that estimate seems reasonable. Unless the plants decide to install CNG or LNG storage, they are burning it just as fast as it gets piped in. There seems to be a market for CNG and LNG storage for those who want to trade in spot gas storing it when it’s cheap and selling for a premium when it’s not.. not sure how much of that if any is going on... I’m happy to have wood in my stacks and oil in my tank..
Heat through wood only here. If needed could definitely cook, hot water, etc... definitely unconventional when we bought house- probably why it languished on the market for so long but growing up with wood heat, definitely not a deterrent for me and wife both. Solar produces much of power. Thinking seriously about battery storage. Costs continue to drop...
Just remember fuel and gas prices are greatly impacted on expected demand. As we emerge from COVID, there will be increased demand. Plus the winter blend in my neighborhood has always led to higher prices in wintertime...
Sorry about getting into politics, I understand totally. I just hope that things will get better for us all.
Unfortunately, energy and politics will always go together. The biggest problem is... neither side wants to compromise. Meanwhile both sides are blaming the other for outages when they both had the same weather related shutdowns. You can't blame the wind mills 100% because they only produce 19-43% of the power in winter. And they are known to shut down 50% due to icing. (That means wind make about 10-11% of texas' power during cold spells.) That puts 90% of the blame on the gas/coal/nuclear plants. My question is; how are we gonna fix it? (Us northerners know insulation is important.) (Solar makes up such a low percentage that it's not even being mentioned.) To me, this just shows how unprepared most people are. My whole house runs on electric. Even my oil heat needs electric to run. (Thats why i put in a wood stove...for emergency) Sometimes i think the entire country needs a reality check like this just to knock some sense into them.
Yup, but it should be important to people in warmer climates too...insulation pays you back 24/7/365...they wouldn't have those huge electrical loads (as much) in the summer if they weren't trying to cool the outdoors too! Agree...most of them will make no lasting changes after this cold spell passes...other than maybe trading their ICE powered vehicle in for an electric one...that'll help
Well, with the mayor of one city telling citizens to quit calling and they don't deserve help, there's no handouts, don't be lazy, i quit, maybe they'll remember a little longer. Lol. You can never go wrong with the truth.
The means to store natural gas has long history and use: those "layer cake" steel structures 5-10 stories high with a diameter around 5-10 acres. I remember driving past them as a kid. Does anyone think NY City waits for a guy to open a gas valve in Texas when it gets COLD? Cold weather cities have known for many decades you can not "suck" too hard on the "straw". They fill storage during the summer and pull in the winter when needed and even increase inventory during warm days and pull on cold nights. Texas put a bunch of natural gas power plants on the "straw" without enough storage (which costs $$$$$$). I think natural gas storage is moving toward underground caverns as a pressurized gas and away from the "layer cake" structure.
I think you're right. I'm not sure if it was a legit thing or not, but some company called my dad recently wanting to lease ground to install a "geomechanical pumped storage system"...I guess at times when the power prices are lower (night) they pump water into underground storage wells under high pressure, and then when power prices are up (daytime) they release that stored energy to power turbine generators. Its like an oil lease where they are leasing many underground acres, but only need 2 acres at the surface for a "wellhouse". Sounds like "hogwash" to me...and they only offered $8k/yr lease...not near enough considering the potential to screw up the water supply, and possibly future oil/gas leases too. Anybody hear of this before?
Warm weather cities do as well. Remember that leak a couple of years ago outside of Los Angeles that dumped close to 100,000 tons of methane? Aliso Canyon gas leak - Wikipedia
It sounds a bit similar to one we have up here called the Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant. 2 1/2 mile lake a couple of hundred feet above lake Michigan. At night, they pump it full of water, and make hydroelectricity out of it during the day. But that doesn't pump it underground or use pressure, at least to my knowledge. Clever idea that they make work, due to decreased demand at night. I think they lose about 30% of the energy that they put into it, but it's essentially a huge battery for the utility company for when they need it, and it sounds like they can turn it on in just a minute or 2 of needing it. I guess it could work if you powered it with solar during the day, and got energy out of it overnight, but the 30% loss seems a bit steep.
I didn't realize it, but there is a grid monitor online. Interesting to look at to see where my electricity is coming from... United States - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) - Real-time Operating Grid From what I can tell, Feb 14, Texas was running on 65% Nat Gas, 16% Coal, 12% Wind, & 8% Nuclear. In one day, Texas lost 29% Nat Gas, 26% Coal, 92% Wind, and 26% Nuclear. Feb 15, Texas was running on 71% Nat Gas, 18% coal, 1% Wind, and 9% Nuclear. Looks like, to me, it was a failure across the board, although I'm hearing that at least part of the Nat Gas drop was because they didn't have enough gas to go around, and Nat Gas plants suffered as a result. Lots of people making political hay out of the situation while the people on the ground suffer. Note: I'm bad at math. Please don't quote me.
A thread about fuel prices going up dramatically, which by the way will only continue to escalate!!!!! And we have to keep politics outbof the discussion. Ok then!!
You are more than welcome to engage other members via private message. If you want to talk politics with seemingly like minded wood burners you are more than welcome to. If they aren’t like minded, they will leave the conversation. If you are looking to change the foundations of this forum, and the topics that are open for discussion in the publicly viewable threads, it ain’t gonna happen. Practicing courteous self discretion is appreciated by your fellow forum members. It is important that we continue to have respect for one another.
They ran out of gas because they didn't invest in winterizing their infrastructure. So the well heads froze, the pipes froze, the gas froze. Everything froze because they didn't do what they were told to do back in 2011. They tried blaming it on the wind power but the gas infrastructure that is the backbone failed them more than the wind did. Heck even the coal plants froze, they couldn't get coal from the piles because it was froze as well so they say.
That's ridiculous...we have a coal fired plant here locally and the coal is stored outside in a huge pile...the D4 dozer pushes it into the hopper just fine, summer and winter...heck, they use a standard backhoe as backup if the dozer goes down...maybe their heavy equipment failed too? We have friends in Texas that this is affecting, so I feel bad for people, but shame on the ones in charge that took shortcuts leading to this mess...I just hope that the citizens memory's aren't too short to make lasting changes...
I have heard of coal piles freezing up and a search shows coal pile freezing does happen. There is a list of "best practices" for preventing coal piles from freezing which are not too costly.
