09-30-2017, 04:39 AM
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/214...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. "
https://www.newscientist.com/article/214...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. "
