Technology and Brain Power Used to Tame an Aging Grid

Monday, August 25, 2003

By Kenneth Chang

New York Times Writer

"The complexity is nearly impossible to study and predict ahead of time. Ultimately, you've got to reduce the complexity."

Some experts argue that the grid could be made less vulnerable by making a fundamental change in the high-capacity connections between regional grids. At present, the electricity pumped along most of these lines is, like most of the rest of the grid, in a form known as alternating current. Pumping the electricity through these great connections in direct current instead, the experts say, would help prevent the spread of certain types of problems, like sudden swings in the frequency of the alternating current. It was, after all, frequency fluctuations that caused many power plants to pull themselves offline on Aug. 14.

NYT
The day-to-day operation of the nation's power grid is, in many respects, a great marvel — a second-by-second balancing act of the tremendously volatile thing known as electricity, a sometimes wicked creature with a mind of its own that can cause great damage in a hurry.

The grid, much misunderstood, is not a programmable network like the phone system or the Internet. Electricity cannot be sent from here to there in nice packages.

Rather, the grid is like a giant invisible reservoir where the amount of power being put in at any moment must match the amount being consumed.

"It's the ultimate perishable," said Dr. Paul M. Grant, a science fellow at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif.

That the power grid has suffered only a handful of major collapses in nearly half a century is, to many, a good record. And despite much criticism in the last 11 days that the grid is antiquated, the system's transmission towers, power lines and transformers are not rusting hulks on the verge of collapse.

However, the damage that is done when a swath of the United States goes dark — in public confidence and economic losses as well as huge inconvenience — has kept engineers working on technology to make the grid more reliable. Indeed, experts are proposing billions of dollars of new equipment to relieve congestion at bottlenecked electrical junctions on the grid and improve the system's ability to limit the damage when something does go wrong — concerns that will only increase with rising power demands.

The new technology includes totally electronic switches able to divert electrical flows protectively at moments of crisis. It also includes superconducting cables that carry greater quantities of electricity, which will allow utilities to add transmission capacity without building unsightly transmission towers.

Some of the ideas and inventions are in place to one degree or another in certain parts of the country. Others will soon be tested in pilot projects.
(More: NYTimes.com)
2003 © The New York Times Company.

Dan