Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: Intermittency Of Renewables?… Not So Much [View all]PamW
(1,825 posts)kristopher,
I understand the potential of "reactive power"; as from V2G to COLLAPSE our power grid as Professor Sauer explains in his paper:
http://www.pserc.wisc.edu/.../special.../Sauer_Reactive_Power_Sep_2003.pdf?
starting on page 3 under the heading; How is reactive power related to the problem of voltage collapse, and that, quoting:
While there are "undervoltage relays", there are no relays in the system to directly sense the problem that the voltage is about to collapse
This threat to make the electric power grid more fragile and less robust has grown like topsy.
First, you add unreliable and intermittent non-dispatchable renewable power generators. In order to compensate for the failings and deficiencies of the non-dispatchable renewables; you have to add backup energy storage, as in terms of the V2G inverters. But the V2G inverters have their own failings and deficiencies in that they introduce "reactive power" and threaten voltage collapse. So the reactive power has to be mitigated by other add-on, and then the deficiencies of those must be addressed...
Rather than polluting a river, and then doing something to clean it, which has undesirable side effects, which must be cleaned up; and then there's the cleanup of the cleanup of the cleanup....; many environmentalists ask, "Why not just stop the original pollution?" Get rid of the stuff that creates the original problem.
I know very well the potential role of batteries; I see their potential of turning the electric power grid of the USA, one of the technical marvels of the 20th century, into a fragile and less robust power grid which more resembles the power grid of some 3rd world country.
That's the potential I see if we follow the ill-founded dreams of people who don't know the science behind the electric grid.
PamW