February 2021 brought a major winter storm upon Texas, all of her, and many other areas of these United States. The National Weather Service page from its Fort Worth/Dallas office is headlined: Historic Winter Storm and Arctic Outbreak.
Despite what many want you to believe, especially your children, Republicans, oil and gas companies, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, religious conservatives, and others deplored by the Left did not cause it to become cold over all of Texas and remain that way for days.
“The record cold spell and extended period of wintry weather was caused by the upper level polar vortex dropping south from the north pole and then lingering over south central Canada for more than a week. This allowed cold arctic air to gradually spill southward into Texas. At the same time several upper level disturbances riding the jet stream moved through the area providing lift and moisture for winter precipitation. These disturbances show up as waves or dips in the lines that move in from the west. Ahead of each wave upper level lift increases and moisture is drawn up from the south. Since it was already so cold, this precipitation fell as snow, sleet, and freezing rain,” reads the National Weather Service report.
“The record cold spell and extended period of wintry weather was caused by the upper level polar vortex dropping south from the north pole and then lingering over south central Canada for more than a week.
It was cold, very cold, in Texas including in parts where such weather is unusual and when present, short lasting. It was not short lasting in February of 2021 and that is why we call it the Big Freeze. (I refuse to use the “Winter Storm Uri” moniker for many reasons I’ll not bore you with here.) The state is attributing 246 deaths to the storm with 148 of those fatalities being labeled as “direct” and hypothermia was the cause of death for most.
Since the Big Freeze, most Texans consuming legacy media have been treated to a barrage of what is nothing short of inaccurate propaganda.
“Natural gas companies failed again, showing Texas energy system still vulnerable,” was the headline of a column in the Houston Chronicle by Left-leaning Chris Tomlinson and is emblematic of a wide effort to demonize the natural gas, actually the entire traditional energy, industry and distract from a much bigger problem.
That problem is simply described as having too much wind and solar electric generation as a percentage of generating capacity on the intra-state ERCOT power grid.
Instead of blindly caving to the culturally popular false idea of “renewable energy” and wind and solar being solid replacements for thermal electric generation sources, Neal Meyer of blogHOUSTON spent the past year observing the ERCOT power generation statistics.
“What sticks out in these readings is how it isn’t unusual for power generated from wind sources in Texas to fall 75% or more from peak power generated during a 24-hour time period. Indeed on some days such as October 4th, 2021, the amount being generated was less than one gigawatt, although there were other days on which the amount of power being generated reached over 15 gigawatts,” Meyer reported.
“Moreover,” Meyer wrote, “it is not uncommon for peak power generation from wind to occur during the middle of the night, when power demand is least. Likewise, the converse holds for when the quantity demanded is highest, which usually is during the late afternoon hours between 3:00pm – 6:00pm (when power generation from wind is at its low point). In other words, we are often getting power from wind when we need it least, and not getting it when we need it the most.”
“it is not uncommon for peak power generation from wind to occur during the middle of the night, when power demand is least.
When weather provides extremes causing a large demand for power for heating or cooling, the indisputable fact is that one cannot simply turn on or turn up the power production from wind and solar installations.
“If electrical power generation from wind is so intermittent, that means that there had better be enough power available from other sources to make up for when the winds die down. Heavy reliance on wind power for electricity presents problems that ultimately have to be dealt with by using other power sources, and hence is an issue that others are forced to work around,” Meyer accurately summed up.
If columnists, reporters, and others of the Left are as concerned as they claim about those who died due to the cold in the 2021 Big Freeze they would recognize that we need a much larger percentage of electric generation from of those “other sources,” mostly natural gas and, on the Texas grid. Only those thermal-based generators can turn up power production at will.
It was the wind and solar crowd that mistakenly claimed that building so many wind and solar farms, diversified geographically, was enough of a safety factor that ERCOT could consider these sources as part of our power reserve.
We must add the cost of keeping dispatchable, dependable on-demand reserve generation to the installation of any solar or wind plant on the ERCOT grid.
So what about the criticism of failures of the natural gas supply written so much about?
Soberly recognize that some failures will always exist in systems of any type and then adopt the policy the enviro-centric liberals pushed for wind and solar: Shift the cost structure to incentivize the market to build lots and lots of thermal fueled power plants. It was the wind and solar crowd that mistakenly claimed that building so many wind and solar farms, diversified geographically, was enough of a safety factor that ERCOT could consider these sources as part of our power reserve. It wasn’t and people froze.
In Abilene and the Big Country of Texas, listen to Pratt on Texas weekdays 5 to 6pm on Q-Country 96.1 FM. In the Lubbock region listen on 98.7 FM or 1420 AM. Listen anywhere by podcast at www.PrattonTexas.com.
Pratt: What to do about Texas’ power grid and wind and solar
Despite what many want you to believe, especially your children, Republicans, oil and gas companies, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, religious conservatives, and others deplored by the Left did not cause it to become cold over all of Texas and remain that way for days.
“The record cold spell and extended period of wintry weather was caused by the upper level polar vortex dropping south from the north pole and then lingering over south central Canada for more than a week. This allowed cold arctic air to gradually spill southward into Texas. At the same time several upper level disturbances riding the jet stream moved through the area providing lift and moisture for winter precipitation. These disturbances show up as waves or dips in the lines that move in from the west. Ahead of each wave upper level lift increases and moisture is drawn up from the south. Since it was already so cold, this precipitation fell as snow, sleet, and freezing rain,” reads the National Weather Service report.
“The record cold spell and extended period of wintry weather was caused by the upper level polar vortex dropping south from the north pole and then lingering over south central Canada for more than a week.
It was cold, very cold, in Texas including in parts where such weather is unusual and when present, short lasting. It was not short lasting in February of 2021 and that is why we call it the Big Freeze. (I refuse to use the “Winter Storm Uri” moniker for many reasons I’ll not bore you with here.) The state is attributing 246 deaths to the storm with 148 of those fatalities being labeled as “direct” and hypothermia was the cause of death for most.
Since the Big Freeze, most Texans consuming legacy media have been treated to a barrage of what is nothing short of inaccurate propaganda.
“Natural gas companies failed again, showing Texas energy system still vulnerable,” was the headline of a column in the Houston Chronicle by Left-leaning Chris Tomlinson and is emblematic of a wide effort to demonize the natural gas, actually the entire traditional energy, industry and distract from a much bigger problem.
That problem is simply described as having too much wind and solar electric generation as a percentage of generating capacity on the intra-state ERCOT power grid.
Instead of blindly caving to the culturally popular false idea of “renewable energy” and wind and solar being solid replacements for thermal electric generation sources, Neal Meyer of blogHOUSTON spent the past year observing the ERCOT power generation statistics.
“Moreover,” Meyer wrote, “it is not uncommon for peak power generation from wind to occur during the middle of the night, when power demand is least. Likewise, the converse holds for when the quantity demanded is highest, which usually is during the late afternoon hours between 3:00pm – 6:00pm (when power generation from wind is at its low point). In other words, we are often getting power from wind when we need it least, and not getting it when we need it the most.”
“it is not uncommon for peak power generation from wind to occur during the middle of the night, when power demand is least.
When weather provides extremes causing a large demand for power for heating or cooling, the indisputable fact is that one cannot simply turn on or turn up the power production from wind and solar installations.
“If electrical power generation from wind is so intermittent, that means that there had better be enough power available from other sources to make up for when the winds die down. Heavy reliance on wind power for electricity presents problems that ultimately have to be dealt with by using other power sources, and hence is an issue that others are forced to work around,” Meyer accurately summed up.
If columnists, reporters, and others of the Left are as concerned as they claim about those who died due to the cold in the 2021 Big Freeze they would recognize that we need a much larger percentage of electric generation from of those “other sources,” mostly natural gas and, on the Texas grid. Only those thermal-based generators can turn up power production at will.
It was the wind and solar crowd that mistakenly claimed that building so many wind and solar farms, diversified geographically, was enough of a safety factor that ERCOT could consider these sources as part of our power reserve.
So what about the criticism of failures of the natural gas supply written so much about?
Soberly recognize that some failures will always exist in systems of any type and then adopt the policy the enviro-centric liberals pushed for wind and solar: Shift the cost structure to incentivize the market to build lots and lots of thermal fueled power plants. It was the wind and solar crowd that mistakenly claimed that building so many wind and solar farms, diversified geographically, was enough of a safety factor that ERCOT could consider these sources as part of our power reserve. It wasn’t and people froze.
In Abilene and the Big Country of Texas, listen to Pratt on Texas weekdays 5 to 6pm on Q-Country 96.1 FM. In the Lubbock region listen on 98.7 FM or 1420 AM. Listen anywhere by podcast at www.PrattonTexas.com.