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| The real grid problem with distributed generation (whether wind, micro turbines, flywheels, or mini water power plants using falling sewage at the cliffs leading to the sea) is that each works on wrestling frequency and voltage control from the central power plants. A smart grid (and the current grid is anything but dumb) won't help that problem. The problem gets really bad when the loads and distributed generators run the PF capacitive at the big power plants. A capacitive load on an alternator starts letting the alternator run as an induction generator (using the amortiser windings on the field poles) and the voltage regulators loose control because they can't reverse the field current, but only cut it to zero. That's why many long 345 KV AC lines have shunt inductors to keep them from looking like a big capacitor to the power plants.
Its not just politics that makes power companies wary of distributed generation, its control of voltage and frequency that worries them.
Gerald J. | |
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Storing windmill power
