I’ve seen lots of posts lately on Texas being “minutes and seconds away” from months long blackouts. What could’ve happened, what was avoided that caused that?
In: Engineering
California once toyed with the idea of a smart-grid, instead of building more power plants.
Their biggest issue was air conditioning in the summer during noon to 6PM. No matter how expensive electricity got, some people would pay whatever it took to keep the house/business cool.
Customers who signed up to get a state-controlled breaker box were given a break on the price of electricity.
If the system neared an overload, certain strategic homes would have their A/C turned off for an hour, then after an hour it would go back on, and a different group would have their A/C cut.
I dont know how that worked out, but they dont ser to be doing it for some reason.
Rolling brown-outs can be useful. Because once the power is back on, people who care about the grid staying up should only turn items back on that are the most necessary. For Texas, that would be the heaters. Even if they use gas for heat, the electricity must be on for the required safety features to operate.
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