The Ongoing Super Mega Weather Thread v3

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The problem is we need to store for a lot longer than a reasonable sized battery could ever provide. That, and we still need to charge it at a time when solar and wind are low, so you need more generation to do that.


Batteries are great for daily fluctuations but once you look at covering lulls longer than a few hours they don't do that.

Yeah it's definitely far from being able to cover portions of the grid for any sustained period, but I think it could be something that can add some headroom as a short-term alternative to rotating outages

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Locke

Nonsense!

Dont you want to employ this industrious fellow! He's just trying to make a living!

He's getting sent underground so we don't have to look at him.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

He's getting sent underground so we don't have to look at him.

Hey...he's earning bank for the family, swings a pickaxe and smokes a pipe. He's got a hat with a fire on it! He knows what he's about.

"Digging Coal....all night long!"

[PaperBagger'14]

Here's a good (but quick) interview with the PR guy from AESO to give a little context behind who controls what electrically and how we got to the point of possible blackouts yesterday. I’ll also add that while Epcor and Enmax supply power to the office towers downtown, they don’t have control over local things like the interior lighting. That would fall under the property manager of the tower. More or less the building is simply on or off from the utility standpoint, and those are not controlled remotely like some things are through AESO. I would assume it takes a modest amount of time to fully shut down a large tower.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...ts-in-the-cold

[Slava]

So, are we in for round two this evening?

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by Slava

So, are we in for round two this evening?

Hard to say. I know much of the industrial load that I’m involved with is down tonight, just so much equipment failing and impossible to fix it. If others are like us we might skate through tonight. Still won’t take much to tip the balance the wrong way, one turbine goes down and it’s trouble,

[Acey]

Today is playing out identically to yesterday. Sundance #6 still offline, HR Milner still only at 20% due to the fire or whatever issue they had that was mentioned earlier, solar beginning to fall off at 4 pm obviously, and load around 11,100 MW and creeping up for the 4-7 peak.

And there's the warning tweet, about 20 minutes earlier than it was issued yesterday.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1746666316164141284

[Acey]

Note that the Grid Alert tweet is not common; before yesterday and Friday's, the last one was August 29 so the threshold is reasonably high. If things don't get their way and it gets bad again, will it be "crying wolf" for another emergency alert? That's really the dilemma.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Wind farms look fine. Regardless of anything else, picking an energy source based on how visually appealing it is, is unbelievably dumb.

The mere glimpse of a natural gas plant makes me so hawt down there

[chedder]

Currently -237 mw and solar is quickly going to zero for the night.

Hydro looks higher than yesterday but still only 50%. I assume this is due to low flow and winter/ice.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

The mere glimpse of a natural gas plant makes me so hawt down there

I cant imagine your reaction to flare stacks. Are they just irresistible?

[zamler]

Low flow? I don't like the sound of that.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by chedder

Currently -237 mw and solar is quickly going to zero for the night.

Hydro looks higher than yesterday but still only 50%. I assume this is due to low flow and winter/ice.

Not exactly, we’re importing ~200MW right now as well as an unused contingency of ~100MW

[Acey]

Originally Posted by chedder

Currently -237 mw and solar is quickly going to zero for the night.

Two possible positives I see vs last night: we're importing over 100 from BC and bit from MT whereas last night we got nothing from both.

Second thing is that we're getting 85 from wind, primarily from two stations, and looks like the wind speed will stay roughly the same through the peak at both locations as per Weather Network... last night was pretty much nothing.

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by Acey

Two possible positives I see vs last night: we're importing over 100 from BC and bit from MT whereas last night we got nothing from both.

Second thing is that we're getting 85 from wind, primarily from two stations, and looks like the wind speed will stay roughly the same through the peak at both locations as per Weather Network... last night was pretty much nothing.

I think demand is lower too. Last night at 5pm load was around 11700 mw, sitting at 11300 right now. Granted it’s going to go up but we might be a little lower today.

[Locke]

Well I did my bit.

I gave a hobo $20 and a sandwich to climb to the top of a wind turbine and spin it by hand and by God he's givin' 'er!

What have you done to help 'The Grid?'

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Locke

Well I did my bit.

I gave a hobo $20 and a sandwich to climb to the top of a wind turbine and spin it by hand and by God he's givin' 'er!

What have you done to help 'The Grid?'

It's 2024, they are not hobo's, they are unhoused peoples!

JK

[troutman]

What’s worse? Five days at minus 30, or five days of forest fire smoke with air quality 10?

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Slava

So, are we in for round two this evening?

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by troutman

What’s worse? Five days at minus 30, or five days of forest fire smoke with air quality 10?

Can we agree both are awful?