Growing Energy Demands - Living With Less?

dilettante

dilettante

Well-known Member
Location
Michigan
Over the weekend, some Texans had a not-so-friendly reminder that their power grid doesn't work well under stress. This is just one of many outages and electricity challenges that Texas will face in the coming years.
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It isn't just Texas. Things seem to be getting more dicey, and the solutions cliff to climb appears steep. Many have been predicting heavy population shifts into the sunbelt, but it might not be a viable strategy at all.

Imagine what a forced march to EVs will add to the problem. How much of this is more difficult in energy intensive non-producing mega-urbanized corridors? Transmission losses alone are becoming significant.

 

I try and try to use less electricity. But it's not helping considering the rate hikes. For some it's really hard during that peak hour crap 4-9 in my area. That's when people get home, cook, laundry, kids on computers, lights on.

I can work around it a bit since I work part time. I'm running my wash on a cycle 2 minutes less, I used to half dry my work clothes to take the wrinkles out. Now I air dry them and they are doing fine. Hanging out laundry today, trying to use less lights. It's all futile. And the fridge and the AC will run in the summer.

I wonder how many people conserve. The guy downstairs has run his AC. I haven't. I think he uses the oven, then turns on the AC or he needs it really cool. I don't know. But he mustn't mind the power bills. I sure do.
 
Good presentation explaining generation, transmission & distribution are separate functions.

For sure transmission towers will be needed and they do take a long time from start to finish to be ready for high KV power transmission

As a field mechanic I was able to be part of building a transmission line. I just took it for granted those towers were always there. It surprised me that some towers need to be 150ft. tall., and some even taller now. Watching them be assembled on sight next to a hole 8ft. wide and 30ft. deep to set the anchor frames then fill that hole with concrete was an education on how not so simple building towers is.

Due to the landscape one tower was 180 ft. tall. The reach of the bucket truck was 150ft. No problem. Bring in dozers to push & pack dirt 30ft. high, wide enough & solid enough to support a Condor bucket truck with a 150ft. reach. This is what one looks like.
https://versalift.com/bucket-truck/types/cta/
 
Texas wants to have its own power grid. At times that can be economical. But that economy comes at a price, the grid has little to no reserve. So with any un-average need for power, the system breaks down.
As we move into an even more electricity hungry society ( like charging cars), I don't see any decrease in electricity usage.
 
Myra said:
I feel like electric vehicles will add too much strain to our generators and knock us out unless they can manage to add enough stuff to keep things running. However, I wonder what this will do to our so-called carbon footprint and our global warming issues. Not to mention our electric bills.
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Maybe all of you should start adding to your homes insulation and turn off your air conditioners. We tripled our insulation and with the help of a ceiling fan and cooling the house at night, our place stayed pretty comfortable all last summer. Then you can stay cool and still drive a vehicle that isn't poisoning the world.
 
Debrah N. said:
Maybe all of you should start adding to your homes insulation and turn off your air conditioners. We tripled our insulation and with the help of a ceiling fan and cooling the house at night, our place stayed pretty comfortable all last summer. Then you can stay cool and still drive a vehicle that isn't poisoning the world.
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For starters I can't add insulation. This is not my home to redecorate. I rent. It's not my fault if the landlord doesn't want to improve things without jacking the rent sky high. Some of us can't afford to buy a home. Secondly, because of my asthma I have to have the air conditioner running and I do have my ceiling fan going. I'm glad you're getting along so well. It would be nice if you would be a little more considerate of what others may be going through before getting haughty about it.
Edit: I also don't appreciate being singled out. I don't see you smarting off to anyone else in this post except me. Just because I said something you didn't like in another post is no reason to go thread to thread just to attempt to belittle me.
 
It's not just about the grid but increased power production. Some old tech like nuclear with current updates could be one way to go. They making progress with hydrogen powered engines which eventually could be used for large generators. But there is no one solution right now. Alot of this should be done locally as well so power doesn't have to be imported(which leave exported for someone else)
 
WhatInThe said:
It's not just about the grid but increased power production. Some old tech like nuclear with current updates could be one way to go. They making progress with hydrogen powered engines which eventually could be used for large generators. But there is no one solution right now. Alot of this should be done locally as well so power doesn't have to be imported(which leave exported for someone else)
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Increased power production for sure, I feel almost like I had inside information regarding that.
The OP's post is about more transmission ability being needed.
Wind & Solar generation are in the spotlight because along with transmission generation has to keep up. This sell off didn't make sense at the time to me.

"Talen Energy is an independent power producer founded in 2015. It was formed when the competitive power generation business of PPL Corporation was spun off and immediately combined with competitive generation businesses owned by private equity firm Riverstone Holdings. "

Talen Energy Corp

52-wk high
103.00
52-wk low
44.50


101.30 USD
+0.40 (0.40%)today
May 3, 10:25 AM EDT • Disclaimer

When this was spun off the IPO was @$20.00. About 4 months later the share price dropped to a little under $6.00 a share. Couldn't resist buying 5000 shares at a little over $6.00

Not going to sell this goes into the inheritance pot for our sons.
 
Myra said:
For starters I can't add insulation. This is not my home to redecorate. I rent. It's not my fault if the landlord doesn't want to improve things without jacking the rent sky high. Some of us can't afford to buy a home. Secondly, because of my asthma I have to have the air conditioner running and I do have my ceiling fan going. I'm glad you're getting along so well. It would be nice if you would be a little more considerate of what others may be going through before getting haughty about it.
Edit: I also don't appreciate being singled out. I don't see you smarting off to anyone else in this post except me. Just because I said something you didn't like in another post is no reason to go thread to thread just to attempt to belittle me.
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Admittedly not everyone can make those kinds of changes. But there are other things that even a renter could do in that kind of situation. Things like thermal drapes on your windows to keep out the drafts for example in winter. Getting in the habit of putting on a sweater before you just head for the thermostat to crank up the heat. Cooling is of course a little more difficult to do in an apartment that you rent but just the little things that you can do in the winter, is something.

And Myra, by my suggesting things that I've been able to do, is not me getting 'haughty'. I'm sorry that you feel the need to characterize honest efforts in such a negative way. Reading my comment again, I think it was more an idea directed at people in general, not 'smarting off' at you and was the result of your comment about EV's being incompatible with the grid. It's unfortunate that you took it that way.
 
old medic said:
In our house rebuild, we incorporated every electric saving thing we could. Sprayfoam encapsulated, Double hung windows placed for efficient cross breeze, LED lights. Already wired to add solar backup in the future.
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Wouldn't it be fun to build a house from scratch that really incorporated all the good ideas like we've seen over the years? Like your windows that are placed for an efficient cross breeze! What a great thing for cooling the house off in the evening! I have sort of the same idea. Our front door is half a floor below and on the north side of the house so it's always cooler there... and we have opening sidelights (windows) on either side of the door so in the evening we can open those and with the back door open in the evening, it provides a nice draw to move that overheated air outside. Probably not as efficient as your set up, but it does help a lot.
 


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