Electricity

US edges closer to energy independence

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ArsTechnica

by John Timmer

Demand outstripped supply by the lowest level in 30 years.

The net energy consumption of the US has held fairly steady for nearly 20 years. Over the past decade, however, there’s been a large increase in production of energy within the US. As a result, the US government’s energy figures for the first half of this year show that the differences between production and consumption have dropped to the lowest level in 29 years. This represents a net drop in energy imports by 17 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
According to the Energy Information Agency, the boost in energy production came from a variety of…

Electricity, Transmission

Texas power grid has first rotating outages since 2011

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FuelFix

by Ryan Holeywell

HOUSTON — The state’s power grid experienced rotating outages for the first time since 2011 late Wednesday afternoon after a pair of power plants went offline.
The outages affected the Rio Grande Valley for about two hours, said Robbie Searcy, a spokeswoman for Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates most of the state’s grid.
Searcy said the Rio Grande Valley has been a particularly challenging area for ERCOT to manage because it has a limited number of transmission lines serving the region. As a result, it’s difficult for the region to pull power from other…