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Re: No More ICE Cars in Quebec?Quebec has an enormous amount of hydro; they should be able to power EVs right through winter. The problem is that New England depends on imports from Quebec to keep the lights on in January. Cut off the imports and add EVs to the grid, and New England faces an extreme catastrophe. Think California, but getting blacked out at -20f instead of +100f. Exactly. The New England ISO gets a significant portion of their power from Quebec. Their purchase agreement is of the "interruptible" variety; that is, the power can be cut off at a moments notice if Quebec needs the power itself. Think about when the NE ISO needs the power the most. It is when they are suffering an artic air mass high pressure system and have a grid stressing heating demand. Usually these air masses are sub zero, no wind and little sunshine. Renewable energy is non-existent at these critical times. So they really need Quebec electricity when its cold but it is also very cold in Quebec at these same times - thus Quebec cuts power to the ISO. The ISO panics and mandates all traditional power plants ramp up to max to keep the grid running. They also try to buy power from neighboring ISO's to compensate as well. They squeaked by during the last big artic event. They may not be so lucky this year. Most of the gas plants started storing oil to run in place of gas during deep freezes, but the renewable providers complained that the ISO is subsidizing fossil fuel by encouraging gas plants to store oil. Accordingly, the ISO was directed to stop compensating power plants oil storage programs. I suspect that there is substantially less oil waiting in the wings if/when the gas generators need it. BTW, the reason the gas generators needed to begin storing oil for dual fuel use is that gas generation plants are lower on the priority list than residential heating. Due to a lack of pipelines into NE, the system cannot handle industrial, generation and residential demand pulls during times of strong demand. Industrial and generation customers are required to shut down when requested during these times. Long winded, but the NE ISO is a complete mess - much due to their own actions. I recently read a new book on the nations grid titled: Shorting the Grid, by Meredith Angwin. The author worked for many years as an insider in the New England Regional Transmission Organization (RTO). I suggest that you avoid this book if you want to maintain a rosy view of US electricity security. I'm afraid we are in for some tough times before sanity returns to the electricity market. It won't be long before the masses will be wondering what happened and who to blame. |
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Msg # | Subject | Author | Recs | Date Posted |
298140 | Re: No More ICE Cars in Quebec? | doomonyou | 21 | 11/23/2020 1:40:03 PM |
298142 | Re: No More ICE Cars in Quebec? | coolreit | 6 | 11/23/2020 1:40:17 PM |
298160 | Re: No More ICE Cars in Quebec? | reedright | 1 | 11/23/2020 3:57:11 PM |