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The POWER Interview: Technology Helps Integrate Renewables to the Grid

June 17, 2019

Patrick Lee, who founded and leads PXiSE Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of San Diego, California-based Sempra Energy, is a proponent of energy sharing. His company builds enhanced grid management systems, using data, insights, and algorithms “to maximize efficiency and reliability of all DERs [distributed energy resources] as one system.” In other words, a PXiSE-supported microgrid is designed to interact with the grid, balancing the supply and demand of power, in an energy-sharing mode, rather than just managing an islanded microgrid.

The company’s Active Control Technology (ACT) platform is used at Sempra’s headquarters in San Diego as well as at other sites, including Con Edison’s 200-MW Great Valley Solar project near Fresno, California; the 110-MW Pima Solar facility in Mexico; and in distribution grids in Australia operated by Horizon Power.

Patrick Lee

Lee has said PSiXE’s technology provides a cost-effective way for users to move from fossil-fueled power generation to renewables. Lee recently talked with POWER about how PSiXE approaches the challenge of integrating renewable power generation to the grid.…

High Summer Temperatures Send CAISO and ERCOT Scrambling to Maintain Grid Reliability

July 27, 2018

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California and Texas—two regions where summer reliability concerns were forecast earlier this year—are suffering extreme temperatures and are scrambling to relieve stress on the grid.

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO)—the grid operator that serves about 80% of California—on July 24 and 25 issued statewide Flex Alerts, calling for voluntary electricity conservation during peak afternoon and evening hours.

The Flex Alerts stem from high temperatures across the western U.S., reduced electricity imports, tight natural gas supplies in the Southern California area, and a high wildfire risk. “Consumers can help avoid power interruptions by turning off all unnecessary lights, using major appliances before 5 p.m. and after 9 p.m., and setting air conditioners to 78 degrees or higher,” the grid operator urged. “The ISO has called on all available resources to serve demand, however, conservation is needed to reduce the risk of further emergency measures, including rotating power outages.”

At the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the entity that manages the flow of power for 90% of Texas’s electric load, a new record for all-time system-wide peak demand was set during two hours in the afternoon on July 19.…

First Commercial AP1000, EPR Reactors Connected to Grid

July 9, 2018

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Two nuclear energy milestones were reached in the past week, as the world’s first commercial AP1000 and EPR reactors were connected to China’s power grid.

Westinghouse announced Sanmen 1, the first AP1000 unit, was connected to the grid June 30, one day after Électricité de France (EDF) connected the first EPR reactor—Taishan 1—to the system. The EPR is a third-generation pressurized water reactor, with technology by EDF and France’s Framatome. Taishan 1 is the first of two, 1.7-GW reactors at the site, which is owned by TNPJVC, a joint venture of China General Nuclear (CGN), which owns 51%; EDF, which owns 30%; and Yuedian, a Chinese electric company that owns 19%.

The 1.1-GW Sanmen 1 reactor is the first of four new AP1000 plants under construction in eastern China. The AP1000, also a pressurized water reactor, is the technology being used for two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia. Unit 3 at Vogtle is scheduled to come online in November 2021, with Unit 4 following a year later.…

Sufficient Blackstart Capability Exists on Grid, Say NERC, FERC

May 7, 2018

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Despite the recent retirement of “blackstart” units, grid operators have sufficient resources to quickly restore systems in the event of widespread outages, suggests a new report by staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

The report—“FERC-NERC-Regional Entity Joint Review of Restoration and Recovery Plans”—released May 2 presents findings from a joint FERC and NERC study that evaluated blackstart resources and planning by nine utilities registered with NERC. NERC—a non-profit international regulatory authority tasked with assuring reliability and security of the grid—defines a blackstart resource as one or more generating units and associated equipment that can be started without support from the bulk power system and is designed to remain energized without connection to the system. A blackstart unit energizes other equipment. The first generating unit in its cranking path is known as a “next-start” generating unit.

According to the report, blackstart generating units included in the participants’ system restoration strategies—and most participants had more than one, it noted—ranged from small (50 MVA) to larger units (100–200 MVA), to banks of generating units exceeding 1,000 MVA in capacity.…

PJM Says Grid Reliable, but Will Analyze Resilience

May 1, 2018

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The operator of the nation’s largest electrical grid on April 30 reiterated its system will remain reliable even with the retirements of substantial generation resources. But PJM Interconnection, whose system covers customers in 13 states, said it will conduct a review of its operations over the next several months “to understand the fuel-supply risks in an environment trending towards greater reliance on natural gas.”

PJM wants to know whether its network could still operate reliably in the event of outages from natural disasters such as extreme weather, a cyberattack, or pipeline issues that would curtail the flow of natural gas on its system. The regional transmission organization (RTO) in March 2017 issued a report—”PJM’s Evolving Resource Mix and System Reliability”—that said its system could add more natural gas and renewable power generation and remain reliable, but “heavy reliance on one resource type” could bring risks to grid resiliency.

PJM recently said more than 3,600 MW of generation capacity will retire in its service territory in 2018.…

Decade-Old Power Grid Problem Solved by Smart Grid Technology

January 16, 2018

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A control system that smooths out inter-area oscillations—a problem affecting power systems connected by relatively weak tie lines—has been successfully demonstrated by researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and Montana Tech University. The system that uses smart grid technology could allow utilities to push more power through transmission lines, possibly nixing the need for new transmission lines and help to stabilize the grid.

Electric power grids operate well below transmission capacity to avoid widespread outages due to inter-area oscillations, which occur when the standard frequency of 60 cycles per second increases on the utility side of the transmission line while the frequency on the customer side decreases, switching back and forth every second or two. “Most of the time these oscillations are well-behaved and not a problem—they are always there,” explained Sandia engineer David Schoenwald. “But at a moment when you are trying to push a large amount of power, like on a very hot day in the summer, these oscillations start to become less well behaved and can start to swing wildly.”…