Smart Grid Resilience Raises Agenda As Texas Freezes

Despite the early attempts to paint Texas blackouts as a result of over-reliance on renewables, it appears that grid resistance is to blame. That opens up a series of questions about the need for grid interconnections, new investments in infrastructure and increased support for the deployment of renewable energy.

Earlier this year, Filippo Gaddo, Arup’s Head of Energy Economics, warned that the combination of supply, variable demand and changing weather conditions will put more pressure on grids and grids. There is growing awareness of the potential impact of severe weather conditions on network resilience, from the winter storm that destroyed the Texas network, to heat damage to the California network last year.

While some initial responses to the Texas energy crisis contained allegations that the failure in Texas was due to frozen wind turbines and problems with other renewable assets, it now appears that the key problem was the lack of weather protection in natural gas. , coal and even nuclear assets. . In simple terms, the system was not prepared for the weather. At a news conference, Dan Woodfin, senior director of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), said that much of the generation that had spiked or shut down was due to problems with the natural gas system.

Reed Blakemore, Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, said: “Despite frozen wind turbines making the headlines, coal, nuclear and natural gas production (all of which supply more inputs to the grid in winter than wind or solar) also underperform due to the severity of freezing, which makes the current crisis less of a problem of reliability of one power source than of another. “The central issue is that the electrification of the grid must go hand in hand with the modernization of the grid.

While some wind turbines were taken out of service with ice, the main concern is the failure of effective asset management. Turbines in the Arctic Circle have operated in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit). Many turbines, including Vestas Wind Systems A / S Cold Climate Solutions, are now designed to operate in cold climates, providing low temperature operation, ice detection, and both antifreeze and antifreeze options.

Anders Riis, Vestas Head of Communications, said: “Wind turbines, when equipped with cold weather solutions, can withstand weather conditions like those seen in Texas and continue to operate regularly safely and reliably in environments that regularly experience extreme cold weather, including Canada, Minnesota, the Dakotas, New York, Sweden, Denmark, and more. If we want to accurately diagnose what happened today to prevent tomorrow’s crisis, we must use facts, and although wind and solar power experienced outages, performed within the expectations of the grid operator. Wind power already works in cold climates, so let’s try to figure out how we can create a more resilient and sustainable energy system. The solutions are here and they don’t make the crisis worse climatic “.

The problem is one of preparedness and resilience. An unprecedented cold increased demand for electricity in Texas just as the weather was creating grid problems. The problem is that, to use insurance language, the ‘100-year storms’ that used to occur every hundred years or so are now becoming more frequent and the infrastructure is not up to the challenge. At least 30 GW of fossil fuels and nuclear power reportedly went offline on 15^thFebruary, along with 16GW of renewable energy.

Will Jolley, Director of Technical Sales, LevelTen Energy said, “With more renewable energy projects replacing natural gas and better winter weatherization standards, the grid would be more resilient during extreme weather events, which are expected to increase in frequency due to climate change. In the long term, it will require transmission upgrades, smart grid technology and data management to accommodate the growing demand for renewable energy, which must flow from the country’s large wind and solar farms to the metropolitan areas where it is most needed. “

The real question is the approach that the administration will take in terms of addressing infrastructure failures. In Texas, for example, one of the reasons for the collapse of the network is its isolation, understood as a response to a local historical desire to keep federal interference out of state business. However, is this something that can continue if the network is to be able to deliver? With ERCOT responsible for about 90% of Texas generation, the lack of interstate transmission lines means there is nowhere to divert power from.

As Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) noted, “During the peak of power outages this holiday weekend, more than 5 million Midwestern homes saw their lights on due to seven gigawatts (GW) of electricity. shared from a regional network in the east, PJM, to one in the midwest, MISO. This was made possible by some of the very limited interregional transmissions in the US Building more high capacity interregional lines is an essential part of the effort to ensure network reliability in an era of climate change. ”

The role of distributed generation, especially low-carbon generation, will be important here. Isabel Beltrán, Director, Rockefeller Foundation Energy, Energy and Climate Resilience Initiative, says: “One way to mitigate the impact of weather events on critical power supplies is by leveraging distributed renewable energy grids. These can provide safe, reliable and local energy that is resistant to disasters, offering a vision for a more sustainable energy system in the future.

The need to develop adequate infrastructure is key to creating a network that is resilient, flexible and sustainable, but that does not always mean rigid lines. If we want to develop a truly resilient network system, we need more effective protection, control, automation and communication systems, not only to manage the network itself, but also the many devices and sensors that make up an intelligent network.

James McMahon, Vice President of Charles River Associates said: “Power outages in Texas reveal a problem that goes far beyond the management of transmission lines … Traditional network planning processes are no longer acceptable as flexible use of the network is required. A digitized network that supports a diverse and distributed set of resources is needed to manage uncertainty. Prioritization is urgently needed, and if these recent events have taught us anything, it is that now is the time to get serious about prevention and address solutions that may not be easy, but that pave the way for network resilience.

Steve Melink, founder and CEO of the renewable energy and energy efficiency building solutions group Melink Corp, agrees, noting that thousands of building owners in the US are already installing solar panels to save energy. Adding battery storage is the next logical step in creating microgrids where they no longer depend on the main grid for critical power needs. He says: “The goal should be to develop a smart grid as resilient as the Internet with millions of nodes comprised of distributed power and battery storage systems. No catastrophic event should be able to remove a wide swath of our network and negatively impact our economy, safety and health as a nation. The private sector would have as much interest in this as the public sector, so companies should help lead and finance this effort as much as the government.