In the end it took about 12 hours to restore most of the power in two countries. There are some knock-on effects from trains being in the wrong places, but a solid result overall.
Plant startup is only the first step.[1] It's load pickup.
Here is a PJM training module on load pickup during system restoration.[2] It gives a sense of how touchy the process is. Power network control has good control over generation and transmission, but limited control over load.
When load is turned on, there are transient loads with different time constants. There's a huge load for the first second as inductors, capacitors, and incandescent filaments start up. That tails off in under a second. There's a second load as motors wind up to speed. Ten seconds or so. Then there's "cold load", where everything in HVAC starts trying to get temperatures back to normal. Maybe half an hour.
There's no mention of computer control. Listening to this, you visualize people running around reading meters and throwing big switches. It's probably people looking at display boards and sending commands to remote big switches, but the concept is the same.
Botching this means voltage or frequency goes out of tolerance, protective devices shut things down, and the system operators have to start over.
More PJM training modules on related subjects.[3]
Unclear what caused this yet. Something caused enough system instability to trip protective devices, but there's no good info yet. Once everybody has a chance to compare all the logging data from different points, it will make more sense.
[1] https://pjm.adobeconnect.com/_a16103949/p622tuwooba/
There are costly means to compensate for the lack of spinning baseload but actually building these devices have been neglected, to no ones surprise.
On-topic: Wind power brings in about 20% of Spain's electricity, and that one fluctuates a lot indeed. I hope they put out a detailed post-mortem, I'd be an enjoyable read.
Looking at power generation reports it's the plants relying on inertia (like nuclear) which were disconnected and haven't been reconnected since:
The one thing that surprised me is how quickly rumors started about power being out in Portugal (true), France (true to an extent), Belgium (false), and the UK (false). Walking back home from work you heard the names of Trump being mentioned as well.
It's a bit scary to personally experience how quickly people can start panicking. On the other hand the bars that had some power had a great afternoon with tons of beer being served before it got too warm :-)
Refrigeration is sort of a scourge to those who enjoy food. We are so used to simply freezing our esophagus and not tasting anything! Food is kept cold because it lasts longer, not because it tastes better.
Sure, refrigeration makes restaurants and grocery stores possible. But it also presents challenges to cooking and it's very resource-intensive -- think about it -- basically everyone everywhere is always running their refrigeration -- that's a huge load on any system.
Unless you drink Schultenbrau, which tastes worse cold than at room temperature (/s, kind of).
The same goes for wine, by the way: cellar temperature is usually optimal.
Do they? But why? Why would they? Are they simply accustomed to tasting it that way? I should say "not tasting it" because chilling a beverage basically kills its flavours, and they never make it to your tongue correctly.
I would say that many people would be surprised and amazed if they tasted such things as Pepsi without ice, and without coming right out of the fridge.
Unfortunately, any lack of refrigeration really messes up supply chains and will eat into anyone's bottom line, so it's not a realistic goal.
On the upside, more people at all levels are going to be more prepared if it happens again.
In short: Heat Inertia of large molten bodies is massive with good insulation. If the time is too long tho, only dynamite will dismantle a solid chunk of material again.
https://www.blindex.com.br/-/media/blindex/site-content/xx-n...
The Texas winter storm resulted in a lot of scrap at semiconductor lines due to power loss. There are industries that are completely dependent on grid power. You can't generate enough on site to back up 100% of your operation. Think about how much power one EUV source consumes.
The only reason Samsung is building additional factories in Texas is because the local utilities are effectively treating them as a critical load. The new plants are right by the ERCOT operation center and likely have access to the same cranking paths that the grid uses for black starts.
https://www.asml.com/en/news/stories/2024/a-sustainability-m...
First hit off google.
Assuming they run them 24/7 that amounts to a power usage a bit over 1 megawatt, but they could be pulsed for all I know and use quite a bit more
They are also frequently situated close to reliable power sources such as nuclear or hydro, usually fed by more than one generating station.
A friend of mine lived close to a brick plant his power NEVER went out.
As a result, the government invested heavily in installing gas turbines all over the country.
When we had another blackout event in 2018(?), it only took an hour or so to get things back again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOSnQM1Zu4w
from Practical Engineering
Sounds simple, and I appreciate from experience a huge amount of prep and validation needs to be done in the background.
Dyson sphere program is the by far most forgiving in that regard. You can overdraw to something like 200% before it becomes really problematic, and even that quickly resolves itself the moment you get more power online
matkoniecz•3h ago
It dropped from about 32GW to about 8GW
source: https://transparency.entsoe.eu/generation/r2/actualGeneratio...
though admittedly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_start mentions that partial shutdown may be also requiring a black start?
scrlk•3h ago
joha4270•1h ago
It looks to me like the author of this article has fundamentally misunderstood what a black start is. The fact that some power generation remained both on the peninsula, but also on imported power being available means that to my understanding this cannot be classified as a "black start". A lot of overtime, a lot of careful coordination yes, a black start, no
franga2000•36m ago