Power Grid

How the Electrical Grid Works

March 01, 2019

The power grid was once something taken for granted, except when it wasn't there. But this has not always been true, and with the rise of renewable power, it has become a matter of frequent discussion—and misunderstanding.

This series of articles will try to give the reader an understanding of how the grid works. It will cover the pieces it is built from, how they fit together, the tradeoffs and concepts.

The goal is to provide the reader with a background to better understand the discussion of options ahead of us and especially to spot when being fed nonsense. An example of nonsense is "you cannot have a green grid without nuclear power". The truth is much more nuanced; a matter of economic tradeoffs and consequences. Dogmatic statements seldom apply to reality. A green grid is easier with nuclear power than without. One with nuclear may or may not be economical compared to one without.

It is not the primary purpose of this series to argue for or against a particular choice. I will offer opinions from time to time, but I will also show what forces lie behind my opinions. I hope to instill in the reader the ability to judge when changes might render my opinions invalid, and how policy choices take us in different directions.

Time has grown short.

This series was initially inspired by DOE Secretary Rick Perry's 2017-04-15 call for a review of the grid, aimed squarely at arguing for a need for continued reliance of fossil fuels.

Posted at 01:39 PM in Current Affairs, Power Grid | | Comments (0)

October 26, 2019

On fire.

Email, SMS alerts, and Twitter exchange today. This mirrors conversations I had with both roommates (I got moved while waiting for discharged), both in similar circumstances with similar concerns.

People in other parts of the country may not realize the full impact of these fires. This is just one aspect.

(Click through for animated image).

This is the email I got from PG&E. We also got SMS messages.

[Numerous tracking links removed.]
PG&E company logo

 
 

Dear Valued Customer,

Gusty winds and dry conditions, combined with a heightened fire risk, are forecasted in the next 24 hours and may impact your electric service. To view a list of your potentially impacted locations visit pgepsps.com.

 

Here is what you need to know:
  • Please have your emergency plan ready in case we need to turn off power for public safety
  • If you have a backup generator, please do a safety check and make sure you have enough fuel to last a few days. Generator safety tips can be found here
  • We will continue to monitor conditions and will contact you with further updates
  • If there is an outage we will work to restore service as soon as it is safe to do so
  • In most cases, we would expect to be able to restore power within 24 to 48 hours after weather has passed
  • Depending on weather conditions or if any repairs are needed, outages (weather event plus restoration time) could last longer than 48 hours
  • For planning purposes, we suggest preparing for multiple-day outages
  • If you see a downed power line, assume it is energized and extremely dangerous and report it immediately by calling 911


For more information, including regular updates, visit pge.com or call 1-800-743-5002.

Thank you,

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Message sent at October 25th, 7:05 PM
NOTE: To protect against spam, some email providers may delay delivery

 

 

Posted at 12:51 AM in Medicine, Power Grid | | Comments (0)

Tags: climate, health, PG&E, wildfire

March 26, 2019

Getting to Zero

Here's a great talk about how getting to zero carbon via wind and solar is harder than just adding more generation.

The talk is a bit long, and if you quit halfway through, you'll get rather the wrong impression. Keep in mind that there are more options than just local wind and solar, even with the addition of storage. As I plan to discuss in future articles, diversity in sources is important to holding down costs. We don't have to do it the hardest way.

But it's neither as simple as adding X amount of generation nor as hard and expensive as those who argue for keeping coal and other fossil fuels indefinitely would have us believe.

I will track down his papers, and I hope to get my hands on his models, which will help make some of the things I want to discuss more concrete.

You may want to watch it in conjunction with my Power Grid for Beginners article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3YMlzK8d0o&t=3s

Posted at 07:18 PM in Power Grid | | Comments (0)