 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
It's a sobering thought: As the U.S. government lavishes billions in Smart Grid stimulus grants, loans and tax credits on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and those production facilities go online, our aging electricity transmission system sags under the rapidly growing load. Of the country's roughly 164,000 miles of transmission lines, 70% of them are 25 years old or older, according to a 2005 DOE report. And the Brattle Group predicted that the electricity industry will need to sink almost $300 billion into the transmission system over the next 20 years to meet increased demands for energy and the production capacity that grows to meet it. La Salle County's story is far from unique, but it's yet another red flag warning that it's time to get busy on transmission.
Dramatic increases in wind energy production in a North Central Illinois county are quickly pushing the area's aging electricity transmission network to the max — and to the brink of failure. Local leaders and utility officials agree there's no "if" in the equation — it's a matter of how soon.
La Salle County is like many others. Wind turbines sprout like weeds in the spring to meet dramatic increases in the demand for power and to nudge the country toward its ambitious renewable energy goals. Those turbines also represent jobs.
But the county's transmission system is choking on the volume of power pumped out of the region's wind farms. The system is old to begin with and as it approaches capacity, things typically start to go wrong: The system is less resistant to storms and network failures and power quality is affected, eventually leading to widespread power outages. Add to the mix that those aging transmission lines were neither designed nor built to accommodate the uneven and unpredictable output from wind farms.
According to DOE, power outages and loss of power quality cost the economy from $25 billion to $185 billion annually.
Even the people responsible for building the wind farms are getting nervous. Kris Zadlo, vice president of regulatory affairs for Invenergy, a large-scale clean energy producer, recently told the La Salle News Tribune that the region's transmission lines haven't been upgraded in decades and at some point won't be able to carry the increasing load.
"It's a very realistic possibility and we're now near that point. These lines can carry only so many megawatts," Zadlo said. His company plans to put more than 200 wind turbines to work in the county.
Officials from Exelon, one of the country's biggest utilities, say that Illinois simply won't be able to meet its renewable energy goal of 25% by 2025 without a reliable transmission network. Exelon research anticipates renewable energy sources will pump out an average of between 6,000 and 10,000 MW of power every year for the next 10 years.
From the source ... . Related SGN resources ...
Stay connected with SGN …
Got something to say about this article? Be the first to leave a comment!
|
|
© 2012 SmartGridNews - Privacy Policy |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
RSS
