Matthias Fripp

Even without batteries, if it’s cheaper to run solar plants during the day than to buy fuel for gas plants, wouldn’t you want to do it?

The consulate may also be able to rush it due to extenuating circumstances. (I didn’t ask about it but I assume they have some discretion.)

Prove you have right of abode in the UK Having right of abode means you're allowed to live or work in the UK without any immigration restrictions - apply for a certificate of entitlement to prove you have it.

When I needed to start a job quickly in the UK, I got a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode in the UK. This was much faster than applying for a passport. Mine was on the basis that my dad was British, but they say any British citizen is eligible, so it may work for you too.

Energy Department’s flawed grid study props up expensive, zombie power plants The most effective way to maintain grid reliability is to let planners plan, markets work and utilities build the resources they’ve already identified as the most affordable path forward.

New piece: @matthiasfripp.org and I break down the big flaws with DOE's reliability report. The report's alarming claims of reliability risk exclude the majority of new resources expected to come online by 2030. All the demand, without all the supply.

www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-gri...

Energy Department’s flawed grid study props up expensive, zombie power plants The most effective way to maintain grid reliability is to let planners plan, markets work and utilities build the resources they’ve already identified as the most affordable path forward.

My first Utility Dive byline! @brendan.bsky.social and I show that DOE's 7/7 reliability report created a fake supply gap by ignoring most new generation planned by 2030, then only considered filling it with expensive coal plants instead of the cheaper renewables, storage and gas utils have planned.

Congratulations! You’ve earned it!

Every czar can have their own Rasputin!

Carrying a phone cable so you could plug your computer into a pay phone at the airport, then use a phone calling card to dial into an internet service provider to check your emails.

Deciding how much cash vs. travelers checks to take on your trip, then hunting for the best exchange rates.

First reserve a flight, then go to the airport to pay for it.

Cars mostly had manual transmissions, mechanical-dial radios and no air conditioning, and spewed lead from their tailpipes.

Four-digit dialing in small towns.

Writing papers and book reports longhand, in multiple drafts.

Your address book was paper.

Being behind on writing paper letters to your friends.

Wanna keep up on computers? Buy a magazine.

Everyone watched the same news.

Light bulbs were dangerously hot.

5th grade nuclear weapons drills (hide under your desk).

10-year-olds biking to the mall to try the new video games.

Schedule a phone call to schedule a time/place to meet up.

Mail a check and a catalog order slip, then wait a few weeks for something to come in the mail. Or call and get it COD.

Sorry, just my experience living in West Coast cities—not a lot of residential air conditioning.

Are you talking about air conditioning in cars, transit and public spaces? Because I don’t think Portland or some of the other US cities have much residential air conditioning. Maybe single-family homes with more mass and cross-ventilation are also a factor?

It can only be an “energy emergency” if local utilities, regulators and markets are incompetent to procure enough power to keep the lights on. That is quite a claim for the DOE to make.

They used mainstream forecasts of load growth and retirements, but left out most of the planned capacity additions. Which, surprise, left a gap! Which they say can only be filled by keeping coal online. Never mind all the wind, solar, batteries and gas that have already been planned and approved.

The main problem seems to be bogus assumptions. They assume the same retirements as utilities' integrated resource plans, but about twice as much load growth. Then they ignore most of the planned generation additions, which, surprise, creates a gap. Maybe they should leave this to the states?

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is actually One Big Expensive Bill that, if passed as is, will do major damage to the U.S. economy, harm workers and families, and put the U.S. in the backseat when it comes to global competitiveness. The team at @energyinnovation.org modeled it, here's what we found:

$1 Trillion In Economic Damage From U.S. House’s Reconciliation Bill Energy provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” would cost our economy years of growth with 830,000 lost jobs, $1.1 trillion less GDP, and 50% higher power prices.

🔌💡 Our @silviomarcacci.bsky.social's recent piece analyzes how the #energy provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” would cost our #economy years of growth with 830,000 lost jobs, $1.1 trillion less GDP, and 50 percent higher power prices 👇 www.forbes.com/sites/energy... #energysky #greensky

What about something that is squarely in the PSC/PUC’s job description, e.g., requiring utilities to adopt renewables because they’re cheaper for ratepayers?

UPDATE SPAIN BLACKOUT: The Spanish gov has published the most detailed… | Javier Blas | 45 comments UPDATE SPAIN BLACKOUT: The Spanish gov has published the most detailed timeline yet of the April 28th blackout of the Iberian Peninsula. Lots of emphasis on "over voltage" and "frequenc...

It doesn't look like frequency or RoCoF got low enough to trip generators, but they tripped anyway before underfrequency load shedding could rebalance the grid. Maybe overvoltage was the final straw? The Spanish government seems to be saying so. (And by the theory above UFLS would have worsened it.)

Hey #EnergySky, are there any good explanations of why voltage would rise after the first generation trip in Spain as ENTSO-E reported? Best I can think of would be that loads were light, so transmission lines were producing reactive power which was being consumed by those generators to hold V down.

I don’t recall it actually saying anything very specific or current though, mainly general background on the Spanish power systems and vague notions of what could have led to the outage.

I’ve been prowling for hard info on the sequence of events leading up to the outage and came across this one pretty early on. It strongly smelled of ChatGPT, with all the bulleted lists, bold-type terms and copious background material.

If the U.S. blocks imports from all the other countries and then all the other countries block imports from the U.S., umm, where does that leave us? Something like Iran and Cuba? Great, we just imposed sanctions on ourselves.

It’s a plan? I thought it was just 40 year old trade deficit panic.

Historically horizontal axis turbines won because the blades are up high where the winds are stronger. I imagine that will be the case here too.

The U.S. is betting on the world burning more oil and gas, while China is betting on solar and EVs. In the long run, China’s position looks stronger.

‘Wait, Baby, Wait’: Slumping Oil Prices Reflect Economic Worries (Gift Article) Fears that President Trump’s tariffs could slash global economic growth — and demand for oil — are weighing on the market.

Saudi Arabia can pump oil for $20/bbl but U.S. fracking costs $70/bbl. We may be seeing a glut that shuts the U.S. out of world markets, especially as the world decarbonizes.

Sorry, just to be clear, I meant Trump’s temper tantrum tariffs. The ones coming soon from all our former export partners will actually be reciprocal tariffs.

Journalists, please stop calling them “reciprocal tariffs” without quotation marks. That is taking the administration’s propaganda as fact. The formula does not consider existing tariffs in the other countries at all.