100%. Our system has been on stage 2 aux heat (electric) ever since we dropped below 24 or so. Usually we might see it for a few hours on the coldest nights. I'd say most people are probably pulling full summer load +20%.
On Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 5:10 PM Seth Mattinen <se...@rollernet.us> wrote: > On 2/16/21 09:49, Michael Thomas wrote: > > > > On 2/16/21 8:50 AM, John Von Essen wrote: > >> I just assumed most people in Texas have heat pumps- AC in the summer > >> and minimal heating in the winter when needed. When the entire state > >> gets a deep freeze, everybody is running those heat pumps non-stop, > >> and the generation capacity simply wasn’t there. i.e. coal or natural > >> gas plants have some turbines offline, etc.,. in the winter because > >> historically power use is much much less. The odd thing is its been > >> days now, those plants should be able to ramp back up to capacity - > >> but clearly they haven’t. Blaming this on wind turbines is BS. In > >> fact, if it weren’t for so many people in Texas with grid-tie solar > >> systems, the situation would be even worse. > > > > You'd think that mid-summer Texas chews a lot more peak capacity than > > the middle of winter. Plus I would think a lot of Texas uses natural gas > > for heat rather than electricity further mitigating its effect on the > grid. > > > > The difference is that in extreme cold heat pump systems are likely > switching on emergency heat (i.e. plain old resistance heaters) when the > compressor alone can no longer keep up with call for heat demand, which > requires significantly more power. That's never happening in the summer, > which is only ever running the compressor. >