Re: Reuters: Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency


"T. Keating" <tkusenet@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1pjis3p8mtru16gi7mjmng2rtf09lspd6j@xxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:25:12 -0800, "Bob Eld" <nsmontassoc@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


<dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:b2197490-1b84-4022-ae4b-688b94e37c53@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency


Learn to Trade with a FREE Guide.HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind
generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an
electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service
to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind
energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening
electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the
state.

The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency
plan at 6:41 PM CST (0041 GMT), ERCOT said in a statement.

System operators curtailed power to interruptible customers to shave
1,100 megawatts of demand within 10 minutes, ERCOT said. Interruptible
customers are generally large industrial customers who are paid to
reduce power use when emergencies occur.

No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said.
Interruptible customers were restored in about 90 minutes and the
emergency was over in three hours.

ERCOT said the grid's frequency dropped suddenly when wind production
fell from more than 1,700 megawatts, before the event, to 300 MW when
the emergency was declared.

In addition, ERCOT said multiple power suppliers fell below the amount
of power they were scheduled to produce on Tuesday. That, coupled with
the loss of wind generated in West Texas, created problems moving
power to the west from North Texas.

ERCOT declares a stage 1 emergency when power reserves fall below
2,300 MW. A stage 2 emergency is called when reserves fall below 1,750
MW.

At the time of the emergency, ERCOT demand increased from 31,200 MW to
a peak of 35,612 MW, about half the total generating capacity in the
region, according to the agency's Web site.


Yep, but the emergency was over in three hours and only affected
interruptible customers. Keep in mind that a nuclear plant went down in
Florida starting with a problem in a sub station the day before and there
were black outs all over the state affecting everybody. So, in other words,
the whole system is vulnerable no matter where the power comes from.
Futhermore, wind power being more diverse with many smaller units spread
over a very large area will likely be more reliable than central generation.


It should be noted... that the Turkey Point nuclear Power plant is
still offline, 4 days after the incident.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flzfpl0301sbmar01,0,7097760.story

"FPL blames blackout on human error
Company says engineer disabled protective devices
March 1, 2008

Turkey Point remains closed as FPL conducts mandatory inspections
before restarting it and as FPL employees use the opportunity to do
maintenance on the plant, FPL nuclear chief Art Stall said"

I.E. Nuclear power plants are a weak link in a grid infrastructure..

Obviously you've never worked in fossil now have you Ted?? A fossil plant bounces up and down several times a year and you never read about it because it isn't 'nucular'. Fossil plants can, on occasion, be tripped and restarted within 12 hours. So can nucs. And on occasion fossils, when tripped, will decide to do a cooldown and do some maintenance. Just like nucs.

If I had to guess, Turkey Point had several inspections/surveillances that were due the next time the unit was shutdown. They may have had some equipment malfunction that was going to keep them down for a day or so, so their management team probably decided that since they were down, and they would go ahead with several items in the same 'forced outage'.

daestrom

.

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