PJM Planning Fails - Blackouts Ensue

9/13/2013

After years of wrongly insisting that we needed billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to avoid "brownouts and blackouts," PJM Interconnection's incontrovertible transmission planning system failed massively on Tuesday, leaving thousands sweltering in record-breaking heat when it instituted rolling blackouts in order to avoid a cascading failure.

This story explains that PJM had allowed many different elements of its generation and transmission system to be out of service for maintenance on Tuesday, when one of FirstEnergy's transmission lines in Ohio failed. The failure of this one line caused PJM to "order utilities to institute small, localized blackouts in Ohio and other states to prevent more widespread outages."

A part on a FirstEnergy Corp. 345-kilowatt transmission line broke on Tuesday afternoon, leading to a loss of power to about 15,000 customers, said FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said.
The heat probably was not responsible for the break, Durbin said.

That's right... it was probably lack of proper maintenance as FirstEnergy continues to brag about cuts to its maintenance expenses in order to squeeze a few more pennies into shareholder dividends every quarter.

If this story is true however, then PJM has some 'splainin to do. PJM told us we "needed" PATH because its system must be designed for contingencies where failure of one transmission line will not bring the whole system crashing down. That would be irresponsibly poor planning. Isn't that right, PJM?

7 Comments

Douglas Stowe link

9/14/2013 09:45:33 am

It seems the big problem these days isn't cascading black outs, but rather cascading 345 kV power lines.

They built one from the Flint Creek coal fired plant in Arkansas to the Brookline coal fired plant in Missouri, and then due to concerns that power line might go out, thus creating an "overload" on the 161 kV system in Arkansas, AEP/SWEPCO decided they need another through the most pristine and beautiful part of the Arkansas Ozarks and through the heart of a tourist economy based on the beauty of this place.

It seems when one 345 kV power line is in place, the cascading effect automatically takes hold. The transmission giants think they need another, and another, and another. STOP them!

The great thing about distributed energy production is that we can put AEP and other energy giants out of business.

Keryn

9/15/2013 03:32:25 am

Well, what could I add to that spot on observation? Perhaps not to limit it to just 345kV lines. Over-investment in transmission lines is coming in all voltages and currents these days. I signifies the death cry of the centralized utility beast. The energy giants are well aware that their traditional business model is quickly being overtaken by distributed energy production, and they cannot stop it. Instead of investing in the future to stay alive, the companies are investing in the past by sinking their dollars into new transmission that may be obsolete in 10 years. But, no worries, the companies will simply cry big crocodile tears about their "stranded investment" when that happens, and those unlucky consumers still connected to their systems will get left holding the debt.

When will our legislators and regulators wake up and see the truth?

bh link

9/15/2013 05:47:29 am

Mr. Stowe makes an excellent observation. Adding new transmission capacity doesn't "resolve" (one of PJM's favorite words) grid problems, it just pushes them from one area to another. Dumping more current onto a circuit that was never designed to carry that much power inevitably results in calls for new upgrades to "resolve" the problem that never existed before the new transmission line was built. The electricity industry knows that this cycle of creating new problems and then "resolving" them is a ticket to never ending capital projects funded by rate payers.

Dr. Luis Contreras link

9/15/2013 06:31:48 am

SPP, the agency that claims we need a better grid, is a “North American Electric Reliability Corporation.”

A reliable grid is an oxymoron. The US grid grew one line at a time with many different components due to fail at any time. How many more 345 kV transmission lines do you need? Adding 345,000 Volt transmission lines increases grid cost and complexity and the likelihood of brown outs. Redundancy is an expensive, ineffective and inefficient way to fake reliability.

This business strategy only make sense to AEP who makes huge profits building transmission lines and wheeling electrons out of state … an illegal business practice: profits at no risk, no cost and no value added, similar to contango and other “creative” illegal activities. See: The Koch Brothers Contango Strategy: Oil Prices as Political WMD against Obama, March 5, 2012, ABC News. http://truth-2-power.com/2012/03/05/the-koch-brothers-contango-strategy-oil-prices-as-political-wmd-against-obama/

At its core, the problem is AEP has not figured out how to make quick profits to please shareholders and there are no assets to sell bonds.

To serve customers and make a profit, AEP could own and install solar panels and lease them to businesses and homeowners, just like they own the grid, and stop building transmission lines.

Utilities have tried to stop distributed renewable solutions for many years; but like cellphones, once you have one you never go back to dumb land line phones. No one needs APSC approval or public funds to install solar panels.

Distributed renewable solutions are inherently reliable, simple elegant, scalable, affordable, safe, and secure. The opposite of you know what.

Last month, a crew of 4 installed a 16 panel grid-tie system for my house in eight hours. All I did was grill hot dogs and chipotle smoked bean burgers. No lawyers involved, no political contributions, just burgers. I also sold my AEP shares, you know why.

Raymond Kershaw link

9/20/2013 07:17:20 am

Why would you say we need less transmission is a transmission failure triggered a brownout or blackout. I work for a transmission company and we have been prevented from building transmission between regions designed solely to prevent situations like happened. Also, what you don't know much about is that whereever there is a lack of transmission, power plants must be run out of economic order to relieve the line congestion. This causes electric customers (everybody) to pay more. Not only are lines needed for reliability (keep the lights on) but also for economics. Economic studies determine if it's cheaper to add new lines/equipment or just redispatch generation occasionally. If done properly based on well thought out criteria, tranmission is only added when needed and is economic.

Keryn

9/23/2013 03:01:23 pm

Well, thanks for that pedantic, little rant, Ray. Why do you assume we're all stupid about transmission?

If customers weren't dependent on long-distance transmission, then it never would have happened either. But then again, the truth doesn't keep those fat ITC paychecks coming in does it?

acai berry target link

5/17/2014 09:52:49 pm

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PJM Planning Fails - Blackouts Ensue

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PJM Planning Fails - Blackouts Ensue

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StopPATH Blog

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