The United States power grid is currently (get it? get it!?) split into three distinct chunks: an Eastern interconnection, a Western interconnection (of which Seattle and Washington State are members) and Texas. Why is Texas separate from the rest? Why indeed.
- Public Domain
Surplus power generated in one interconnection, at this time, cannot be transferred to another. Further, the parts of the continent most promising for wind, solar and geothermal power (i.e. the greenest power choices available right now) are far from where the bulk of power is consumed (the East and West coasts).
Enter the Tres Amigas project—a plant build a superconducting triangle of powerlines to connect these three grids. Using high temperature superconductors allows the power to be transmitted as direct current with similar efficiencies to alternating current. (Mashing together alternating currents from disparate grids is quite problematic, due to issues of phase. Using DC to connect the grids alleviates this problem. Superconductors alleviate some of the inefficiencies of transmitting DC over long distances.)
This is good news from the perspective of green energy. Connecting the East and West coasts to the areas most promising for wind and solar power will boost the economic viability of such projects in the near future. In the negative, this allows for all sorts of new games to be played by energy traders in the largely unregulated energy market.
wow, i keep forgetting how far off the grid my hometown really is. this map brings it back.
If we dropped Mr. Poe on those wires, would he fry out like a moth on the back porch bug zapper?
Well done Jonathan, quality post. I wonder how long it will be until this unregulated market crashes?
Ah, but you can’t mention power grids without talking about Niagara Falls.
S-l-o-w-l-y I turn, step by step, inch by inch. . . .
I vote to keep Texas on its own grid. The less the rest of us have to deal with them, the better.
I thought one of the reasons California had rolling blackouts in – what was it? 2001? 2002? – was because Enron was sending electricity to the East Coast. This isn’t true, is it? It was because of speculation about the price, similar to recent speculation about $200/barrel oil or mortgage/default swaps, right?
Why on earth do we still allow that type of insane speculation that leads to insane bubbles that lead to insane recessions/depressions?
Nice post.
There is so much we can be doing better. Off the top of my head, Phoenix could but solar panels over their irregation channels, because right now those irregation channels are uncoverd in the dessert sun and the water is evaporating as we speak. There is a reason Phoenix sits in the Valley of the Sun, lets use that sun Arizona. And, California please use those wind farms, it’s depressing to drive by turbines just sitting there while the wind buffets the cars along interstate 10.
Is Seattle separate from Washington state?
The interconnection is a cool idea. I wonder how long they plan to make each arm of the link? If all the want to do is decouple phase issues in the three regions, then each arm could be like just a mile long, reaching into each of the three regions, before linking to conventional AC lines in each region. But that would mean enormously beefing up the capacity of the AC lines in each region leading to the “corner” where the three regions touch. Depending on how much this superconducting link costs per mile (my guess: a whole heckuva lot) it might make more economic sense to run the DC links deep into each region, say Dallas to Indiana to Reno. Or, hell, run the links E-W from Dallas and then send arms right up the eastern and wester seaboards, with multiple conversion nodes for dishing power out to the conventional AC grid along the way. That would mean you could have a lot fewer overhead high-voltage AC lines running power up and down the coasts. Downside: (i) it would cost umpty gazillion dolars. (ii) it would be a might tempting target for terrorism, especially after pattens of production and consumption grow up around the link in such a way as to leave us totally screwed if the line is taken down.
Jonathon, I’m confused– You say that this is needed to get power from most promising green sources, to the coasts. But aren’t many of those most promising sources (specifically solar and wind) already in states that are part of the western grid? It seems to me this is a good idea overall, but more about getting power to the east coast?
Bad news. We have some of the cheapest power in the country right now. By making it possible to sell our cheap hydro power to the eastern U.S., this will inevitably increase our rates.
Or.
You could just plug all the gas leaks.
That would cut emissions dramatically.
And save energy.
Will @12: I think you meant to start your post with
“And.”
In which case, yep, good idea.
You might have at least casually mentioned how difficult it actually would be to set up superconducting transmission lines. So far, nobody has produced a superconductor that can work above the temperature of liquid nitrogen, which is still really really cold. Yes, there’s active research, but since the initial promise of high-temp superconductors of 1986, not a lot of progress has been made towards producing superconductors that are actually useful for this application. So, it’s not just stringing (or burying) wires that would be involved here – this would an incredibly expensive project – wires and the cooling apparatus to keep them cool.
None of this is mentioned in the report you link. Probably because it’s a finance report, not a science report. You’re a science writer, Jonathan – you know this, or you at least know how to look it up.
11, Seattle is somewhat protected in that we own enough generating capacity to handle about half of our load. It would only truly be a problem for us if they privatized Bonneville (which the Republicans bring up from time to time)
Additionally, as I understand it at least, part of the reason our rates are low is because we sell surplus power. If we can get more money for that surplus power, that means lower rates.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to JD Ross. Not only did he develop the Skagit project, he was also the driving force behind the whole NW power pool, and one of the earliest administrators of BPA.
Speaking of wind turbines, and forgive me if I go all Will-in-Seattle off-topic on you here, we were up at PSE’s Wild Horse Wind Facility last weekend. A truly spectacular place, open to the public, only an hour and a half from the city. You should check it out. 129 turbines, something like 350 feet tall, spread out across the hillside. It’s like being in a sci-fi movie. The visitor center sucks (carry on down the road to the Gingko Petrified Forest State Park to see how a visitor center should be done), but don’t let the lame interactive touch screens distract you from the awesome views. 16 miles east of Ellensburg on the Old Vantage Highway.
It is my understanding that high voltage DC transmission is much more efficient than high voltage AC transmission- at any temperature. It is because AC voltage is much more economically stepped up and down than DC voltage that we have an AC grid. If one is transmitting over long distances and only stepping up and down at the ends, such as connecting regional power grids, then DC is the better way of transmitting energy.
#17: correct. AC is inherently less efficient, due to the skin effect. AC only became the standard because it used to be practically impossible to do voltage conversion on DC lines.
I’ve actually pointed this out before, but I guess Johnathan doesn’t read his comments.
Hmm…Texas, Alaska and Quebec. All states/provinces with separatist movements.