Assemblymember Anna Kelles, of Ithaca, introduced legislation last week that would require the state’s major electric utilities to create “virtual power plants” — networks of home batteries, smart thermostats, electric vehicles, and other devices that companies can draw on to keep the lights on at peak times. It aims to rapidly scale up the programs by creating new incentives for customers to participate.
The idea behind the bill is gaining traction among energy experts as states contend with rising electricity demand and soaring energy bills, as New York Focus recently reported. How a More Flexible Grid Could Save New York Billions Jack Carroll and Colin Kinniburgh
Flexible grid programs could help New Yorkers save money and cut pollution, a highly sought-after combination amid a bruising fight over the costs of achieving the state’s climate targets. A mammoth report published last fall by the state energy authority NYSERDA found that virtual power plants will be one of the key tools to achieve a reliable, zero-emissions grid, as the state’s climate law requires — and that they are cheaper and quicker to deploy than some of the other technologies the state envisions, like hydrogen or next-generation nuclear.
"Albany Steam Power Station first began operations in 1952 as a coal-fired station and was converted to oil in 1970. It was further modified in 1981 for natural gas and became a 400MW oil and natural gas-fired power plant. The BEC has cut emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxide by 90%, and reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by 94%. The BEC generates 50% less waste heat than the Albany Steam Station and has reduced air emissions by at least 95%."
"The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) has announced approval of plans to make hardware and software changes at the Bethlehem Energy Center in Glenmont that are designed to help improve the plant’s energy efficiency. The petition was submitted by the plant’s owner, PSEG Power New York LLC. The approved changes will allow for the replacement of certain components of the three combustion turbines and certain changes to related software programs. The equipment being replaced are components of the combustion turbines themselves. According to the Siting Board, the upgrades will result in very little, if any, impact on the environment or the surrounding community, and will not result in any increase in air emissions from the facility."
This interactive map shows all of the operable power plants in New York State. Not all of them ran in 2016 or some only ran occasionally, but they could be brought online at least part of the year to generate electricity.
A sixty years 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 other day, I mentioned that with thyristors connected to buck and boost converters, we could have built a much more efficient Direct Current electricity grid without the inherent losses from impedance with Alternating Current. We use 60 Hz AC mainly because it works well with (large) mains transformers and has a relatively low impedance, but it still has a lot of losses from impedance compared to direct current — and causes radio noise and hum. A high-voltage, direct current grid would not only be more efficient, you could bury direct-current lines easier, and not have to worry about storm damage.
The one issue I didn’t really address is the inherent dangers of high-voltage direct current — namely the difficulty of quenching arching, due to the lack of zero voltage crossing point. Direct current, especially high voltage direct current is difficult to break, as if you break mechanically, it will arc over — quite a long distance as the natural quenching of the zero voltage crossing point doesn’t exist like with AC. You can safely break a DC current using a thyristor, but what happens if a power line mechanically fails? It could arc over for some time, before fully breaking, causing enormous amounts of heat to be produced in the mean-time, turning large sections of wire into plasma. A high-voltage alternating current line might arc over and burn for a while, but it would relatively quickly break the connection, once enough of the line vaporized and sufficient air gap existed and the zero-point was crossed.
