Posted on 08/13/2010 10:46:27 AM PDT by epithermal
When the wind blows, water heaters fire up
Mason County PUD No. 3 and the Bonneville Power Administration and announced today that they are partnering on a smart grid pilot project to help manage the electricity grid and use wind power more effectively.
The project address two fundamental bottlenecks in the power grid; congestion during times of high power use and the imbalance created when more wind-powered energy is being generated than is being used.
“Homeowners who choose to participate in this pilot project can help the region ease strain on the region’s electrical system,” said Bonneville Power’s Smart Grid Program Manager Lee Hall. “They will also make help the region make the best use of wind; a clean and renewable, yet variable power source.”
Mason County PUD 3 will install special devices on water heaters that will communicate with the electrical grid and tell the appliances to turn on or off, based on conditions of the regional electrical system and the amount of renewable energy available.
(Excerpt) Read more at masonpud3.org ...
As if this is somehow going to make wind power more practicable.
If anyone out there actually thinks that “smart grid” technology is anything other than a Trojan horse to allow Big Brother to ration our electricity on an individual basis, stand up and be heard.
Sounds like rationing to me.
More micromanaging everyone’s homes.
Additionally they would love to be able to charge different rates at different times of the day and charge extra for non-sine wave power (think motors which take current at a different phase than the voltage and computers which tend to use a spike of current right at the voltage peak).
“and the imbalance created when more wind-powered energy is being generated than is being used”
So they will FORCE consumers to use electricity by turning on devices? Will that electricity be free to the consumer?
When the wind stops, the internet goes off
They are tapped out in their ability to meet peak power demands and want to appear Green, not build transmission, so you suffer.
“...Smart Grid Project Will Let Wind Farms “Talk” To Appliances...”
So they can tell the appliance: “Oh, I already raised your rates last week.”
Yeah, they can tell appliances that, since the wind just started gusting to 50mph, that a power surge is on the way that will fry their circuit boards. Whoo-hoo!
I'm sorry Dave, I had to turn on the furnace and air conditioner to let them fight for the power grid's amusement.
If price information is provided to industrial customers, they could do some things like make ice for use later in the day for air conditioning. Some places already do that because they can negotiate with the power company to get power cheaper at night. Also if you have anything which needs to be charged you could turn on the charging late at night when electricity is cheaper.
A lot of it depends on the power source used for the generator. Wind isn't something you can just turn on and off. Similarly, nuclear plants like running at a constant rate rather than cranking them to high power in the late afternoon. Natural gas turbines and hydroelectric are better at handling variable loads, but even then the electric company would rather size them based on average use than max use.
Actually this is a good idea. Big problem with wind is that you got to have spinning backup at a real power plant in case the wind stops, and it takes hours to get a turbine up and running. Houses that have electric heat, air conditioning, and water heaters could thus function as a massive battery bank. Extra energy could heat the water another ten degrees or so, or simply warm up or cool down the houses a few degrees. When wind was a slower, the opposite could happen. The modulation wouldn’t even need to be enough to be noticed to make a huge difference.
I do the same thing personally now, as I heat exclusively with wood and have a minimal air conditioner. The temperature in my house varies probably 20 degrees over the course of a year and I don’t suffer at all. The body has adjustment mechanisms for this.
Of course if you are a girlyman who is terminally distressed by a couple of degrees of temperature change it won’t work for you.
Having said all that, I still am not sure that wind generators will ever recover the initial investment either in dollars or BTU’s. The people pushing them will not answer that question.
Agree expect gas stations to look like 1972 before Obama&Co. finish the spread the wealth BS.
I still have trouble seeing how heating water a few degrees more is storing energy like a battery does. Maybe I am not looking at it right, but say the water is now warmer, but there is still the same volume of water as you had before. So, unless my appliances can intelligently use less hot water when the water is hotter, I don’t see where the energy is stored.
What am I missing?
Hours for Gas turbines to spin up? More like 13 minuets from a dead stop to full load. Natural Gas slow speed piston engine generators go from cold to full load in less than 5 minuet as well. These engines are keep at 50% load spinning reserves ready in a instant to go 100% piston engines are much much more efficient at part load than turbines. Plus are more efficient at peak load too. This is what currently backs up wind power all over the world. These fast plants are expensive to idle as when they are off they generate no revenue. Hydro electric is seconds from low to high load this is why in Central Texas at all the lakes there are huge warning signs are the tail races of the turbines because at any given moment they could come rushing full boar, LCRA has 200 MW of instant peak power on tap.
http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/articledisplay/5501231356/articles/power-engineering-international/volume-18/issue-2/features/gas-fired_back-up.html
The best way to get wind power to the far off cities is to use HVDC light along the existing hwy right of ways these systems have no external magnetic fields and can be buried so no pylons. HVDC has already proven to be cheaper than HVAC at distances over 500km. Texas is blessed with HUGE wind reserves which should be exploited as soon as they are cost competitive. ERCOT decides where and how distribution systems gets built in Texas not the utilities.
Interesting. I am curious how the communication was established with the appliances. Was it through the power grid using standard internet protocols?
Austin is one of the test grounds for Broadband over power transmissions, some were also using wireless links by the 3g network. Austin has smart meters that are all BOP linked you can check your energy usage online in real time. Yes they are going to use this capability to charge for peak and off peak power all utilities will do this eventually.
Our local public utility district did a test of broadband over the power grid, but nothing came of it. I remember talking to a guy that ran a radio business and he was against it because of all the interference it would generate.
Yes the Ham operators were up in arms too, but they are secondary users of those freqs and the primary license holders sold the technology to the power companies. That and improved filters limit the off line emissions of radio waves any signal lost to the air are signals not received at the other end of the wire. Any sideband spillage must comply with part 15 of the FCC while the hams might not like it, this is the law.
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