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Wind turbines freeze in Texas due to massive winter storm

Catwell

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A winter storm caused wind turbines to freeze over in Texas, which limited the state’s power generation capacity during record-breaking power demand. (Image Credit: Vincent Foret/Unsplash)

 

Nearly half of Texas’ wind power generation capacity has been cut off due to a winter storm that slammed the state over the weekend, leaving 3 million people without power. Usually, Texas wind farms generate 25,100 megawatts of power. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind turbines had frozen over, which accounted for 12,000 megawatts of energy. They also stated that unfrozen turbines are generating energy much faster, helping to offset the losses.

 

In 2020, wind turbines accounted for nearly 25% of Texas’ energy, making it the next biggest power source after natural gas. Turbines can be fitted with anti-freeze technology so they can operate in cold weather. However, it’s expensive to install the modifications, and they’re rarely developed in areas where they might not be needed. Can we expect this to be an issue anywhere turbines are used from now on? Seems so.

 

The frozen turbines were part of a perfect storm of energy sources limiting Texas’ power generation capacity during record-breaking electric demand as a result of freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall. Natural gas being the #1 problem. Temperatures dipped into the single-digits in areas as far as San Antonio. It’s not known when power could return, as rolling blackouts were ordered in the state on Monday.  The rotating blackouts, which are spreading from Texas across the Great Plains, are expected to continue until Texas’ weather emergency ends.

 

The wind is not entirely at fault for the outages. Around 27 gigawatts of coal, nuclear, and gas capacity are unavailable. This is because the cold has caused more demand for natural gas, which provides heating.

 

Wind turbines are less efficient when they freeze due to cold temperatures, and their blades stop spinning.  However, it could be hazardous if ice forms on the blades since it could break off or fall to the ground.   

 

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Parents

  • The current problems in Texas, yes pun intended, identify several important things to consider when working with renewable energy systems.

    1. Have backups for on demand power in emergencies.

    2. Conduct risk analysis of your power system and include weather effects.

    3. Understand weather effects on your systems and prepare actions before the weather hits.

    4. Decentralize your power grid so that you can maintain local power when the grid fails.

    5. Plan for specific power saving actions other than blanket power brown outs or disruptions. Every house and building should have a preplanned power reduction priority plan in place that can be instituted automatically. I have this in place for my whole house backup generator. You do not need everything, but you need certain basic systems.

     

    Green energy is great until the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

    Plan accordingly.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

      wrote:

    > ... important things to consider when working with renewable energy systems.

     

    I agree with your points, but those also apply to conventional energy sources.

    In my opinion, the ideal energy system includes a mix of sources (including conventional as well as green energy) to reduce the dependence on any single source.

     

    >Conduct risk analysis of your power system

    I think they did, and concluded it wasn't worth the extra expense for the rare case where Texas gets a storm like this.

     

    >Green energy is great until the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

    Let's be fair here - the other energy sources had their own limitations. Most of the lost capacity seems to be due to coal, nuclear, and gas generation not being available.

  • in reply to ntewinkel

    Hi Nico,

     

    The issues in Texas highlight the challenges to an out dated power grid.

    The current system was ok as long as you had plenty of power and multiple sources online all the time.

     

    With wind and solar system finally reaching scale, their variability shows that the entire network of power generation and use needs to be more robustly controlled.

     

    I highlighted the use issues because between Texas and California, we have seen that the existing distribution system is too limited for modern needs.

     

    I realize that there are no simple answers here, but the modern technology can help update the power distribution and power usage down to the building level so that we maximize the availability to the most critical users instead of using an on and off switch for huge numbers of people.

     

    What we have seen in Texas is possible anywhere in the world and the sensitivity of the power distribution system is more critical now then it has ever been because of the absolute dependency of most people to an outdated grid.

     

    This problem needs to be address immediately because the dependency is growing daily.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    very good points.

    Distributed energy storage is another possible solution to help with cycled brownouts, but energy storage systems are intended for short term ride thru, not be be a week long source in itself.

    In this situation, energy storage makes even worse problems, say for example if your electric vehicle was used for emergency home power, everybody needs a recharge at the same time as the high demand making the grid even worse shape.

    Maybe localized fuel cells would be a good solution for emergencies and intermittent use.

Comment
  • in reply to DAB

    very good points.

    Distributed energy storage is another possible solution to help with cycled brownouts, but energy storage systems are intended for short term ride thru, not be be a week long source in itself.

    In this situation, energy storage makes even worse problems, say for example if your electric vehicle was used for emergency home power, everybody needs a recharge at the same time as the high demand making the grid even worse shape.

    Maybe localized fuel cells would be a good solution for emergencies and intermittent use.

Children
  • in reply to robogary

    I am not sure about fuel cells, they are a bit pricy.

     

    I have a natural gas fired all house emergency generator that works quite well when I need it, fairly low maintenance and very reliable.

     

    In a pinch, it could run for many weeks, though I have only needed it for a max of about 24 hours so far.

     

    You could easily put in localized natural gas generators in every community where you have access to the gas.

     

    As I said, the key is to have a predetermined level of usage for different states of emergency so that you do not exceed the local power available.

     

    DAB