Tactical Grace
21-06-2006, 22:03
Spotted this article the day it came out, courtesy of corporate newswire, but have been too busy pwning n00bs in EVE to post it up for discussion. Anyway...
Coal supplies at U.S. power plants are so low that another rail or mining mishap similar to those blamed for 20 percent fewer shipments from Wyoming's Powder River Basin last year could trigger rolling blackouts in many parts of the nation this summer.
All it would take is "one derailment" to put coal-fired plants at risk of cutting output or shutting down entirely, said Floyd Robb, a spokesman for Bismarck, N.D.-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which serves 1.8 million customers in nine Midwest states.
"We were basically scraping the ground for coal," Robb said. "Right now, we're up around 400,000 tons. We normally like to have 700,000 tons on hand, which is about a 30-day burn for that plant." Summer's heat and typical peak power demand are two or three months away. But many utilities nationwide are operating at near capacity, and the margin for error in keeping the electric grid stable is reduced, Owen said.
"If we had to go into curtailment or even worse, to shut down a unit or two because of a lack of fuel supply, that would place major strains on the central region of this country. Most people don't understand that the electric grid is interconnected and electricity flows to the load - wherever that load is," he said.
To boost its reserves, Entergy turned to coal from as far away as Colombia, and it expects shipments from Indonesia later this year.
It's a long, detailed article, but it's well worth reading the whole thing:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/153808/
Basically what it says is this: Just because you have a load of coal in the ground, doesn't mean you can extract it, doesn't mean you've got the railroads to move it, doesn't mean anyone is going to bust their ass doing it. The US energy system is so dilapidated, shipping in coal from overseas is easier than moving it from its own mines, and the free market pressure to keep inventories as possible is distorting the market and undermining energy security.
Two centuries of coal doesn't mean shit if you haven't built the infrastructure.
Coal supplies at U.S. power plants are so low that another rail or mining mishap similar to those blamed for 20 percent fewer shipments from Wyoming's Powder River Basin last year could trigger rolling blackouts in many parts of the nation this summer.
All it would take is "one derailment" to put coal-fired plants at risk of cutting output or shutting down entirely, said Floyd Robb, a spokesman for Bismarck, N.D.-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which serves 1.8 million customers in nine Midwest states.
"We were basically scraping the ground for coal," Robb said. "Right now, we're up around 400,000 tons. We normally like to have 700,000 tons on hand, which is about a 30-day burn for that plant." Summer's heat and typical peak power demand are two or three months away. But many utilities nationwide are operating at near capacity, and the margin for error in keeping the electric grid stable is reduced, Owen said.
"If we had to go into curtailment or even worse, to shut down a unit or two because of a lack of fuel supply, that would place major strains on the central region of this country. Most people don't understand that the electric grid is interconnected and electricity flows to the load - wherever that load is," he said.
To boost its reserves, Entergy turned to coal from as far away as Colombia, and it expects shipments from Indonesia later this year.
It's a long, detailed article, but it's well worth reading the whole thing:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/153808/
Basically what it says is this: Just because you have a load of coal in the ground, doesn't mean you can extract it, doesn't mean you've got the railroads to move it, doesn't mean anyone is going to bust their ass doing it. The US energy system is so dilapidated, shipping in coal from overseas is easier than moving it from its own mines, and the free market pressure to keep inventories as possible is distorting the market and undermining energy security.
Two centuries of coal doesn't mean shit if you haven't built the infrastructure.