials for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of Texas’ grid, said the primary cause of the outages Tuesday appeared to be the state’s natural gas providers. Many are not designed to withstand such low temperatures on equipment or during production.


By some estimates, nearly half of the state’s natural gas production has screeched to a halt due to the extremely low temperatures, while freezing components at natural gas-fired power plants have forced some operators to shut down.


“Texas is a gas state,” said Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

I live in Alaska. Any gas lines south of the Brooks Mountain Range are buried as I'm sure Texas buries their gas lines also and that's the insulation ... dirt. As far as it being too cold for the gas to come up from the wells .. that's a lie. Temps up on Alaska's north slope (Arctic Ocean) hit -70F and it has zero affect on the gas coming up from those wells.

 

[Nihilus]

Unfortunately you can't harnass the energy of sheer ignorance and stupidity, as Texarse would have an infinite supply.

I think you got lost on the way to one of Trump's tweets.

If only snarkiness could power the world...

 

[Fouquin]

I live in Alaska. Any gas lines south of the Brooks Mountain Range are buried as I'm sure Texas buries their gas lines also and that's the insulation ... dirt. As far as it being too cold for the gas to come up from the wells .. that's a lie. Temps up on Alaska's north slope (Arctic Ocean) hit -70F and it has zero affect on the gas coming up from those wells.

Pipelines existing in Alaska aren't the pipelines in Texas. Just as wind generators in Sweden aren't wind generators in Texas. They don't have winterized infrastructure, and that allowed a winter event to cause grid failure.

Your anecdotes are meaningless to the facts.

 

[Why_Me]

Pipelines existing in Alaska aren't the pipelines in Texas. Just as wind generators in Sweden aren't wind generators in Texas. They don't have winterized infrastructure, and that allowed a winter event to cause grid failure.

Your anecdotes are meaningless to the facts.

I guess you failed to read my post. We bury our gas lines in the dirt as I'm guessing Texas does also. That's the insulation .. dirt. You can easily google it. And again as far as it being too cold for the gas to come up from those wells .. I'm not buying it. I've worked in -60 to -74F temps and we never had an issue with the gas coming up from those wells. Gas lines aren't exactly rocket science.

 

[Fouquin]

I guess you failed to read my post. We bury our gas lines in the dirt as I'm guessing Texas does also. That's the insulation .. dirt. You can easily google it. And again as far as it being too cold for the gas to come up from those wells .. I'm not buying it. I've worked in -60 to -74F temps and we never had an issue with the gas coming up from those wells. Gas lines aren't exactly rocket science.

It is you who failed to read and comprehend.

Above ground infrastructure belonging to Atmos Energy in Throckmorton, TX. This and other above ground infrastructure subject to winter events across the state are what we're talking about here.

 

[Why_Me]

It is you who failed to read and comprehend.

View attachment 188812
View attachment 188813

Above ground infrastructure belonging to Atmos Energy in Throckmorton, TX. This and other above ground infrastructure subject to winter events across the state are what we're talking about here.

That's a pic of a monitoring station .. all it does is monitor the gas so they know how much to charge (cubic ft.). The gas line going into my cabin goes 3/4 of the way around the outside of this place and none of its insulated. I've had -40 temps multiple times and have never had an issue.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

There are two connections from ERCOT (Texas's grid) that is to be used only in emergencies. I think this qualifies as an emergency, especially as some people are literally freezing to death. So I'm not against sending power to Texas in the ways that we can... But that doesn't change the fact that Texas built its state and grid specifically to avoid federal regulations. Heck: it sometimes seems like there are more connections between ERCOT and Mexico than ERCOT to the rest of the USA.

There's also the 2011 Blackouts: when Texas temperatures dropped to 20F for a few days and knocked out something like 50 power plants. Its not like cold weather is that rare in Texas, the last rolling blackouts due to cold are easily within living memory.

To add to this. Even before the winter storm hit, officials there knew it was coming, and yet, nobody could be bothered to prepare for the damn thing? That's just a failure in state leadership from top to bottom if you ask me.

A part of me also believes this is karma's way of bitch slapping Ted Cruz for the tweet he did last August mocking California due to the fact that the state was in the midst of a brutal heat wave at the time and as a result, the governor called for rolling blackouts to help ease the strain on the grid. We hadn't had to do rolling blackouts since 2001.

That aside, I truly feel for the folks having to suffer through this.