Why Does the U.S. Have Three Electrical Grids? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Does the U.S. Have Three Electrical Grids?

#151

Post by suifbwish » Wed, Oct 21, 2020, 11:23 PM UTC

tlamponi wrote: post #125

danw1979 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The total transmission capacity between the two grids is 1.2 GW" That's a tiny amount for an industrialised nation of 125 million people, considering that the border between the grids cuts right between Tokyo and the other western centres of population. I think this, and the nuclear power shutdown, lend some context to Japan’s push for a hydrogen economy.

That's only the inter-grid exchange capability, over AC1 DC AC2 transformation, not the total one If you read the article, the US has about the same inter-grid exchange capability for the west and east coast grids. Japan has alone over 50 GW of solarpower, and that's only a small share of their energy mix. They produced 1009 TWh in 2015, that'd be an average of 117.95 GW, and usage is seldom average, but with daily p…

Oh yeah.. you can definitely tell they have electricity from space at night

Re: Why Does the U.S. Have Three Electrical Grids?

#152

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 4:01 AM UTC

tonyarkles wrote: post #138

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #124

Too much efficiency is dangerous: it makes the overall system more vulnerable because it removes redundancies, increasing systemic risk. Decision processes are not scale-invariant: politics, and therefore susceptibility to corruption, increases, transparency decreases. Not saying a unified grid is not worth it, but there are downsides that might not be immediately obvious.

I definitely picked up on the same thing, remembering the east coast blackout in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

You don't know the contra positive though, would the spare capacity in the rest of the system have prevented it?

Re: Why Does the U.S. Have Three Electrical Grids?

#153

Post by MrBuddyCasino » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 10:53 AM UTC

X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #152

tonyarkles wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely picked up on the same thing, remembering the east coast blackout in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

You don't know the contra positive though, would the spare capacity in the rest of the system have prevented it?

My point is that the spare capacity would evaporate, as the higher-cost power plants would be shut down.

Re: Why Does the U.S. Have Three Electrical Grids?

#154

Post by amaccuish » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

jhoechtl wrote: post #95

gumby wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the disadvantage of increasing the risk if one is electrocuted. Avoiding this was one of the design parameters of the "Schucho" plug design that is reasonably standard across Europe. You'll note the three prong plug has a longer ground that makes a connection before any hot one does. The US three prong is supposed to work that way too but the ground pin isn't long enough. I continue to be amazed how many device…

Its Schuko, short for SCHutzKOntak, "contacts and ground".

If we're being pedantic, it stands for "Protection contact"

Re: Why Does the U.S. Have Three Electrical Grids?

#155

Post by rbg246 » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 11:34 PM UTC

ggm wrote: post #59

rbg246 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/australian-gold-plate... It seems to be both overinvested and underinvested? How can it be both? (Sorry looking for insight not trying to disprove what you say)

Gold plating is a bit of a misnomer. Capital investment made in transmission was assured a rate of return above CPI. It was a gold class, form of spending money to earn future revenue under regulation. They didn't invest in the parts which we need now, in the light of shifts in transmission models from Coal and Gas, to both inter-state dependencies on trunks, and the in-local-distribution network storage and generati…

Thanks, that was really interesting. Always hear one side of news, especially when it's a semi-complex subject and I will have a look at reneweconomy.