The main obstacle to building new transmission lines is siting, better known as the "not in my backyard" effect: Nobody wants power lines near them. One potential way of getting around that is so-called smart metering—hourly readouts of electricity usage that allow utilities to offer price discounts on power during off-peak times. Pilot smart-metering programs are under way in Idaho, California and other states.
Mansoor notes that advanced metering tools might become useful given the potential for increasingly intermittent power sources. Wind power, for example, stops and starts with the breeze, which means system operators would have to adjust the load to compensate. Although wind energy accounts for 19.5 gigawatts of power in the U.S., or less than 2 percent of total power generation, it represented 35 percent of new generating capacity installed in 2007, up from 5 percent in 2003.
An alternative to power lines in cities and other urban areas is power cables based on high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology. When chilled to –321 degrees Fahrenheit (77 kelvins, or –196 degrees Celsius) the composite material yttrium barium copper oxide begins to carry a current with almost zero resistance. HTS power cables can therefore be made smaller than the copper kind.
In a concept called the secure supergrid, would bolster existing transmission lines and would resist the stresses that can cause blackouts, because the lines shut down when the current spikes (reflecting the "almost" in an HTS cable's "almost zero resistance"). Some researchers have proposed combining an HTS supergrid with a coast-to-coast hydrogen pipeline to suppy fuel cells for cars and homes.
The Long Island Power Authority switched on a $50-million, 69-kilovolt HTS system in April to supply power to up to 300,000 homes. Consolidated Edison Company of New York and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have commissioned cables for a $40-million supergrid system in downtown Manhattan known as Project Hydra, scheduled for operation in 2010.
None of these tools would guarantee the extinction of large blackouts. When researchers study very complex systems, whether they be power grids or sandpiles, they often find a simple relationship: The frequency of larger and larger catastrophes—such as blackouts or avalanches—remains relatively high. "If you look at all the steps that have been taken since 2003, I think overall the risk is less today than it was in 2003," Mansoor says. "But the risk is always there."
*Correction (8/14/08): This article originally stated that FERC has approved 83 new reliability standards; that number refers to the first standards to take effect in June 18, 2007.
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11 Comments
Add CommentI feel quite astnished as 45 years ago, when I was a student in electrical engineering, here in Li�ge (Belgium) I spent my hollidys working in an electric power plant on the subject "Phase-energy control system in the national grid.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery few electronic components and systems where available at that time but the old fashionned "relay logic" was able to do the job in Belgium. The current status was to expand the geographic aspect to the next countries, France, Germany and others. What was USA doing since that time? I apologise for my english writing (french would have been easier for me !)
I feel quite astnished as 45 years ago, when I was a student in electrical engineering, here in Liege (Belgium) I spent my hollidys working in an electric power plant on the subject "Phase-energy control system in the national grid". Very few electronic components and systems where available at that time but the old fashionned "relay logic" was able to do the job in Belgium. The current status was to expand the geographic aspect to the next countries, France, Germany and others. What was USA doing since that time? I apologise for my english writing (french would have been easier for me !)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlright. As a person with no power experience, but with an extensive background in analog electronics I have to say that I am throughly confused by this article. A number of statements are made that simply fly in the face of long established knowledge.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) "One of the realizations since 2003 is that "you can't just look at your system. You've got to look at how your system affects your neighbors and vice versa," [...]
It has long been known that you have to have information about neighboring sections of a net if you expect to be able to do anything other than react blindly to changes. It's the nature of power flow in a net! If they're refering to comprehensive knowledge of every node by every other node I'd have to agree that it'd make for a more stable system, but this is prior art and not a discovery. And for it to be fully utilized layers of regional and global supervisory systems have to be created. Perhaps this is what is being refered to but not including these things is not based upon sound knowledge of how to run these systems. Perhaps they're trying to soften their admission on long standing bad practices.
2) "That level of resolution across a network of PMUs could reveal an important electrical property of power lines called phase, which tells whether power generators are rotating in sync with respect to one another, Hines says."
This is astonishing to me. Phase is an essential quantity that must be known at every node for even the simplest systems to be able to work without blowing themselves up. Once again, it's the nature of the beast. Phase has to not only be established before initiating connections but it must be maintained carefully on a moment by moment basis if the net is not to detroy itself. Allowing phase to drift will produce instabilities all by itself and these instabilities are typically underdamped and lead to self destructive oscillations. This has always been known since the earliest attempts (and failures!) to connect systems and I've been told that phase is and has always been carefully monitored. Once again I'm told of a "discovery" that would have made operation of the system impossible up to now had it not been known!
At least the trend towards DC transmission will eventually eliminate phasing problems and reduce the total required knowledge to just load sharing. (Although, extended DC networks still have AC behavior and damping in some form has to address instabilities potentially becoming oscillations.)
i think that this major power failure was caused by a bunch of idiots who dont know how to install a proper security system. seriously this is like million dollar equipment and the government trusts idiots to put up the system. why would they do this if you reach into your money grubing pockets to pay someone real money. This would have saved more money if you only payed a little bit more money. Silly government just doesnt know what their doing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have no idea what you're talking about. Government doesn't run control centers. Power companies do. Security had nothing to do with the black out. The root cause was a software glitch combined with human error combined with bad tree trimming. Before you type comments, you should get educated on the topic and quit blaming your government for every little thing you read about that annoys you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou honestly don't know what you're talking about with your references to "idiots" and "security systems". That had nothing to do with the blackout. Maybe you should run for office.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisalso i dnt think tht this is a very good discussion hahahahaha
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiseven tho i have a twin tht thinks the same way u do dont mean i have to lyk it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiseven though i am gayyy.......i think this is sooo stupid get a life u faggsss <3
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi agree with John_in_PA hahaha u dnt kno wht ur tlkn bout u fool
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisget a lifeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
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