Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Sixteen: Inherently Resilient Energy Supplies 281procedures must exist to ensure that [the dispersed sources]…continue to function…andare, in fact, connected to the essential loads, e.g. [vital functions in]buildings, government services, traffic light, etc….[T]he economic loss caused bythe disappearance of these essential services constituted roughly [eighty-three percentof the estimated direct losses in the New York blackout]….The total demandfor essential services is estimated to be in the range of several percent of totaldemand. Thus, [in New York] several hundred megawatts of [dispersedsources]…might have prevented the loss of essential services. 39(It was the failure of traffic signals and street lights which “facilitated looting,caused traffic accidents, and immobilized law enforcement.”]The analysis notes that “although major restrictions affecting [conventional]generation resources such as nuclear moratoriums, fuel embargoes, shutdownof all plants having the same design deficiency[,] and strikes” have notbeen considered in past utility reliability calculations, they may be very damaging“because of the large number of generating units that could be affectedsimultaneously.” 40 Even a rather expensive dispersed source could thus beeconomically justified. 41 But for it to bemost useful during a supply emergency, it is essential that there is a priority loadallocation scheme as well as supervisory control systems and other hardware toensure that the system can, in fact, be operated according to this scheme. In theabsence of priority allocation, essential loads might be curtailed while non-essentialloads continue to be served. In addition, the [dispersed]…generator could easilybe disconnected from the system by its overload, undervoltage, or underfrequencyprotections [if it were thus called upon to serve beyond its capacity]. 42Individual operators of dispersed sources might also need some way tolimit their own loads to essential services in order not to overload the generator;but then idle capacity available to the dispersed users might not get intothe rest of the grid in its moment of need. 43 This too is another unconsidereddesign requirement in the control systems for dispersed renewable sources.There is little research even on the theory of such systems. 44 Ultimately, highnational levels of end-use efficiency could eliminate these control requirementsby allowing the entire grid to depend on inherently resilient, largelylocal sources. But meanwhile, such sources can contribute most to energy preparednessif they are so deployed that they can be brought into play to servethe most vital needs in an emergency.Even ignoring all the potential resiliency benefits of integrating dispersedrenewable sources into the power grid, however, such integration would beworthwhile on classical grounds of utility economics alone. Several recent studieshave shown this in detail. 45 Wind turbines (studied only as government