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+--- Thread: PR's Power Grid Challenges - Could Happen Here (/showthread.php?tid=18814)
PR's Power Grid Challenges - Could Happen Here - leilanidude - 09-30-2017
This is a well written article on what has happened with Puerto Rico's power grid. This could be the same scenario here in the event of a major hurricane.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2149019-why-puerto-rico-still-has-no-electrical-power-and-how-to-fix-it/
This part is particularly scary:
"Nobody knows how long it will take to get the grid back online. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) can’t restore power without assistance, because it filed for bankruptcy in July under a crippling $9 billion debt.
The American Public Power Association (APPA), of which PREPA is a member, says the damage must first be assessed before it can determine how long repairs will take.
“We don’t know if this is going to be a six-month situation, a five-month situation,” says Mike Hyland, APPA’s senior vice president of engineering. "
and this:
"Power was swiftly restored on the mainland US, but the situation in Puerto Rico is far worse, says Alexis Kwasinski at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Manpower is a factor. Places affected by Irma and Harvey benefited from “mutual assistance agreements”, which send electric crews from other states to help with repairs.
The severity of the damage is a bigger issue. Power grids are made up of three parts: generation, transmission and distribution. Typically, hurricanes and similar disasters mostly damage the distribution system, says Kwasinski. That’s what happened in Texas and Florida. But in Puerto Rico all three components have been damaged, so the repair job is bigger.
“More importantly, those states didn’t completely lose power like Puerto Rico did,” says Kwasinksi. “When the whole grid goes down, and you have to begin again from nothing, it’s much more complicated.”
This tricky process is called a black start. The challenge is that big power stations need a supply of electricity to start up, which has to come from smaller generators.
Kwasinski compares the generators that supply a power grid to a group of people holding up a big block of concrete. Once the block is up, each additional person makes it more stable, and with care it is possible to keep it up. But if everyone puts the block down, it takes painstaking work to lift it back up again. "
RE: PR's Power Grid Challenges - Could Happen Here - leilanidude - 09-30-2017
Discovered some docs on what has to happen for a "black Start". It is much more intensive than what I thought and helps to explain why there was such an issue when Iselle knocked out PGV. many people here here were upset that PGV didn't have "a generator" available to restart their system.
As it turns out, these would not be just a generator. They are very specific devices that have to be able to handle intense loads and backfeed issues as well as be able to be tripped off/on multiple times during a restart.
http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Services/Balancing-services/System-security/Black-Start/Black-start-about-the-service/
RE: PR's Power Grid Challenges - Could Happen Here - Chunkster - 09-30-2017
It was a crew from Maui that restored power in our section of HPP after Iselle, so there is some history of outside help. Iselle, although certainly an epic event for Puna, was small potatoes in terms of both its severity and the size of the area affected. A more severe storm or one that affected more than just one corner of one island would easily result in Puerto Rico-like hopelessness. Getting electric crews to Hawaii from the West Coast would be fairly easy compared to the logistics of transporting the equipment necessary for them to do much good.
RE: PR's Power Grid Challenges - Could Happen Here - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 09-30-2017
compared to the logistics of transporting the equipment necessary for them to do much good.
After Iselle it took Hawaiian Telcom a month to get the wires they needed shipped in from the west coast. I called them several times after the storm, at no time did they offer an explanation whether it was due to supply or shipping problems.
About two weeks after the storm, I spoke with a high level supervisor and mentioned that roads were open, electric power was restored, and wouldn't they at least be able to set up a series of dsl wireless hotspots so we could drive to those locations and check our email? He said, "that's a really good idea." I thought he was shining me on in an attempt to get me off the phone. Two days later they had set up a Hawaiian Telcom wireless hotspot at the HPP community center.
The Donner Party really wasn't that great of a party, was it?