Electricity, Generation

Overpriced California Solar Project?

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Calif. Consumer Advocate Division Decries CPUC Approval of “Overpriced” CSP Project
POWERnews
The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) approval on Thursday of Abengoa Solar’s 250-MW Mojave Solar concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough facility in San Bernardino County—the second “overpriced renewable contract” approved by the CPUC in recent weeks—was disappointing, the regulatory commission’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) said in a statement.

The project, proposed by Abengoa Solar subsidiary Mojave Solar LLC, calls for a 25-year contract with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). The CPUC said that while the power purchase agreement was pending regulatory approval, Mojave Solar learned that the transmission network upgrades necessary for the project…

Electricity, Generation, Transmission

Grid Response to Sudden Loss of Supply or Demand

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Electric systems respond quickly to the sudden loss of supply or demand
Today in Energy        U.S. Energy Information Administration

A large region of electric systems, called the Western Interconnection, responded to the San Diego blackout on September 8 in less than a minute. A YouTube video vividly illustrates how changes in frequency across interconnected alternating current (AC) electric systems ripple across such a large area in a very short time.

The video shows the variation of frequency (the number of times a second that the electric charge reverses direction) in the Western Interconnection associated with the San Diego blackout on September 8. An event, which has still not been fully characterized, drove system frequency below 60 cycles per second for about 25 seconds. Interconnected electric systems in North America are designed to operate within a very narrow…