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Scientific American: Wind Power to Stabilize Grid


 
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#1 E3 wise

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Posted 21 September 2014 - 05:00 PM

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http://climatecrocks...stabilize-grid/

  Last month, General Electric (GE) consulting presented the results of a U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) sponsored study testing if wind turbines can be controlled to manage the stability of the electric grid. The authors found that wind turbines might actually be a valuable tool for controlling and stabilizing the grid in the future, disputing the conventional notion that wind energy doesn’t play well with the grid. To understand the source of this counterintuitive result—and its implications—let’s review the key aspect of power grid control at play here: frequency regulation.

Frequency regulation is the process through which the grid operator maintains the frequency of the grid’s alternating current at a precise, predetermined level. In the United States, for example, grids are strictly controlled to put out electric current with a frequency of 60 Hertz. To maintain this level of frequency, the grid operator must carefully ramp power plants up and down so that the total amount of electricity flowing into the grid is perfectly balanced with the total electricity being withdrawn by electricity customers.

The balance and frequency of the electric grid can be illustrated with the analogy of a spinning merry-go-round. The grid operator’s goal is to keep the grid’s electrical frequency constant, or to keep the merry-go-round in our analogy spinning at a constant speed. To increase the speed of the merry-go-round, the grid operator can order generators to increase their power output—or literally increase the torque on their spinning turbine shafts to “push” the grid up to speed. Electricity withdrawn from the grid by customers slows down the merry-go-round in our analogy, decreasing the grid’s electrical frequency. The inertia of the merry-go-round—or its tendency to stay in motion—is determined by the mass and momentum of all of the spinning turbines and generators feeding power into the grid. The job of the grid operator is to keep the whole system in balance by regulating the flow of power into the grid. The job of the grid operator is to keep the whole system in balance by regulating the flow of power into the grid so that it always matches electric load.

To learn more continue reading at
http://climatecrocks...stabilize-grid/

#2 E3 wise

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 04:00 PM

If you read the complete article you see very quickly that renewable energy grids can deal with the variable nature of production and usage simply by holding a 5 to 10 % ratio in reserve, which is what is done with standard steam turbine grid production, 5 to 10 % is kept is reserve to allow balancing the frequency.  So the next time someone tells you that the variable nature of renewable makes the wide spread of renewables impossible, you tell them no and refer them to this article because many grids are using these type of generation stratagies right now to get rid of coal fired power plants.

#3 Shortpoet-GTD

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 03:56 AM

Here's a beautiful map of the coal plants to be shut down. :yahoo:
http://institutefore...plant-closures/

#4 yoder

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 05:18 AM

I love that the major arguments against alternative energy are dropping like flies.

#5 Shortpoet-GTD

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 09:17 AM

View Postyoder, on 23 September 2014 - 05:18 AM, said:

I love that the major arguments against alternative energy are dropping like flies.
They never had valid arguments from the get; they just had ton's of money to back up their flapping jaws.

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