Rolling Blackouts - Southwest Power Pool

[Louie]

Has anybody heard about rolling blackouts? I have heard that Bellevue had one.

[Coyote]

First rolling blackouts hit Nebraska after cold snap spikes power use; conserve to avoid more

[Brad]

Has anybody heard about rolling blackouts? I have heard that Bellevue had one.

Yes, about 10,000 people at one point between Douglas and Sarpy County. Omaha Scanner has a thread going here:

Looks like a few issues but now everyone is back on.

[Busguy2010]

Is there something wrong with wearing sweat pants long sleeves, a jacket and a cap inside the house? I've kept my thermostat at 65 throughout the whole winter and I do just fine by taking those measures.

Was hearing about people in Texas dealing with the power restrictions because like everybody is cranking up their furnace, when all they really need to do is put some clothes on

[Cermak]

Power just came back on in my part of SW Omaha was out for almost 1.5 hrs. I think the worst of the cold snap is about over after today. But after this there needs to be a complete review of the power supply situation as these rolling blackouts to me are a sign of a inadequate outdated system. Don’t recall rolling blackouts here before, what’s changed ?

[Brad]

I was in the Dental Chair having my teeth cleaned when the blackout hit... First time I have had my teeth cleaned by flashlight... LOL

I give them a pass this one time. If it becomes an every year thing, I will want something to change.

This same "Power Pool" Helped us in the floods of 2011 and 2019, and also helped us after the tornados that hit sarpy and cass counties in 2017.

[Busguy2010]

It definitely gave me a reminder that I often leave things plugged in that I rarely am using. Will be better about that in the future. Fans, lights, etc. Even the washer and dryer which only get used a couple times a week were plugged in perpetually. Stuff like that, easy to forget about, but probably uses a lot of energy staying plugged in. I unplugged just about everything hoping not to lose power. I hope others took the same measures and also realize that some of these simple things can help avoid this in the future if everybody does them.

[Busguy2010]

Power just came back on in my part of SW Omaha was out for almost 1.5 hrs. I think the worst of the cold snap is about over after today. But after this there needs to be a complete review of the power supply situation as these rolling blackouts to me are a sign of a inadequate outdated system. Don’t recall rolling blackouts here before, what’s changed ?

The customers, I wanna say. Just so many electronics being used now that need charging or plugged in. There was a boat load of b!tching on Facebook in the comments of the stories, not exactly, but to the insinuation of "I will not make accommodations to the power company, I am their customer"... Aka, "I will not turn my thermostat down 2 degrees to 68, I will freeze to death" or "why would I want to have to plug that in every time I use it" bla bla bla... And then boom, the power was cut and those same people were complaining... Well if you overload the mule, you're gonna break it's back.

[Omaha Cowboy]

I was part of the early morning rolling blackout in southwest Omaha which lasted nearly 90 minutes.. Since I WFH, it caused my normal 7:30am start time today to be backed up to nearly 9am once my high speed internet got caught up from unraveling and I could finally get logged into VPN..

Now my work is having system wide network problems this afternoon..

It’s been quite a day.. At least my SUV withstood the minus 23 morning temperature and started right up...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

[Louie]

Power just came back on in my part of SW Omaha was out for almost 1.5 hrs. I think the worst of the cold snap is about over after today. But after this there needs to be a complete review of the power supply situation as these rolling blackouts to me are a sign of a inadequate outdated system. Don’t recall rolling blackouts here before, what’s changed ?

The customers, I wanna say. Just so many electronics being used now that need charging or plugged in. There was a boat load of b!tching on Facebook in the comments of the stories, not exactly, but to the insinuation of "I will not make accommodations to the power company, I am their customer"... Aka, "I will not turn my thermostat down 2 degrees to 68, I will freeze to death" or "why would I want to have to plug that in every time I use it" bla bla bla... And then boom, the power was cut and those same people were complaining... Well if you overload the mule, you're gonna break it's back.

This. The world is more and more electricity reliant year after year.

[Busguy2010]

The customers, I wanna say. Just so many electronics being used now that need charging or plugged in. There was a boat load of b!tching on Facebook in the comments of the stories, not exactly, but to the insinuation of "I will not make accommodations to the power company, I am their customer"... Aka, "I will not turn my thermostat down 2 degrees to 68, I will freeze to death" or "why would I want to have to plug that in every time I use it" bla bla bla... And then boom, the power was cut and those same people were complaining... Well if you overload the mule, you're gonna break it's back.

This. The world is more and more electricity reliant year after year.

Right, it's actually very concerning. Rare instances such as today really bring that issue to the forefront. We as a society moan and groaned about a 90 minute outage. 90 minutes... The people we call grandma or great grandma who may still be alive were dealing with little to no electricity... Or at least they weren't so entitled to insinuate that their needs are greater than what the power grid can supply. Like facepalm. I'm pretty sure the power grid has never been more adequate, it's just the customers needs have gone through the roof. On top of that, fossil fuels are going to disappear sooner than later.

My old man brought up a good point. He said it should be required for all new homes to be built with a wood stove for use in times like this, or actually for general use during all really cold times so not every Nancy can jack up their thermostat so easily without a thought of how much energy it really takes. I bet during this stretch a person would have to burn at least three of them firewood packs you can buy at the gas station per night just to warm a small house. Peoples are entitled I think. Need to get back to our roots.

[Cermak]

Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end for green power energy, what a joke.

[Busguy2010]

I just think our general standard of living (electricity use) has skyrocketed since at least the 80's or 90's... Its all just too much, obviously. I think a chill pill is in order.

[Uffda]

Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end for green power energy, what a joke.

Why? Texas’s problem had more to do with their lack of winterizing their main systems — coal, natural gas than not winterizing their wind power. Natural gas pipelines in some areas froze And Texas residents are paying for it.

This was a huge area covered by this extreme cold area. It wasn’t just the Omaha that had rolling black outs.

[Louie]

Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end for green power energy, what a joke.

Why? Texas’s problem had more to do with their lack of winterizing their main systems — coal, natural gas than not winterizing their wind power. Natural gas pipelines in some areas froze And Texas residents are paying for it.

This was a huge area covered by this extreme cold area. It wasn’t just the Omaha that had rolling black outs.

The disconnect from other grids also cut off Texas from getting extra resources. These sorts of drastic weather issues will continue to crop as climate change rears its ugly head. Temperature rises > ice caps/glaciers melt > more liquid water/water vapor is available to be released into the atmosphere > more volatile climate.

Continuing to rely on fossil fuels only exacerbates what is a dire situation.