I was curious to see if anyone commenting here actually works in the interconnected grid operations and so far that is a big no.
All of those terms I wrote down above are common terms used in the industry.
The number one job of all grid operations is reliability which is a many tiered operational matrix, which involves load forecasting, long term power purchases, short term power purchases, and contingency planning. That is the wide area view, which is the purview of a NERC (North American Reliability Corporation) RC (reliability coordinator). NERC
NERC
Every year, mainly summer, we see reports of “grid operators brace for grid strain“ etc, and we need to conserve to put off building costly new power plants, or turn off your air conditioning. Those are the hallmarks of an electrical system that is sorely lacking. Being asked to turn off your AC or raise the thermostat setting when it’s hot outside and you need the AC the most is ridiculous. And certainly adding exponentially more load to a system is a very poor idea at best. This is akin to one’s boat has an issue where it will not run to its full potential and being able to get on plane and living with that.
Rolling blackouts occur when reserves, MORC, are too low, usually less than 3%, this is mainly due to a lack of generation but can also happen due to transmission line outages. The cause is immaterial, all that matters is that the system cannot operate normally due to lack of resources, so the load must be reduced to balance with available resources.
Until such time that public appeals for electrical usage reduction and interruptible load schemes during times of high system load are a thing of the past, adding exponentially more load to the North American grid is not going to work. The level of electrification being talked about today will require at a minimum a four to five times overbuild of the grid as it stands today, this is beyond massive. The generation required for a reliable overbuild should be a dramatic increase in nuclear generation as it is the cleanest and next to hydro the cheapest form of generation. As a fyi, France, the country with the highest level of nuclear generation in their IRP (integrated resource plan) in January of last year voted to expand at the fastest rate safely possible to increase their nuclear generation. Nuclear generation is what’s possible right now, today, SMR’s (small modular reactors) very similar to what the Navy uses in the electric boats are probably the most cost effective and alacritous way to expand nuclear generation. Wind and solar have their place in the IRP, but not as prime sources of power as their outputs are intermittent, having these sources of power as prime components represents an incredible risk to the reliability of the grid, their usage needs to be supplemental. No further retirements of any generating stations should occur until reliable generating units are on line and proven.
Until such time as there is a plan on a national level to exponentially increase generation, transmission and distribution a reliable expansion of electrification will not happen.
