USA isn't in much of a better position. Large scale transformer blowouts are a nightmare scenario due to how long they take to replace / repair.
I work on one of the densest power grids in the world (NYC) on the team which does emergency transformer replacements and can possibly answer questions about this. From failure to in service for a single transformer in Manhattan is down to 2-3 weeks. That includes design and engineering (my part), permitting, and construction. For fast transformer replacements we rely on two paths, either system spares (identical uni…
How long would NYC be out in the case of a massive solar flare that blows out all transformers in the city?
Even worse when a generator goes out (or is destroyed). It can take months to get a new one. Hope we don't have multiple generators go out at once. They're not just sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be picked up.
This is the nightmare scenario that we would have if a Carrington-class solar flare hit the earth. Many transformers would be blown out by the induced electricity in power lines. The attached article describes economic losses in the trillions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_2012
Argentina is world’s eighth largest country. I find it mind blowing that you can have a power outage that covers the whole country (+ some more).
It isn't really though. A cascading failure can knock out an entire grid. The Northeast blackout is an example. A line goes out. while (there some lines are still live): The current redistributes itself among neighboring lines. Neighboring lines trip end BlackStart() BlackStart() is fun. Having your plants and grid down is like having a dead battery (plants use ~30% of the electricity they gen on themselves) and no o…
Technically there is a last step you didn't mention. At some point after your island is ready, you'll want to reconnect with other islands. I've never done it in real life, but have done so in many simulations.
I forget the exact calculations involved (it's been years and I'm no longer involved with that area of operations), but you want to make sure your frequency matches the grid you're connecting with to within a certain amount. I think the stations which connect neighboring areas usually have extra monitoring equipment for a variety of energy accounting reasons, but also to measure the frequency on each side to see if it's a go or no go. I believe they use synchroscopes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchroscope) to do this.
Edit: it looks like y'all started talking about this below and I missed it, but the information is good, so I'm leaving it up.
What do you do for a living, and how can I learn more about it? This stuff fascinates me and you've explained it really well.
The EPRI Power System Dynamics tutorial is a free resource that is really solid https://www.epri.com/#/pages/product/1016042/?lang=en-US .
Can confirm. This is one of THE best references out there for explaining a lot of key power systems topics. I didn't think it was publically available though?
Argentina is world’s eighth largest country. I find it mind blowing that you can have a power outage that covers the whole country (+ some more).
Puerto Rico was without power for months after Hurricane Maria.
Not that the PR grid was a an example of reliability before the hurricane. I had to endure hours and sometimes days with no power rather consistently.
Maria wasnt the only hurricane that left us in the dark. George and Hortense were a 2 month ordeal with no power (aside from small gasoline generators) in the town I grew up.
How resilient has the cellular phone network been in this outage? How resilient is the municipal water system in an outage like this? Do most people in Argentina and Uruguay cook with (piped/tank) gas or electric ranges?
I haven't tracked the cellphone network status continuously, but here in Buenos Aires, I had a VoIP call from 8:30 to 9:00 which worked fine. Until it didn't, at about 9:00, but that's par for the course with fucking Movistar. I was using cellphone data because the power was out in the house. I didn't realize it was out in the entire country. Here in Argentina, municipal water is totally reliable (I've never heard of…
Not OP, but deeply interesting to me and especially so as I travel around South America.
I am completely fascinated by the home infrastructure choices in different parts of the world. I'm currently in Sao Paulo and the hot water setup is a little scary. There's no hot water reserve or hot water plumbing at all.
The only hot water source is in the shower. It's heated electrically in real time by a 5000W appliance that sits just above the shower head. The only way to change water temperature is by turning a knob on the appliance. In homes with bad grounding, this results in shocks often enough that my hosts have shown me Brazilian memes about it.
We just went through a couple of outages in Venezuela. The first one was 5 days, the second one 3 days. After day 2 you start getting worried because everything failed, including the water service (they've been badly maintained and they don't generate their own power) and cell phone service. Lots of already scarce food was lost because people had no way to refrigerate it. At least it made for some nice neighborhood c…
That is scary. Our distant family in Venezuela have fled to Chile. Those left behind have died.
Yeah, it's a scary situation. A couple of days into the outage you start to hear about people looting and you can understand how a situation like that can get out of hand really fast.
As a curious note, my sister fled to Bs. Aires a few months ago (along with a the thousands of others that have been leaving), now she's going through this blackout over there.
[2] and [3] refer to June 15; [4] refers to June 16. Is your text correct? What can be learned from the numbers on the 500 kV lines?
If you change the links to june 16th, you'll what they were trying to say: http://www.cammesa.com/uflujpot.nsf/FlujoW?OpenAgent&Flujo%2... http://www.cammesa.com/uflujpot.nsf/FlujoW?OpenAgent&Flujo%2...
Good catch, the links in my previous post are not accurate. The correct links for [2][3][4] are:
The 500 kV lines form the backbone of Argentina's power grid. The drastic fall in power flows shows the massive shedding of load and generating capacity, as presumably plants disconnected from the grid for safety. One can step through the next few hours to see how generation was restarted.
I haven't tracked the cellphone network status continuously, but here in Buenos Aires, I had a VoIP call from 8:30 to 9:00 which worked fine. Until it didn't, at about 9:00, but that's par for the course with fucking Movistar. I was using cellphone data because the power was out in the house. I didn't realize it was out in the entire country. Here in Argentina, municipal water is totally reliable (I've never heard of…
Not OP, but deeply interesting to me and especially so as I travel around South America. I am completely fascinated by the home infrastructure choices in different parts of the world. I'm currently in Sao Paulo and the hot water setup is a little scary. There's no hot water reserve or hot water plumbing at all. The only hot water source is in the shower. It's heated electrically in real time by a 5000W appliance that…
Yeah, electric showers are common in much of Latin America. In theory you could build them to be safe, but often they aren't. I showered with a tank-based electric shower today: you fill the tank, plug it in until it's hot, unplug it, step underneath, and open the valve. This arrangement has less risk of electrical shock, but it's far less convenient. Because the power was out, I filled it with hot water from the tankless gas heater, but it was able to cool enough in the process that it was more like a lukewarm shower than a hot one.
I work on one of the densest power grids in the world (NYC) on the team which does emergency transformer replacements and can possibly answer questions about this. From failure to in service for a single transformer in Manhattan is down to 2-3 weeks. That includes design and engineering (my part), permitting, and construction. For fast transformer replacements we rely on two paths, either system spares (identical uni…
How long would NYC be out in the case of a massive solar flare that blows out all transformers in the city?
At 2-3 weeks a piece... let's just say we'll be eating twinkies for at least 2 years?