It's Time to Invest in a 21st-century Power System

[kristopher]

It's Time to Invest in a 21st-century Power System

John Bernhardt
June 03, 2013


America's power system is too vulnerable to meet modern challenges — a harsh reality underscored by Hurricane Sandy, which left 8.1 million people in the dark for extended periods. Yet, widespread outages should no longer come as a surprise. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country's electrical infrastructure a "D" grade in 2008. Years earlier, a Clinton-era energy secretary described America as "a superpower with a third-world grid." Even though power system vulnerability has been obvious for over a decade, little has been done to address this critical weakness. If the United States wants to stay globally competitive, then the country must finally invest in the creation of a 21st-century power system capable of driving sustained economic growth.

Any power system overly dependent on centralized generation and long-distance transmission is inherently susceptible to massive failures, and our system has proven this time and again. Each day, nearly 500,000 Americans spend at least two hours without electricity, while brownouts and blackouts grind economic activity to a halt — costing the country up to $188 billion annually. Monetary losses from outages will only climb higher in the future given that economic activities increasingly demand reliable electricity. High-tech companies need consistent, quality power to protect manufacturing equipment, and almost all businesses require steady power for operating computers and other information technologies. Unfortunately, the nation's current power system is incapable of meeting modern reliability needs as large blackouts are becoming not only more frequent but also more severe.

Fortunately, the U.S. has ready examples for improving its power system. Germany and other European countries have already shown that modern power systems are both technically possible and economically viable. Investing in an intelligent grid that integrates significant amounts of clean local energy enhances system reliability — minimizing economic losses from outages. The German power system, which incorporates enough rooftop solar to meet half the country's midday energy needs, set a global reliability record in 2011 with only 15.31 minutes of downtime. What's even more impressive is that Germany — the world's fourth largest economy and home to a heavy industrial base — demands enormous amounts of reliable power, and distributed renewables have delivered. Similarly, renewables provide more than 40 percent of Denmark's electrical generation, and their grid is markedly more reliable than in the United States. On average, the U.S. has three times as many outages as Denmark with each outage lasting fourteen times as long. In other words, the U.S. spends about 50 times as long in the dark even though Denmark gets 40 percent of its power from renewables.

A modern power system takes advantage of the latest technologies to meet the growing demand for reliable energy. Increased distributed generation will protect homes, businesses, and industries from cascading blackouts by mitigating the impact of any single power station or transmission line failing. Intelligent grid solutions — such as demand response, advanced inverters, and energy storage — enhance the ability of the grid to ride through potential disruptions, while locally balancing all vital dimensions of the power grid: energy, voltage, and frequency. Importantly, distributed generation integrated with intelligent grid solutions delivers power without sags, surges, or other disruptions in voltage or frequency that currently plague manufacturing lines and sensitive electronics. In addition, modern grids lay the foundation for standalone energy "islands" to provide continuous power for essential services during widespread grid failures, which several universities and research facilities successfully relied on for power during Hurricane Sandy's costly and prolonged outages.

Despite broad claims that renewable energy is unreliable and expensive, the exact opposite has been proven true...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2013/06/its-time-to-invest-in-a-21st-century-power-system?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-June5-2013

[pinto]

1. +1 - I lived in New England during the '65 blackout. Took 5 minutes to trip the connected grid from

Ontario CA through New England and New York. 13 hour blackout in most areas. A handful of US cities, with local power sources, stayed "lit".

[quadrature]

2. this is just made up

making the grid to be 'Sandy'-proof
or 'Katrina'-proof ,
would cost billions,
and the benefit would appear
only once every ten years,
or maybe never in any one place.

IMO, it is more important that
the unaffected part of the grid
has enough reserve, to help out
areas that have problems.

[kristopher]

4. Nope, it's real.

And if you look at grid reliability stats and what outages cost, you'll find there is justification in areas other than CO2 emissions reduction.

Your idea that increasing centralization will help is not supported by anyone.

[quadrature]

6. so the solution is what exactly?

every neighborhood for itself?
diesel generators buzzing everywhere,
which seems to be the third worlds
favorite way of making electricity

[kristopher]

7. You could start by reading the OP

If you are interested the material is there. You obviously don't bother to read the posts you snark at, after you do, then ask questions.

[quadrature]

9. without electricity from nuclear France ...

and other imports,
Germany would look like Somalia.

[cprise]

11. LOL

So much blather, so few facts.

German electricity exports rise:
http://www.dw.de/german-power-exports-soar-amid-green-energy-revolution/a-16713504

Germany can go to 40% renewable without adding storage:
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/09/german-study-not-much-power-storage-or-coal-power-needed-for-40-renewable-power-supply/

[kristopher]

12. Thanks for the links. nt

[zipplewrath]

3. I tend to be a skeptic

I'm always skeptical of the declarations, especially from a publisher like this, of how "ready" various technologies are.

However, I really do begin to get the sense that we are at the beginning of the time when serious quantities of renewables should and could be brought on line. I'm talking mostly about future increases in production should focus greatly upon the various renewables, concentrated on the big 3, Wind, Solar, and bio-mass. The exact implimentation of such a policy needs to be hashed out, but on a large scale, one could imagine that the "default" position should be for renewables, with applications being needed, reviewed, and approved for "existing" fossil fuel systems. Initially I understand that roughly 20% of applications for new capacity would continue to involve "traditional sources". But as the years go by that should be a number that declines steadily, and at an increasingly rapid rate.

[kristopher]

5. Your comments are spot on.

We still have a market based system, but the benefits and costs of renewables are driving them to a strong position in the market. And their competitive position is steadily improving.

Natural gas has been leading the pack for installations for the past several years, but in 2012 I think renewables edged it out; and so far this year renewables are very strong. I expect that by the end of the year, however, it the balance will shift more towards natgas. New coal has almost disappeared in the US.

If only 20% of new capacity were fossil it would be wonderful. Hopefully we'll see that soon.

BTW, don't agree with your skepticism. The technology is there.

[CRH]

8. I'm one who believes, ...

we have passed the time we can do anything to stop the warming.

But still, If we are going to be here, we might as well act as though we can delay the inevitable.

May be some invention to offset the effects of CO2 might be invented, miraculously sucking then sequestering CO2 while a future struggles to adjust.

So, I installed a 2 kwh panel grid tie accented by a evacuated tube hot water system, and now watch the meter run backwards. It is the least I could do to give the future a chance.

In reading some of the responses, I have just one comment. Many utilities in many countries work against alternative generation. Alternatives are thought of as the enemy, that will destroy an economic model of past convenience. But, if hope is to be found in alternative generation, a transition to a non centralized distribution society and economy, must first happen through using and converting the existing grid, to the most likely path toward a reduced demand survival.

It is easy to say the power company is our enemy, in competition with our vision of how the future should be arranged. But I feel, it is an imperative to find an avenue to travel toward a future where a transition is possible from a carbon system supporting a dying lifestyle, that gives a boost to a reduced, but renewable, demand.

How many live in cities and suburbia? If those that can generate and feed the system, rather than adding to the woes while a transition is in progress, how does this hurt?

This post would be easier if I didn't already believe our time for action has passed. But if we hang out for miracles, why not use what has served us in the past, to facilitate our transition to the future?

Who ever envisioned deregulation from public utilities would leave us with so few choices? Actually a few of us did.

[cprise]

10. K&R