UN-Backed Great Reset Turns Off Texas Power

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UN-Backed Great Reset Turns Off Texas Power
Infowars

URL: https://www.infowars.com/posts/un-backe ... xas-power/
Category: Politics
Published: February 15, 2021

Description: MSM admits carbon-cutting initiative triggered statewide blackouts.
The United Nations’ Great Reset agenda is responsible for power blackouts affecting millions of Americans amid a nationwide deep freeze, as frozen wind turbines are being blamed for straining the power grid.



The Austin American-Statesman reports: Nearly half of Texas’ installed wind power generation capacity has been offline because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas grid operators.

Wind farms across the state generate up to a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy. But unusually moist winter conditions in West Texas brought on by the weekend’s freezing rain and historically low temperatures have iced many of those wind turbines to a halt. As of Sunday morning, those iced turbines comprise 12,000 megawatts of Texas’ installed wind generation capacity, although those West Texas turbines don’t typically spin to their full generation capacity this time of year.

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Smoking Gun! Joe Biden’s Dept. of Energy Blocked Texas from Increasing Power Ahead of Killer Storm
Infowars

URL: https://www.infowars.com/posts/smoking- ... ing-storm/
Category: Politics
Published: February 20, 2021

Description: A week before, Texas begged for help and asked for DOE to lift federal regulations barring state's energy output.



An Emergency Order from the Biden administration’s Department of Energy shows Texas energy grid operator ERCOT was instructed to stay within green energy standards by purchasing energy from outside the state at a higher cost, throttling power output throughout the state ahead of a catastrophic polar vortex. Major smoking gun! Infowars has been sent a Department of Energy document, confirmed to be authentic, showing Texas begging for federal authorization to increase power! Going into effect Sunday, Feb. 14, Emergency Order 202-21-1 shows the Energy Dept. was aware of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide disaster declaration and that ERCOT was readying gas utilities in preparation for a demand surge. The order shows Acting Energy Secretary David Huizenga did not waive environmental restrictions to allow for maximum energy output, instead ordering ERCOT to utilize all resources in order to stay within acceptable emissions standards – including purchasing energy from outside the state. “ERCOT anticipates that this Order may result in exceedance of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon monoxide emissions, as well as wastewater release limits,” the order states. “To minimize adverse environmental impacts, this Order limits operation of dispatched units to the times and within the parameters determined by ERCOT for reliability purposes.” Moreover, the order instructed an “incremental amount of restricted capacity” to be sold to ERCOT at “a price no lower than $1,500/MWh,” an increase of over 6,000 percent over February 2020 prices of $18.20. On Wednesday, the Dallas Business Journal reported, “Electricity on the Texas grid has averaged about $1,137.33 per megawatt hour so far in February, up from $18.20 per megawatt hour in February 2020, according to data from the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas. That’s a jump of more than 6,000 percent.” Days later, the Public Utility Commission of Texas set prices at $9,000/MWh. The EO shows the Biden administration basically ordered ERCOT to throttle its energy output by forcing it to comply with environmental green energy standards, while knowing full well Texans could freeze to death in their homes with zero electricity as temperatures plunged into the single digits. Read the order: https://www.scribd.com/document/4951895 ... 02-14-2021

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Frozen wind turbines hamper Texas power output, state's electric grid operator says
Austin American-Statesman

URL: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/20 ... 483230001/
Category: Politics
Published: February 14, 2021

Description: Nearly half of Texas' installed wind power generation capacity has been offline because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas grid operators. Wind farms across the state generate up to a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy. But unusually moist winter conditions in West Texas brought on by the weekend's freezing rain and historically low temperatures have iced many of those wind turbines to a halt. As of Sunday morning, those iced turbines comprise 12,000 megawatts of Texas' installed wind generation capacity, although those West Texas turbines don't typically spin to their full generation capacity this time of year. Fortunately for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's electric grid, the storm's gusty winds are spinning the state's unfrozen coastal turbines at a higher rate than expected, helping to offset some of the power generation losses because of the icy conditions. "This is a unique winter storm that's more widespread with lots of moisture in West Texas, where there's a lot of times not a lot of moisture," said Dan Woodfin, Senior Director of System Operations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. "It's certainly more than what we would typically assume. Wind power has been the fastest-growing source of energy in Texas' power grid. In 2015 winder power generation supplied 11% of Texas' energy grid. Last year it supplied 23% and overtook coal as the system's second-largest source of energy after natural gas. In Austin, wind power supplies roughly 19% of the city's energy demands, all of which is passed from producers to consumers across the state grid. The city began adding several megawatts of wind energy capacity to its renewable energy portfolio in the 1990s from both West Texas and Gulf Coast wind farms. The frozen turbines come as low temperatures strain the state's power grid and force operators to call for immediate statewide conservation efforts, like unplugging non-essential appliances, turning down residential heaters and minimize use of electric lighting. Electric demand is expected to exceed the state's previous winter-peak record set in January 2018 by 10,000 megawatts. And peak demand expected for Monday and Tuesday is forecasted to meet or exceed the state's summertime record for peak demand of 74,820 megawatts. "Typically the ERCOT system peaks in the summer because of the air conditioning load, but we're seeing forecasts of overall demand being that high in the next few days," Woodfin said.

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The Political Making of a Texas Power Outage
Wall Street Journal

URL: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-politi ... 1613518653
Category: Politics
Published: February 16, 2021

Description: How bad energy policy led to rolling blackouts in the freezing Lone Star State.
Why are millions of Americans in the nation’s most energy-rich state without power and heat for days amid extreme winter weather? “The people who have fallen short with regard to the power are the private power generation companies,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott explained. Ah, yes, blame private power companies . . . that are regulated by government. The Republican sounds like California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who lambasted private utilities for rolling blackouts during a heat wave last summer. Power grids should be able to withstand extreme weather. But in both these bellwether states, state and federal energy policies have created market distortions and reduced grid reliability. Mr. Abbott blamed his state’s extensive power outages on generators freezing early Monday morning, noting “this includes the natural gas & coal generators.” But frigid temperatures and icy conditions have descended on most of the country. Why couldn’t Texas handle them while other states did? The problem is Texas’s overreliance on wind power that has left the grid more vulnerable to bad weather. Half of wind turbines froze last week, causing wind’s share of electricity to plunge to 8% from 42%. Power prices in the wholesale market spiked, and grid regulators on Friday warned of rolling blackouts. Natural gas and coal generators ramped up to cover the supply gap but couldn’t meet the surging demand for electricity—which half of households rely on for heating—even as many families powered up their gas furnaces. Then some gas wells and pipelines froze. In short, there wasn’t sufficient baseload power from coal and nuclear to support the grid. Baseload power is needed to stabilize grid frequency amid changes in demand and supply. When there’s not enough baseload power, the grid gets unbalanced and power sources can fail. The more the grid relies on intermittent renewables like wind and solar, the more baseload power is needed to back them up. But politicians don’t care about grid reliability until the power goes out. And for three decades politicians from both parties have pushed subsidies for renewables that have made the grid less stable. Start with the 1992 Energy Policy Act signed by George H.W. Bush, which created a production tax credit to boost the infant wind industry. Generators collect up to $25 per megawatt hour of power they produce regardless of market demand. The credit was supposed to expire in 1999, but nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program, as Ronald Reagan once quipped. The renewables lobby found GOP allies in windy states like Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa. Former Enron CEO Ken Lay, who had made a big bet on wind, begged then Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 1998 to lobby Congress to extend the credit for five years. Congress has since extended it more than a dozen times, most recently in December. Wind producers persuaded former Gov. Rick Perry to back a $5 billion network of transmission lines to connect turbines in western Texas to cities. This enabled them to build more turbines—and collect more tax credits. Because the Texas grid is often oversupplied, wind producers sometimes pay to off-load their power, though they still turn a profit with the tax credits. Coal and nuclear are more strictly regulated and can’t compete, and many coal plants have shut down in Texas and elsewhere. Over the last decade about 100 gigawatts of coal power nationwide has been retired—enough to power 60 million homes. Many nuclear plants are scheduled to shut down, including large reactors in New York and Illinois this year. Renewables and natural gas are expected to substitute, but Texas is showing their limitations. In the Lone Star State, bad weather has constrained the supply of gas, but government policies do the same in other states. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey’s Phil Murphy have blocked pipelines to deliver shale gas from Pennsylvania to the Northeast. Their pipeline blockade has driven up the cost of electricity. The average retail price of power is about 50% higher in New Jersey and New York than in Pennsylvania. They and other governors have also poured subsidies into wind and solar, though neither can provide reliable power in frosty weather. Many states also have renewable mandates that will force more fossil-fuel generators to shut down. New York has required that renewables account for 70% of state power by 2030. Then layer on Democratic policies at the federal level that limit fossil-fuel production and distribution. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is supposed to ensure grid reliability, but under Barack Obama it promoted renewables over reliability. Democrats opposed efforts by Trump appointees to mitigate market distortions caused by state renewable subsidies and mandates that jeopardized the grid. On present trend, this week’s Texas fiasco is coming soon to a cold winter or hot summer near you.

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Texas electric grid operator says frozen wind turbines are hampering state's power output: report
Fox Business

URL: https://www.foxbusiness.com/energy/texa ... put-report
Category: Politics
Published: February 15, 2021

Description: Over 2.5 million people in Texas have been left without power from the storm's frigid temperatures
About half of Texas' wind power generation capacity has been put on ice amid the state's historic winter storm, according to a report. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) told the Austin American Statesman that roughly 12,000 megawatts of Texas' wind generation capacity had been hampered as of Sunday due to frozen wind turbines. However, they also noted that unfrozen wind turbines are spinning at a higher rate than expected, helping to offset the losses. ERCOT operates Texas' electric grid and manages the deregulated energy market for 75% of the state, "This is a unique winter storm that's more widespread with lots of moisture in West Texas, where there's a lot of times not a lot of moisture," ERCOT senior director of system operations Dan Woodfin told the outlet. "It's certainly more than what we would typically assume." It is estimated between 2.5 and 3.5 million people in Texas have been left without power amid the storm's frigid temperatures. An ERCOT spokesperson did not immediately return FOX Business' request for comment. According to the Energy Information Administration, renewable energy contributes nearly 1/5th of the net electricity generated in Texas. The state leads the nation in wind-powered electricity generation, producing almost three-tenths of the United State's total output. Reuters reported that wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of energy in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies last year, behind natural gas, which represented 45%, citing ERCOT figures. The Public Utility Commission of Texas first adopted rules for the state's renewable energy mandate in 1999 and amended them in 2005 to require that 5,880 megawatts, or about 5% of the state's electricity generating capacity, come from renewable sources by 2015 and 10,000 megawatts of renewable capacity by 2025, including 500 megawatts from resources other than wind. Texas surpassed the 2025 goal in 2009, predominantly because of the generating capacity provided by the state's wind farms. On Monday, ERCOT warned of rotating outages as thousands of megawatts of power in the state has been lost due to the storm's "sub-freezing conditions," resulting in record-breaking electric demand. "About 10,500 [megawatts] of customer load was shed at the highest point. This is enough power to serve approximately two million homes," the agency said in a statement. "Extreme weather conditions caused many generating units – across fuel types – to trip offline and become unavailable. There is now over 30,000 [megwatt} of generation forced off the system." The rotating outages are expected to continue through at least Tuesday morning, Woodfin said during an ERCOT briefing Monday. According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the state's Public Utilities Commission was working to have about 500,000 residential customer's power restored as of 4 p.m., with more customers expected to have power restored late Monday evening. Abbott received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Energy on Sunday to allow power generations to increase production. “Due to the severe weather and freezing temperatures across our state, many power companies have been unable to generate power, whether it’s from coal, natural gas, or wind power,” Abbott said in a statement. “ERCOT and the PUC are working non-stop to restore power supply. The state has also deployed resources to assist Texans without power and to help essential workers continue to carry out their jobs. In the meantime, I encourage all Texans to continue to stay off the roads, and conserve energy as state agencies work with private providers to restore power as quickly as possible.” In addition, Abbot is deploying the National Guard to conduct welfare checks and to assist local authorities in transitioning Texans in need to one of the state's 135 local warming centers. According to ERCOT, consumers can reduce their electricity use by turning down thermostats to 68 degrees, closing shades and blinds to reduce the amount of heat lost through windows, turning off and unplugging non-essential lights and appliances, and avoiding use of large appliances such as ovens and washing machines. Businesses should minimize the use of electric lighting and electricity-consuming equipment as much as possible and large consumers of electricity should consider shutting down or reducing non-essential production processes.

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Icy weather chills Texas wind energy as deep freeze grips much of U.S.
Reuters

URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN2AF066
Category: Politics
Published: February 15, 2021

Description: (Reuters) - Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a rare deep freeze across the state locked up turbine towers while driving electricity demand to record levels, the state’s grid operator reported. Responding to a request from Governor Greg Abbott, President Joe Biden granted a federal emergency declaration for all 254 counties in the state on Sunday, authorizing U.S. agencies to coordinate disaster relief from severe weather in Texas. The winter energy woes in Texas came as bone-chilling cold, combined with snow, sleet and freezing rain, gripped much of the United States from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains and into the mid-Atlantic states over the weekend. An Arctic air mass causing the chill extended southward well beyond areas accustomed to icy weather, with winter storm warnings posted for much of the Gulf Coast region, Oklahoma and Missouri, the National Weather Service said. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s grid operator, issued an alert asking consumers and businesses to conserve power, citing record-breaking energy demands due to extreme cold gripping the state. “We are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units,” the agency said. Wind farms in West Texas, stricken by weekend ice storms, were particularly hard hit. Of the 25,000-plus megawatts of wind-power capacity normally available in Texas, some 12,000 megawatts was out of service as of Sunday morning “due to the winter weather event we’re experiencing in Texas,” ERCOT spokeswoman Leslie Sopko said. Wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of energy in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies last year, behind natural gas, which represented 45%, according to ERCOT figures. Forecasts call for heavy snow and freezing rain to spread across a larger swath of central and eastern sections of the country through Monday, with a storm front in the West likely to dump 1 to 2 feet of snow in the Cascades and northern Rockies through Tuesday, according to the weather service.