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Unique Characteristics of Electricity that Increase Energy Costs
Published in John Eggink, Managing Energy Costs: A Behavioral and Non-Technical Approach, 2020
One consequence of not being able to effectively store electrical energy, or keep any electricity inventory, is that utilities must always have the capacity to manufacture the maximum required electrical energy that customers demand.2 If the consumers demand for electricity is greater than utilities can supply, it creates tremendous problems and can cause the entire grid to collapse. One analogy is perhaps that of riding a bike. It is easy to balance and stay up when we are moving quickly, but as the bike slows, we become unstable. If the utility generators cannot maintain their desired speed, corresponding voltage, and frequency, the system will crash. To avoid a catastrophic failure, utilities will turn off electricity to small geographical areas to keep the generators running. This controlled outage, often called a rolling blackout, is a desperate maneuver designed to keep the power grid from collapsing. Power outages can have tragic consequences and even result in loss of life, as traffic signals and other essential equipment fail.
PV Power Generation
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Photovoltaics for Commercial and Utilities Power Generation, 2020
Other power quality problems may also be considered reliability problems because they occur when the transmission system is not capable of meeting the load on the system, such as: Brownouts are a persistent lowering of system voltage caused by too many electric loads on the transmission line.Blackouts are, of course, a complete loss of power. Unanticipated blackouts are caused by equipment failures, such as downed power lines, blown transformers, or a failed relay circuits.“Rolling” blackouts are intentionally imposed upon a transmission grid when the loads exceed the generation capabilities. By blacking out a small sector of the grid for a short time, some of the load on the grid is removed, allowing the grid to continue serving the rest of the customers. To spread the burden among customers, the sector that is blacked out is changed every 15 minutes or so—and hence, the blackouts “roll” through the grid’s service area.
Work Domain Analysis of Power Grid Operations
Published in Neville A. Stanton, Paul M. Salmon, Guy H. Walker, Daniel P. Jenkins, Cognitive Work Analysis, 2017
Antony Hilliard, Fiona F. Tran, Greg A. Jamieson
Electric blackouts are a severe risk to the welfare and security of households, health and emergency services, and more. Due to the critical nature of power grid infrastructure and the growing sources of system uncertainty, operators need appropriate tools to support a complete and accurate understanding of the state and trajectory of these rapidly evolving complex systems.
Temporal networks: a review and opportunities for infrastructure simulation
Published in Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 2022
Mohamed Salama, Mohamed Ezzeldin, Wael El-Dakhakhni, Michael Tait
The temporal behavior of power networks can be easily observed in two aspects. First, power networks are typically subjected to load balancing between supply and demand. The supply may change frequently due to the fluctuation of renewable energy sources such as wind. In addition, power storage infrastructure has only limited capacities to store electric power; thus, any overproduced electric power must be transferred and consumed within the larger power network (grid). Moreover, the demand for electricity continuously varies throughout the day (Nardelli et al., 2014) and based on numerous factors including weather conditions. Subsequently, the electric loads on power stations and transmission lines vary continuously over time. Second, a blackout is a typical example of the dynamic nature of power networks (Carreras et al., 2001). A blackout can be initiated by several causes including those attributed to weather conditions, network component failures, or human errors. It should also be noted that a small disruption in some key components may lead to overload on other components and start a chain of cascade failures, which can spread throughout the network (Bernstein et al., 2014; Costa et al., 2011).
Power outage and environmental justice in Winter Storm Uri: an analytical workflow based on nighttime light remote sensing
Published in International Journal of Digital Earth, 2023
Jinwen Xu, Yi Qiang, Heng Cai, Lei Zou
With the changing climate, an increasing number and intensity of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, winter storms, thunderstorms, and tornadoes, pose an unprecedented threat to human society. The serviceability of critical infrastructures (CIs) during extreme weather events is of critical importance to socio-economic activities (Deshmukh, Ho Oh, and Hastak 2011). Published evidence shows that disinvestment and poor maintenance of CIs often lead to greater losses in human communities (Chang 2003; Mastroianni et al. 2021). Additionally, disruptions of CIs in extreme weather events may add extra burdens to disadvantaged communities (Hendricks and Van Zandt 2021). Thus, the serviceability and resilience of CIs in extreme weather events are often associated with social equality and environmental justice. As lifeline infrastructure systems, electrical power systems are critical for socioeconomic activities but vulnerable to multiple types of hazards. The failures of electric power systems may trigger a series of cascading effects (Kwasinski et al. 2019). Long-lasting blackouts affect food and water supplies, disrupting communication and leaving people in discomforting conditions (e.g. heat, cold, and darkness) (Casey et al. 2020; Klinger, Landeg, and Murray 2014). When combined with freezing temperatures, blackouts can cause damage to building structures and pose threats to people’s lives and health (Dominianni et al. 2018). Underserved and marginalized population groups often suffer greater impacts due to the lack of adaptive capacities (Min, O’Keeffe, and Zhang 2017). Thus, timely and fine-resolution assessments of power outages in extreme weather events are of critical importance for emergency response, disaster relief, and policymaking to mitigate inequalities and injustice in disasters.