Will the grid hold?

[Capt Worley PE]

I wondering if the electrical grid will hold up to the demands caused by AC with all this heat. Look what the weather looks like: http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-new...11-07-19?page=2

I heard it was 86 in NYC this morning, going to 100+. How close will the grid be to failure?

 

[Master slacker]

Will congress ask the coal and nuclear plants to shutdown?

 

[willsee]

Fire up the wind farms that'll save us

Solar should be pumping out all kinds of electricity...right guys...right?

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

It was 82 here (suburban Boston) when I woke up this morning, with temps getting near 100 and a heat index close to 115 per a report my wife read.

82 is a fairly average summertime high around here, though a stretch of low 90s is common.

Can't wait to see how the meatballs in New England that pride themselves on not using an AC fare today. I have 3 massive window units, and left them all on in energy saver mode so I have someplace comfortable to come home to at noon today.

 

[Master slacker]

We must've had a cold front come through our neck of the woods. Only going to be 95 today. May need to kick the ole heater on at home.

 

[frazil]

It was 82 here (suburban Boston) when I woke up this morning, with temps getting near 100 and a heat index close to 115 per a report my wife read.
82 is a fairly average summertime high around here, though a stretch of low 90s is common.

Can't wait to see how the meatballs in New England that pride themselves on not using an AC fare today. I have 3 massive window units, and left them all on in energy saver mode so I have someplace comfortable to come home to at noon today.

AC is for sissys

 

[Flyer_PE]

It depends on what you define as the grid. Assuming all the protective relaying operates correctly, the transmission system itself will be fine. The problem will be when demand exceeds available supply. The result will be rolling brown and blackouts. There will also be the occasional transformer failure due to the combination of high temperature and loading.

The power companies don't keep nearly as much spinning reserve as they did in the old days. A nuclear unit or large fossil unit tripping off-line could make things interesting for the load dispatch offices.

 

[ALBin517]

We had an outage for about three hours on Wednesday.

The weird thing was it hit a little after 10pm, when the temperature was starting to drop and TVs were going off.

 

[Master slacker]

The power companies don't keep nearly as much spinning reserve as they did in the old days. A nuclear unit or large fossil unit tripping off-line could make things interesting for the load dispatch offices.

Don't know how it works elsewhere, but Entergy curtails us based on demand and their available load. If they can't provide, our allowable export of power is increased rather quickly. Our plant, after site needs are met, can supply power to half a million homes. Rather ample if needed.

 

[Exception Collection]

Well, at least I'm not adding load when I run my heater at night and in the morning. My AC barely gets used during the day, except when we're both in the same room with a minifridge and 2 computers.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

The power companies don't keep nearly as much spinning reserve as they did in the old days. A nuclear unit or large fossil unit tripping off-line could make things interesting for the load dispatch offices.

That's what I was wondering about. Bet there's going to be a lot of plants running flat out today.

 

[Flyer_PE]

On days when the system was red, we cut way back on maintenance and surveillance activities. Anything that posed the smallest risk of tripping the unit was delayed until the demand dropped to where loss of 1100 MWe was annoying rather than catastrophic.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Ugh...heat index is 106 right now. This is Boston, not Death Valley.

 

[Guest]

Consumers Energy based in Michgan set an all-time record. I was at one of the primary generating complexes on Thursday. It was very, very, very hot. Even by Florida standards.

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ss...7/post_175.html

JR

 

[mudpuppy]

Heh, I was at my high school reunion yesterday and one woman who lives in Florida kept saying, "Oh, this isn't hot--nothing like Florida." Later in the evening I caught her saying, "I was thinking about putting my hair down but it's too damn HOT."

She also claimed that Tallahassee is cold.

 

[Wolverine]

The Southeastern Grid is just fine, thanks for asking.

The equation looks something like this:

(Economic downturn + good planning + spinning reserves) / Heat Wave = <lights on>.

The government has a new formula they want us to use though that looks something like this:

[(Environmental controls * regulation) - coal shutdown + carbon capture * (renewable mandates)^2] / (higher prices and less reliability) = <lights mostly on>

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[ALBin517]

She also claimed that Tallahassee is cold.

BS

Most of Florida's population is coastal and enjoys the breeze and moderate temperatures off the water. That's not the case in Tallahassee.

Tally does not have any wind in the summer unless rain is coming in. (It pours from about 2:30 - 2:45 every afternoon).

My uncle owns a water treatment business in the Tampa area, so he's outside half the time down in the bay area. We were walking around in Tallahassee for about five minutes in late August and he said, "Damn it's hot. Is it always this hot around here?"

Me: "Yeah."

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Looks like it held together pretty well during the recent heat wave. Except for the folks who got slammed by the storms.

 

[Road Guy]

we hung out in the basement most of the weekend, had the ac on down there to 79 and it was actually cold, kept the main floor on 80 and the upstairs on 82 until we went to bed....didnt hear the normal groans of when the HVAC is trying to cool the upstairs to 77 like normal.. didnt figure that would be good for 3 straight days

 

[Guest]

You said load ...

Uh ... huh ... huh ... huh ...