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From today’s Public Power Daily. Wind is NOT a answer to everything! Drop in wind power leads to grid emergency in Texas
A dramatic drop in wind power in Texas was the apparent cause of an emergency on the state’s grid last week that lasted for three hours.The Electric Reliability Council of Texas carried out the second stage of its emergency grid procedures the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 26 after a major loss of wind generation, the grid operator said. Wind production, which had been running at 1,700 MW, plummeted to as low as 300 MW that evening, right before the emergency procedures were activated, ERCOT said. ERCOT dropped 1,100 MW of load within 10 minutes by cutting power to interruptible customers. Terry Hadley, a spokesman for the Texas Public Utility Commission, said it was the most serious event on the state’s grid since Texas experienced rolling blackouts in April 2006. He said PUC staff have begun an inquiry. Preliminary reports “indicate the frequency decline was caused by a combination of events including a drop in wind energy production at the same time the evening electricity load was increasing, accompanied by multiple power providers falling below their scheduled energy production,” ERCOT said
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Wind is no different than any other power souces, if there's no back-up source of power the potential exists to be without for a while, as when the nuclear plant went offline in FLA.
See eggs, one basket, etc.............................
Wind is no different than any other power souces, if there's no back-up source of power the potential exists to be without for a while, as when the nuclear plant went offline in FLA.
See eggs, one basket, etc.............................
The issue in Florida was not there there was no backup power; there was a switching error. Florida is unique because it is a peninsula.
The electrical grid is designed that if proper procedures are followed there will be backup energy from a reserve sharing group within the interconnection. There are three interconnections in Canada and America. It turns out that Texas is its own interconnection (the other two are the Eastern and Western Interconnections).
Energy demand will grow 20% in the next 10 years, additional power is only one component to growth (renewables...or conventional methods of generation). The infrastructure will also need to grow by 20% (transmission lines, substations, etc.)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MamaBee
The electrical grid is designed that if proper procedures are followed there will be backup energy from a reserve sharing group within the interconnection. There are three interconnections in Canada and America. It turns out that Texas is its own interconnection (the other two are the Eastern and Western Interconnections).
Depending on the consequences, that may just be the scariest phrase in the English language
Depending on the consequences, that may just be the scariest phrase in the English language
Well, I was referring to judgments made by rogue personnel. There is a set of standards that electrical companies are required to follow...typically when a blackout occurs a standard was not adhered to.
Take the Northeast Blackout in 2003, FirstEnergy did not have a vegetation-management program in place and vegetation grew into the line. That was the event that instigated the blackout. If they had properly trimmed the trees from underneath the transmission lines it probably wouldn't have happened.
Well, I was referring to judgments made by rogue personnel. There is a set of standards that electrical companies are required to follow...typically when a blackout occurs a standard was not adhered to.
Take the Northeast Blackout in 2003, FirstEnergy did not have a vegetation-management program in place and vegetation grew into the line. That was the event that instigated the blackout. If they had properly trimmed the trees from underneath the transmission lines it probably wouldn't have happened.
While that was the root cause, the cascadeing failure was the result was the direct result of failure to maintain/upgrade the transmission system protection relays. Once the first plant tripped the massive series of over and under current flucuatation caused other units to trip.......
My initial post was to bring peoples attention to the fact that energy resources that are normally designated a "intermittent" at best are being relied on as baseload and no unit operated in the "back up" mode is fast enough to catch the massive system loses seen in Texas. Those guys had some sharp operators on the board to keep the grid under control........
I'm all for wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, etc., but individually, none of them are an answer to "a lot". There's no magic bullet solution to our ever increasing demand for energy.
Wind is good - I often wonder why the desert north of the Las Vegas valley isn't peppered with turbines - this is a very windy region.
Solar is also good - I see a lot of solar water heating here. Generating electricity via solar power is much trickier, though, and the benefits don't typically outweigh the costs. And that's just taking into account the monetary costs... The process to create a solar panel is pretty environmentally unfriendly.
I think nuclear is the wave of the future. The more "green" alternatives are great, and we should use them when and where we can, but they simply can't quench our thirst for energy.
While that was the root cause, the cascadeing failure was the result was the direct result of failure to maintain/upgrade the transmission system protection relays. Once the first plant tripped the massive series of over and under current flucuatation caused other units to trip.......
My initial post was to bring peoples attention to the fact that energy resources that are normally designated a "intermittent" at best are being relied on as baseload and no unit operated in the "back up" mode is fast enough to catch the massive system loses seen in Texas. Those guys had some sharp operators on the board to keep the grid under control........
You are correct, there were other things that played a part as well such as EMS alerts, etc. Unfortunately, the power companies still are not taking protection relay maintenance as seriously as they should.
Okay, I see your point now. No, intermittent generation should not be heavily relied on.
Large pumped hydroelectric projects are a very reliable source of short term and backup power. They can be generating huge amounts of power within a couple of minutes on the outside. They provide the 'battery" necessary for grid stability when either the energy source or the load vary through the day.
In the Texas example, what caused the wind turbines to stop supplying power? Was it lack of wind or some intertie problem? Alternatives like wind or solar electricity cannot be relied upon for base load power unless an energy storage device backs them up. This applies to a Texas sized electric grid and to a stand alone household sized system.
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