Power grid narrowly averted rolling blackouts

[ben_meyers]

By R.A. DYERStar-Telegram Staff Writer

AUSTIN -- Operators of the state power grid scrambled Tuesday night to keep the lights on after a sudden drop in West Texas wind threatened to cause rolling blackouts, officials confirmed Wednesday.

At about 6:41 p.m. Tuesday, grid operators ordered a shutoff of power to so-called interruptible customers, which are industrial electric users who have agreed previously to forgo power in times of crisis. The move ensured continued stability of the grid after power dropped unexpectedly.

Dottie Roark, a spokeswoman for the power grid, said a sudden uptick in electricity use coupled with other factors and a sudden drop in wind power caused the unexpected dip. As a result, grid officials immediately went to the second stage of its emergency blackout prevention plan.

"This situation means that there is a heightened risk of ... regular customers being dropped through rotating outages, but that would occur only if further contingencies occur, and only as a last resort to avoid the risk of a complete blackout," the State Operations Center said in an e-mail notice to municipalities.

http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/500595.html

Gotta find a way to store that stuff.

[electropop]

1. Shows we still have some kins to work out with wind power...

but it's encouraging to see how much power is coming from wind now.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Wow! You mean Texas almost had controlled blackouts related to their wind facilities

while Florida had an uncontrolled blackout related to their nuclear generating facilities!? :rofl:

[Ordr]

6. From what I understand...

...the nuclear facilities shut down in order to prevent the surge of demand from possibly causing an unsafe reaction. The shutdown was intentional.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. The shutdown was apparently automatic, but unplanned

The associated blackout was uncontrolled.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHI4Ql8XfZuPMktRM7fQxHjXbz1QD8V38F304

Questions Linger in Florida Blackout

By BRIAN SKOLOFF

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Utility company investigators will likely look beyond a substation fire to determine the cause of a recent blackout that left as many as 3 million Floridians without power, energy experts say.

Florida Power & Light officials said Wednesday they are uncertain how long it will take to learn why a small fire at a Miami-area substation wasn't contained and how it triggered an automatic shutdown of two nuclear reactors. They have not yet ruled out human error.

The rolling power outage began at about 1 p.m. Tuesday when a switch short-circuited at the substation, causing a small fire and taking down two power distribution lines between Miami and Daytona Beach.

In response to the disturbances in the power grid, the two nuclear reactors at FPL's Turkey Point facility near Miami automatically shut down, eventually leaving nearly a fifth of Florida's population without power.

...

[phantom power]

3. K+R. This is happening even sooner than I would have expected.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Just a coincidence you suppose?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=136151&mesg_id=136151

[phantom power]

5. Are you saying we're going to deploy grid storage?

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. I'm observing the timing

Texas has a bit of a problem, and XCel (almost immediately) says, "Ah... as a matter of fact... we're going to test a possible way to address that..."