Puerto Rico’s power grid in ‘critical condition’; officials fear complete collapse

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petersonra

petersonra

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Puerto Rico's power grid hangs on by a thread as island declares state of emergency

Puerto Rico has declared a state of emergency due to the "critical condition" of its generating power plants.
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They have had five years since the hurricane damaged much of their electrical infrastructure but seem to have done little to date other than apply some bandaids.

The cost of electricity in PR already is about double what it is in the rest of the US (except maybe CA). Not surprising given that PR has no natural resources to speak of such as coal or natural gas with which to run generating stations so everything has to be brought in on ships.
 
hillbilly1 said:
I thought solar panels are supposed to be our savior? Other than hurricanes, perfect location for it. Maybe some super duty windmills?
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According to the article the government of PR requires some large part of the power generation to essentially be PV or wind, but the grid is not setup to handle it.

The congressional oversight hearing also examined the state of Puerto Rico's transition toward renewable energy as required by a local government law stating that the island must get 40 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025 and be fully reliant on renewable energy by 2050.

Less than 3 percent of Puerto Rico's electricity currently comes from renewable energy sources.

Gil-Enseñat said that while they're trying their best to achieve such renewable energy targets, "the grid as it is right now isn't as efficient" because it's "designed to provide energy, not to receive it" — a factor that complicates their ability to integrate renewable energy sources.
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The thing is horribly complicated by the logistics of a private company that operates the transmission system, while a government entity controls the generating facilities.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is not the only entity in charge of providing the U.S. territory's power supply. Luma, a private company, has been in charge of the transmission and distribution of electricity on the island since June, while the power authority, a public corporation, continues to be in charge of controlling power generation units.
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There is also this:

More than $11 billion in federal funds have been approved by Congress to upgrade Puerto Rico's power system, but no money has been disbursed yet pending further approval of specific projects that would help accomplish such goal.
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Apparently there is no hurry to fix the problem.
 
petersonra said:
According to the article the government of PR requires some large part of the power generation to essentially be PV or wind, but the grid is not setup to handle it.



The thing is horribly complicated by the logistics of a private company that operates the transmission system, while a government entity controls the generating facilities.



There is also this:



Apparently there is no hurry to fix the problem.
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Neither puts out a heck of a lot of power, so don’t see why the grid can’t handle it. Should be able to spread it out anyway, just like substations.
 
hillbilly1 said:
Neither puts out a heck of a lot of power, so don’t see why the grid can’t handle it. Should be able to spread it out anyway, just like substations.
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Hint. The politicians probably do not want to give up control over generation, which is what they would effectively be doing if they ever actually implemented their own law on PV and wind becoming the main source of generation. In any case, it is probably not workable anyway. PV only works during the day and wind is pretty unreliable as a power source. You would still need something to provide power when these sources are not providing enough.

Incidentally, while sometimes there are some pretty good winds as you get nearer the equator, sailors know that sometimes there are no winds at all for days.
 
petersonra said:
Hint. The politicians probably do not want to give up control over generation, which is what they would effectively be doing if they ever actually implemented their own law on PV and wind becoming the main source of generation. In any case, it is probably not workable anyway. PV only works during the day and wind is pretty unreliable as a power source. You would still need something to provide power when these sources are not providing enough.

Incidentally, while sometimes there are some pretty good winds as you get nearer the equator, sailors know that sometimes there are no winds at all for days.
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Yeah, putting it somewhere where it actually makes sense, and actually could be efficient will never be done! LOL!
 
Hv&Lv said:
It is, it’s just wildly expensive and not really reliable enough yet.
It’s still in its infancy as far as technologies go.
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It’s been around quite a while, just don’t know why it hasn’t caught on. Settlers in the Carolina’s used ponds to capture tidal waters, then released the water after the tide went out to mechanically power saw mills.
 
hillbilly1 said:
It’s been around quite a while, just don’t know why it hasn’t caught on. Settlers in the Carolina’s used ponds to capture tidal waters, then released the water after the tide went out to mechanically power saw mills.
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Not the same thing.
 
hillbilly1 said:
I thought solar panels are supposed to be our savior? Other than hurricanes, perfect location for it. Maybe some super duty windmills?
Click to expand...
Large scale PV without storage on a small grid can be problematic. At SPI a few years ago I sat down for lunch next to a guy who turned out to be a Puerto Rican electrical grid administrator. We struck up a conversation wherein he told me that an air base on the island had installed a large PV system on its property and interconnected it to the PR electrical grid, and that it had caused a lot of grid stability issues on the island.
 
ggunn said:
Large scale PV without storage on a small grid can be problematic. At SPI a few years ago I sat down for lunch next to a guy who turned out to be a Puerto Rican electrical grid administrator. We struck up a conversation wherein he told me that an air base on the island had installed a large PV system on its property and interconnected it to the PR electrical grid, and that it had caused a lot of grid stability issues on the island.
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That’s what I was alluding to. Storage locally in the communities, just like substations.
 
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