Rolling blackouts happen in TX too. Actually a lot of places. The problem is utilities are moving away from base load plants (coal and Nuke) and have gone to renewable for daytime and and windy conditions for the base load and combined cycle natural gas power plants for the peaking. The problem is the renewable energy can cut off almost instantly...it gets cloudy or the wind stops. The old NG combine cycle plants can take up to an hour to start producing electricity. The newer high ramp rate power plants can be producing electricity in 20 minutes. Either way, there's a lag in when renewables cut out and NGCC's come on line. If it's not timed right, you'll have a brown out, or rolling blackout. This will only get worse all over the USA as major utilities invest more and more into renewables. Not that they are a bad thing, but you still need to keep the grid fed with a strong base load...be it coal, gas or Nuke. Take too much of that off line and you'll get these brown outs. That being said, they are making leaps and bounds in battery storage and they are on the brinks of having a reliable and economical way of storing renewable energy in battery form. Once this is scaled, the rolling blackouts will stop as the batteries will pick up where the wind stops or it gets cloudy and buy enough time for the NGCC's to come on line.
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