The split phase system in America is a bit confusing but actually it's kind of ingenious in the sense that no wire has more than a 120 volt potential to ground. But it turns out there is more than meets the eye - the nuetral line actually carries any current not equal between the two phases back to the transformer - and if it's disconnected only the lowest amperage of the two phases will work. Fascinating stuff.
A half century ago, under bright moonlight of rush hour, they were playing the popular hit song, Jonathan King's Everyone is Going to the Moon -- as Dan Ingram would describe -- in a Key of "R", because the tape deck playing the song would slow down as the electrical frequency dropped at the start of the Great Northeast Blackout. Definitely one of the great moments in radio history. A creepy song to be playing at the start of the blackout, especially under a full moon. Not to mention Jonathan King is a creepy individual -- he would later go to prison as a pedophile. As they said, the electricity slowed down, as the load on the grid exceeded what power plants could put out, as they started shutting down automatically as they lost power and circuit breakers overloaded. The great power failure happened when the grid was most strained -- it was rush hour, on a cold night with lots of electric heat operating, along with street lights on and office buildings still lit brightly. They say based on comparisons of this tape versus the normal speed recordings of Edward's Everybody is Going to the Moon, the grid frequency was about 50 Hz -- or the power had browned out to about 1/6th of the normal power. In an analog world, this meant lights dimmed, elevators ran slow, and tape decks played slowly -- until the power finally quit. Here is the normal speed version of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00XbDRuI78Y
The proposal was created to make it easier for clean-energy resources such as solar or wind to take part in the competitive, wholesale markets that serve the New York grid. The project was overwhelmingly supported by stakeholders, following months of discussion on how to reconcile capacity market rules with the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
Why is this change important, how did it come about, and how will it help bring us to a zero-emissions grid by 2040? Vice President for External Affairs and Corporate Communications Kevin Lanahan recently interviewed two of the primary authors of the proposal, also known as Comprehensive Mitigation Reform, for our latest Power Trends podcast. He spoke to Director of Market Design Mike DeSocio, and Manager of Capacity Market Design Zach T. Smith.
12/27/21 by New York ISO
We’ve just released a new report, the Comprehensive Reliability Plan (CRP), which looks at the New York energy grid over the next 10 years and determines if there are any factors that could impact our ability to keep the lights on for all. While the report declared there are no immediate risks, Vice President of System & Resource Planning Zach Smith says the future of the grid is not so simple. To safely and responsibly tackle climate change impacts to the power grid, one must consider multiple factors together in thinking about decarbonization and planning. “We have a shifting resource mix of generation. We need to be mindful of how this big machine called the electric grid continues to operate,” Smith told Kevin Lanahan, Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Communications, during an interview for our Power Trends Podcast. One issue, Smith said, is that as new resources come onto the grid, such as wind or solar power, older, less efficient power plants will retire. The “spinning mass” of fossil fuel-fired plants provides a reliable source of electricity that can offset the intermittent nature of solar and wind resources, which are limited due to weather and time of day. Losing oil and gas plants will require replacement by other energy resources that can offset these intermittent resources. “We’re already seeing changes on the grid. That’s going to have a real impact: some of them positive, some of them negative,” Smith said. “We’re very concerned that if we experience a heat wave, a polar vortex, our projections show we could come up short.” For more about how we are addressing a zero-emissions grid with market-based solutions, visit the 2040 Power Grid webpage.
In many ways, electricity is a very elegant way of delivering and managing energy. For one, you can generate electricity a long distance away, ship it down an electrical wire at high voltage and relatively low amperages, and have relatively low losses. Electricity is easily controlled by electronics that drive IGBT transistors to deliver a perfect sine wave for powering virtually anything you would want with relatively low losses. Sounds great.
The question becomes where does all this electricity come from? God doesn’t send electrons bouncing down the wires, instead most power comes from fossil fuels, with a relatively smaller portion coming from nuclear and hydroelectric. Renewables barely make a dent. It’s hard to generate a lot of electricity from renewables when urban demand is so high and renewable energy is not dense or easy to harvest on demand.
Most of the big solar facilities being built these days are for show, they aren’t that big of contributions to the grid. Maybe they’ll scale up – wind is now a noticeable part of the electricity grid at times in New York State but it’s still a pretty minor player.
Despite optimistic predictions, I just don’t see how in a few years the majority of our electricity will come from renewables especially with demand surging as people replace fossil fuel heating with electric heat pumps and gasoline cars with electric vehicles. Existing plants along with additional renewables and natural gas capacity might allow these technologies to be integrated relatively seamlessly into the grid but it’s not going to decarbonize electricity at the same time.
That said, going electric has big advantages. For one it moves pollution out of our homes and our sense urban neighborhoods. Most large power plants are located in remote, rural areas where there high stacks carry pollution away. It’s also vastly more flexible and efficient, at least to motors compared to internal combustion engines. But also it is no guarantee that electrons will be generated from renewable sources.