PQSpotilight is it time to cut the ties that bind?

摘要

We've suffered the indignity of an East Coast blackout. With proper investments, sound engineering and appropriate enforceable standards, we can turn this mess around. In the wake of the August 14 blackout, everyone says we need more transmission-from the liberal New York Times to the conservative Wall Street Journal, from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC). Whenever there's that much unanimity, I get a little nervous. But, if our goal is to prevent blackouts, we don't need more transmission, we need more stringent standards. Maybe we also need to "cut the ties that bind" and to break the present grids into smaller synchronous interconnections tied together with high-voltage direct current (HVDC). We've managed to confuse reliability with the robustness of the grid to accommodate large power transfers. They are two entirely different issues. It seems intuitive that a strong system will be more reliable. Not so. In actuality, a weak interconnection with stringent standards will be more reliable than a strong interconnection with weak standards. Think about it. If only a few weak tie lines were to connect two major systems, but that interface was always operated within stringent reliability criteria, a cascading blackout would be highly unlikely.