Re: Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts

[Kevin East <kevin.east () theeasts net>]

100%.  Our system has been on stage 2 aux heat (electric) ever since we
dropped below 24 or so.  Usually we might see it for a few hours on the
coldest nights.  I'd say most people are probably pulling full summer load
+20%.

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:10 PM Seth Mattinen <sethm () rollernet us> wrote:

> On 2/16/21 09:49, Michael Thomas wrote:
> > On 2/16/21 8:50 AM, John Von Essen wrote:
> > > I just assumed most people in Texas have heat pumps- AC in the summer
> > > and minimal heating in the winter when needed. When the entire state
> > > gets a deep freeze, everybody is running those heat pumps non-stop,
> > > and the generation capacity simply wasn’t there. i.e. coal or natural
> > > gas plants have some turbines offline, etc.,. in the winter because
> > > historically power use is much much less. The odd thing is its been
> > > days now, those plants should be able to ramp back up to capacity -
> > > but clearly they haven’t. Blaming this on wind turbines is BS. In
> > > fact, if it weren’t for so many people in Texas with grid-tie solar
> > > systems, the situation would be even worse.
> >
> > You'd think that mid-summer Texas chews a lot more peak capacity than
> > the middle of winter. Plus I would think a lot of Texas uses natural gas
> > for heat rather than electricity further mitigating its effect on the
> grid.
> >
>
> The difference is that in extreme cold heat pump systems are likely
> switching on emergency heat (i.e. plain old resistance heaters) when the
> compressor alone can no longer keep up with call for heat demand, which
> requires significantly more power. That's never happening in the summer,
> which is only ever running the compressor.