Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Extreme cold and the grid

"With the lowest temperatures in two decades, the PJM Interconnection [a power grid section serving eastern U.S.] said that in January it experienced eight of the ten greatest electricity demands ever recorded. The grid operator serves a 13-state region in the eastern United States and is responsible for ordering up power supplies and ensuring their delivery to customers.
PJM has already hit record highs — when peak demand exceeded 140,000 megawatts on two different occasions. Just as California is asking customers to conserve water, the grid operator has requested its customers turn down thermostats. According to the RTO Insider that tracks the PJM, federal regulators are allowing it to lift its $1,000 price cap through March 31.

The cap “is preventing competitive marginal cost bids and resulting competitive prices that are needed to balance supply and demand,” says the newsletter. Such a tack, RTO Insider reports, won’t lead to market manipulation as producers have to provide detailed reports to market monitors."
Forbes via RCP

Remember the August 2003 Northeast blackout (not all areas within red zone were affected):



According to Wiki it began in Eastlake, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, when a software bug failed to allow a sensor to detect overloaded wires, which caused a cascade of of overloaded wires and tripped systems throughout parts of the Midwest, Northeast, and Ontario. 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million in eight U.S. states were affected. Many lost power for up to two days.

15 comments:

Methadras said...

The power grid in this country is over 100 years old and has been in need of upgrading for a long long time and no one has stepped up to deal with it much less the regional utilities nor the government and we are all stuck with paying ridiculous power rates simply to maintain what is their now. No one will win and with more electrical and electronic devices coming online for people to buy, consume, recharge, and use, it will only put even more strain on a system that is already severely strained. This winter only exacerbates the problem further and highlights how woefully bad grid topography is and why it needs to be revamped, updated, and redefined.

bagoh20 said...

It's the older and low tech devices that are using the power. Furnace motors, heat pumps, water heaters, small space heaters. New devices are getting more and more efficient to the point where if all our needs were handled by newer more efficient technologies, we would not be increasing our demands over the past. The real problem in this case is with heating. Heating elements are and always were near 100% efficient. Unlike other devices, electrical waste (heat) is the product. The only place were efficiency can be gained with heating is in the distribution via, motorized fans and pumps, as well as construction of the devices to assure the heat is not lost to the environment before it warms our chilled little butts.

The most efficient device to reduce your heating or cooling requirements is the U-haul moving truck.

Michael Haz said...

The coal fired electric plants that Barack Obama has ordered to be closed (by stopping coal mining) produce more than 30% of the electricity in America.

Next year will be interesting.

bagoh20 said...

If you stuff enough mid-westerners into a single bed, you don't need any heat. If you liquor them up first, they will actually produce excess heat that can be put back into the grid.

deborah said...

Luckily for you, bags, this isn't a clean energy thread.

deborah said...

Nicely said, Meth. It feels like before it's all over we'll have a few massive outages during cold snaps. That would make a good movie :)

ricpic said...

Should we go back to bedding down with the animals in the stable? Ah, that stable warmth.

TTBurnett said...

This is an interesting piece in the ieee Spectrum that points to a possible electrical "paradigm shift" in the works: Back to locally-generated DC power. It's true that for some time, there's been a move away from induction motors running at line frequency, especially in machinery. Combine LED lighting and device powering—all of which really like DC—with modern, efficient DC-to-DC voltage conversion, and the Tesla-era argument for 3-phase AC starts to sound a bit long in the tooth.

The other big problem, of course, is national security. The grid is our weakest link. Take it down widely for several months, and millions will die. Anyway, read the article. Should we upgrade the grid, or move to something else?

bagoh20 said...

"Should we upgrade the grid, or move to something else? "

Might be cheaper to find a nearby nation and just take theirs. S.P.Q.R.

deborah said...

Tim, amazing article, thanks!

deborah said...

Ricpic, those were the cozy days. I think I recall reading about Germanic tribes in Roman times, or before, who would have round houses with a central pit for throwing in all waste...bodily included, maybe. And a hole in the roof for smoke to exit. And I guess the animals would have been in also. The idea being to complete fortification. Something like that.

virgil xenophon said...

I see I'm Blue Four here (late-to-the-party, tail-end charlie, etc., an old Air Force term for the fourth wingman in an element of four aircraft) but "stove-piped" micro-grids are the way to go for reasons of national security and national wx events. A digitalized interconnected "smart grid" may be technically more "efficient" but FAR less "effective" in times of stress. It is "brittle" and subject to cascade (snowball) effects that can bring the entire national grid down. Texas is smart. Not A SINGLE physical connector connects their grid to the national power grid. During the 73 oil crisis Jimmy Carter was so incensed that he couldn't route power in and out of Texas' grid he sent surveyors to determine if ANY part of the grid protruded EVEN AN INCH over the State line so he could use that as an excuse to seize Federal control over the grid, lol.

deborah said...

lol that's great, vx. I think TX would be a cool place to live.

Methadras said...

deborah said...

lol that's great, vx. I think TX would be a cool place to live.


Which part(s)?

deborah said...

lol good question. I think there are five regions? I don't know, I guess I'd have to do some research.