[Orcnet] Digital Power Grid -- Re: Wind power and gas turbines

[H. Joe Tabor]

Fellow ORCNETers,

I chose my career path poorly, choosing to the analog path over
digital.  Seems like the world view for the last 3 decades has
been (1) everything is going digital and (2) digital is better.

My mom is visiting, so I was watching TV with her, and the
great billionaire Ted Turner comes on and talks about the future
of energy -- something about the southwestern US states making
all the solar power, and connecting the country on the "Digital Power
Grid."

My first thought is someone is getting rich selling digital snake
oil to billionaires.  My second thought is that a digital power 
grid is one of the long distance lines that is very high voltage DC
(up to 1MV), and is at logic 0 when the power is off, and logic 1 
when the power is on.  My third thought was a google check.
I did a google check on "Digital Power Grid."   Got a lot of hits.

Here is what I got from "Emerging Trends Report," an excerpt of
an "Exectutive Summary" by a Richard Karn:  (Please at least read
the last sentence!)

Evolution by its very nature is a never-ending series of experiments, some fostering advancement, others impeding it. Interconnection is the prime example of the former while deregulation has proven to be an evolutionary dead end, one consequence of which has been the paradox that the very mechanism that has enabled so much of the technological innovation of the last generation has itself employed so comparatively little of it. Where computers, remote sensors, advanced modeling and myriad electronic devices have transformed every other major industry, the electrical grid effectively remains ‘dumb.’ However, now that the deregulation’s failure has been widely recognized, regulatory uncertainties are being resolved, long-ignored upgrades expedited, and changes that reflect the needs of the marketplace implemented. Combined, the electricity industry is building momentum toward its next evolutionary leap— to an electronically-enabled electric grid delivering digital-quality power. 

An article from CISCO talks about this.

An article describes a new digital power grid in China.

Does this mean that... 
(1) We will be getting "digital quality power." (from the article above)
    Does this mean that our EMI problems will get about 80dB worse than 
    they are now?  Gosh, I hope this doesn't mean that PWM driven
    power lines are the way of the future!
(2) If the digital power grid is managed by computers, who will
    take it over and decide who gets power between the priviledged 
    "1's" or the underpriviledged "0's?"  
    (A) Hackers
    (B) Viruses, Back Doors, Program Bugs or Microsoft Code
    (C) Politicians
    (D) Corporations who bribe politicians
    (E) All of the above
(3) Sometimes, but rarely an existing power grid fails.  I guess  
    we need to call the existing power grids "Analog Grids" with
    the modern definition that Analog means old and antiquated, and 
    solidly proven to work with acceptable reliability.  So, will a
    digital grid fail (A) every day or (B) at every software upgrade? 
(4) Will the digital power grid make analog problems go away, like
    a need for "standby" power stations when the wind doesn't blow
    or the sun doesn't shine.
(5) Old Fashion (Analog) power gridsis based on imaginary numbers.  
    Is a digital power grid based on something beyond imaginary numbers?  
    Maybe "false numbers."  Complex numbers in 2 axes, Unimaginably false
    numbers in 3 axes?

Please, friends, help me with this brave new world.

Joe T.


-----Original Message-----
>From: Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com>
>Sent: Dec 2, 2008 5:34 PM
>To: orcnet <orcnet at eeconsult.org>
>Subject: [Orcnet] Wind power and gas turbines
>
>
>I was reading somewhere that many utilities are accomodating
>unpredictable wind power output with standby natural gas turbine 
>generators to fill in when the wind isn't blowing.  Coal and
>nuclear power don't turn on as fast as wind can appear and
>disappear, while smaller gas turbines can come up to speed
>in less than a minute.
>
>This is allegedly the case in Europe.  Spain and Germany are
>building gas turbine plants to match the power levels of the
>extensive windmill farms they are building, and building new
>gas pipes to Gazprom in Russia.  T. Boone Pickens is promoting
>windmills - and also makes billions selling natural gas.
>
>I don't know how much this is the case for the windmills here in
>Oregon.  I suspect the Bradwood Landing gas terminal is partly
>an accomodation to wind power.  As I understand it, the hydro
>dams can accomodate some of the difference, but the dams on the
>Columbia are mostly "running river" dams, with computer models
>driving water releases from reservoirs in Canada days before
>the bolus runs through the lower Columbia dams.  Hydro helps
>power providers accomodate predictable usage variation, but
>perhaps not erratic changes in the wind.  Maybe someone can
>enlighten me about actual practice. 
>
>Windmills might make a lot more sense with a globally-connected 
>international power grid smoothing out regional variations.
>Perhaps someday we will figure out how to do that, politically
>and technically.  Until then, some of the windmill projects may
>be expensive showpieces, touted by gas suppliers and distracting
>us from more practical conservation and load shifting projects.
>
>Keith
>
>-- 
>Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
>KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
>Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
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