<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/nuclear-plant-trips-due-to-fire-and-battery-storage-steps-in-to-stabilises-the-grid/>
"What happens when a giant nuclear power station suddenly goes off line? It’s a
question that market operators have to ask themselves all the time, and one
that the Coalition might want to put should its fanciful nuclear plan every
come to pass.
The biggest units on the grid are generally nuclear, in those countries that
have them, and a considerable amount of planning and expense needs to make sure
that the back-up is on hand, despite the insistence by some of the whackier
pro-nuclear spruikers in Australia that no storage or gas is needed.
The biggest unit in the Australian grid is the 750 megawatt (MW) Kogan Creek
coal fired power station in Queensland. Nuclear units are often nearly twice
the size, and last week a 1,322 MW unit at the South Texas nuclear facility
suddenly tripped due to a fire in the switchyard.
According to Grid Status, which monitors grid operations in the US, the
frequency excursion was arrested by a rapid response from the state’s rapidly
growing portfolio of big battery projects.
“Immediately, grid frequency declined,” Grid Status noted in a post on LinkedIn
and X. “An excursion below critical levels required a fast response by ERCOT to
ensure stability of the grid. In this case, ERCOT swiftly deployed ancillary
services, including a significant amount of batteries providing ECRS, to boost
the frequency back to normal.”
ERCOT is the Electricity reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid.
ECRS refers to the contingency reserve service.
The big batteries were back in action a few days later when one of the state’s
coal fired power station units also tripped."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
