Often times we (myself included) think of solar and wind power as the technologies leading the fight in the transition to generating our country’s electricity from clean, renewable resources. This is certainly true, and as regular readers of this blog know, I fully support the development of both these technologies on a massive scale. But what if these energy saviors aren’t the silver bullets they are cracked up to be? What problems could they cause?
A report released today by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), whose mission it is to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system of North America, stated that the organization is “concerned that, when viewed from a continent-wide perspective, current climate initiatives do not adequately address key reliability objectives, particularly the need for a strong and robust transmission system”.
The report concludes that unless there is a major upgrade to our current transmission system rules that enforce carbon reductions by utility providers could impair the overall reliability of the power grid, which would lead to an increase in the frequency of blackouts.
What the NERC sees as being the biggest concern is the location of electrical generation in relation to load centers (i.e. distribution hubs). Currently many large scale coal plants are located close to these hubs because the system was designed that way. It made a lot of sense. As more and more reduction programs take effect and coal plants begin to shut down electrical generation will have to come from other areas. Since most wind and solar farms are in rural areas there will be greater demands imposed upon a transmission system that was not designed for large power tranfers over long distances.“The transmission system is being used closer to its limits more of the time than at any time in the past,” said Rick Sergel, president and chief executive of the group.
According to Mr. Sergel carbon emission initiatives are the “No. 1 emerging issue” for the grid. This may sound like the group is advocating against the implementation of renewable energy technologies, but Mr. Sergel goes on to note that there is no reason that renewable energy sources cannot generate a larger portion of our nations electricity, we simply need to invest in a transmission system that can handle it.
It should be noted that many independent power producers have built their own generations systems that serve customers in distant marketplaces. So once again what this all boils down to is investment and dedication. With our current economic woes investment could be a problem, but we have got to make it happen. The clean tech world may be struggling right now, but I truly believe that it is the key to not only solving our energy problems, but our economic ones as well. This is just one more piece of a very large and complex problem that we must solve.
Related article: If we can nationalize a bank, we can nationalize an electric grid
Via: N.Y. Times and NERC
5 responses so far ↓
1 Jacob Mellinger // Nov 11, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Todays economic conditions combined with our aging infrastructure make ideal conditions for a massive public works project. This power transmission problem seems like it could be solved by just that.
2 Joe // Nov 11, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Part of the problem is that we are still thinking in “Big Oil” terms, except now it’s “Big Energy.” The best way to reduce the grid load is: 1 - conservation & energy recycling, and 2- local power production. Cities that have municipal generation capability have much-reduced reliance on the grid, and much-reduced prices to the community. Local and community-based production is key, not trillions of dollars in infrastructure taking money away from true development. Like so many problems, Decentralize needs to find its way into the debate.
3 augustflanagan // Nov 11, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Joe,
I absolutely agree with you. Local power production is essential to making the transition happen. We should be making every effort we can to make that happen. However, the electrical demand of many large cities in our country is often much greater than what could be produced locally by these renewable energy sources. We are making improvements on that (See this article I wrote http://thegreentechnocrat.com/?p=238
on an interesting approach that Solyndra is taking to solve this problem)
However, as long as large scale CSP plants and wind farms can be built in rural areas, thus generating more electricity, there will be a need to improve our transmission system. We have a lot of work to do rebuilding our country, and investing in alternative energy technologies, and transmission technology could be just what is needed to bring our country out of the current recession, and solidify our position as a world leader in energy technology R&D.
4 Joe // Nov 12, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Yup, I agree with you there, August. But I’m thinking in incremental terms. If we could save 12-15% with conservation and heat recovery for example, and generate another 20-25% in the more settled areas themselves, we’ve just unloaded 40% of that city’s needs from the grid. We also need to remember that the word ‘urban’ takes in not just the inner part of the city but all of those sprawling suburbs, some of which are perfect sites for generators, besides being close to the city.
I think that before we commit to a crash multi-multi-billion dollar upgrade, we could spend much less and upgrade the local generating capability. I think that if we were to ring several cities with generating facilities, we could reduce the grid load tremendously, perhaps even as much as we need to.
Good thread!
JoeB
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