Category Archives: Electric Grid

How the electric grid works is important to understand they myriad ways it could fail, including lack of maintenance after deregulation, the essential role of natural gas as the backup since batteries, hydropower, and compressed air storage can’t be scaled up, the difficulties in setting up a smart grid, or a distributed grid and more

Electricity Energy Information Administration (EIA) Frequently Asked Questions

Energy Information Administration (EIA) Frequently Asked Questions about Electricity n 2013, the United States generated about 4,058 billion kilowatthours of electricity.  About 67% of the electricity generated was from fossil fuel (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), with 39% attributed from … Continue reading

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Electric Grid Energy Storage

Storing electricity Electricity can’t be stored. It has to be converted to something else.   Nearly all of the electric grid storage (95%) comes from pumping water up to a reservoir so the water can fall again and generate electricity. But … Continue reading

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Electric Grid Overview

[ Our energy, transportation, electric, water and other infrastructures are all heavily dependent on each other, making the U.S. one of the most vulnerable nations on earth.  Although transportation is the most essential of all, especially trucks, which make the … Continue reading

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Grid has too many owners, forget about increasing the size and strength

Summary of The New York Times article below: There are too many commercial and government players. with too many conflicting interests, plus regulatory hurdles, as well as too much money required to maintain, improve, or expand the grid. What this … Continue reading

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Long-Term Reliability of Power Systems In North America

North American Electric Reliability Council. Oct 2006. Summary of 2006 Long-Term Reliability Assessment: The Reliability of the Bulk Power Systems In North America Capacity Margin — Capacity that could be available to cover random factors such as forced outages of … Continue reading

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Microgrids not yet possible with today’s technology

Preface. This article says that renewables do increase grid fluctuations, but that power trading fluctuations were even larger, and that with current technology, microgrids are not possible yet. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the … Continue reading

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