So the election was an interesting diversion, and I don’t want to diminish the importance of it but we still have a lot of the same players at hand, even if the board is in flux.
I was going to take a break for the rest of the week, but, oh well. Here goes:
It was no real surprised today when I saw a headline which read VY plant’s closure likely to affect grid.
Well, sure. Any time you remove or add a power source, it will affect the power grid. The article notes that:
The computer simulated assessment from the Independent System Operator (ISO) New England reports Vermont and New York could face overloads — defined as more electricity flowing through the system’s equipment than it can handle, which could lead to the lines heating up, sagging, possibly melting and eventually shutting down — in the system if the nuclear facility goes out of service once its license expires in roughly 17 months.
That sounds like a problem. It’s not irrelevant, but it’s not exactly unexpected. The article itself, somewhat down the page a bit also notes that:
Chris Dutton, CEO of Vermont Electric Power Company, Inc. (VELCO), said problems within the state would likely revolve around low voltage issues — such problems are likely resolvable with minor equipment modifications in different substations.
[…]
However, simulated findings showed potential deficiencies were expected to rise under certain conditions in 2018 absent improvements to the grid, which were similar with or without Yankee in operation.
In other words, these are issues we need to resolve regardless of whether or not the plant continues operation.
And these modifications that need to be made? Did anyone involved in the state’s electric grid start planning to make these modifications once it was, you know, enacted in law that Vermont Yankee would not be relicensed?
…that’s what VELCO is now doing, as illustrated by the article quoted.
US FERC audit finds Entergy continues to have grid errors, issues
Washington (Platts)–2Nov2010/643 pm EDT/2243 GMT
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedD…
I do not understand the full import of the above story. Funny, everyone who has any interaction w/Entergy seems to ‘fault’ them for something.
As far as affecting ‘the grid’, it’s made to sound like an insurmountable difficulty.
In this tech-savvy world w/all of the ‘experts’, it would appear they are a dime a dozen.
I mean no disrespect to ‘experts’, but this is sounding just a little too weird, like it will take an innumerable consortium & vast team of rocket scientists to puzzle out.
Aren’t there ppl who do this sort of thing for a living???
With every step to closure, the dire predictions of disaster looming on the horizon, which I have investigated & privately debunked appear w/ever increasing frequency.
Soo, this has never been done before???
… participate in the regional power auction, which created a self-fulfilling scenario:
Since Yankee’s power production is included in the models of the grid’s behavior post-2012, removing its power after that point becomes a “problem.”
If, instead Entergy had been allowed to remove itself from the auction, then the models created from the auction results would have been created without Yankee’s power, and the removal of Yankee would have changed nothing.