The future of energy generation and storage

[basilio]

As Rumpy said it appears a major transmission line has been brought down in a storm.
Going to be a difficult night.

Blackouts expected in Victoria as storm forces outage at state’s largest coal generator

AGL says all four units of the 2,210 megawatt Loy Yang A are offline as spot power prices reach ceiling of $16,600 per MW-hour

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

The damage to power facilities across Victoria appears very challenging. This story suggest it will take days to restore power.

Power may take days to restore in Victoria as coal-fired plant drops offline and storms damage infrastructure

Loy Yang A, one of Victoria's three remaining coal-fired power stations, is offline and storms are affecting electrical infrastructure, leaving half a million customers without power.

www.abc.net.au

It may take days for power to be restored​

Citipower and Powercor spokesperson Emma Tyner said a combination of extreme temperatures, strong winds and thousands of lightning strikes were damaging electrical infrastructure.

"It's very widespread, from the western suburbs of Melbourne, Bendigo, through the inner suburbs of Melbourne, Ballarat, Maryborough, Charlton, Shepparton," she said.

"The band of lightning and extraordinary wind that we've seen push through the state has caused extensive damage and we're still seeing this weather pattern pass through."

Ms Tyner said some customers may have to wait for days before power is restored.

"There are almost 400 different faults across our network. This will take a number of days we believe," she said.

"Those that still do have power, we are encouraging them to take steps because this weather is going to continue."

 

[Smurf1976]

Reports indicated a major transmission line was brought down by a storm.

Has been confirmed - two 500kV lines there's been a tower structural failure.

 

[Belli]

Has been confirmed - two 500kV lines there's been a tower structural failure.

Yep. Some pics in this article.

Half a million Victorians lose power as bushfires, storms wreak havoc — as it happened

As bushfires continued to rage in Victoria's west, residents were also been hit with major power outages from severe thunderstorms.

www.abc.net.au

 

[SirRumpole]

Has been confirmed - two 500kV lines there's been a tower structural failure.

How long does it take to build a tower?

 

[qldfrog]

How long does it take to build a tower?

Real issue:
if you go back a few pages on this thread is that there seems to be a structural issues with our towers, I remember a whole discussion about that and an enquiry launched if my memory serves me well.
Anyone remember?

 

[SirRumpole]

Real issue:
if you go back a few pages on this thread is that there seems to be a structural issues with our towers, I remember a dhole discussion about that and an enquiry launched if my memory serves me well.
Anyone remember?

Imported Chinese steel?

 

[qldfrog]

Imported Chinese steel?

Not even, wrong design but between failing structure due to lower spec materials, wrong design, 1 in a 100 events which are often completely bogus, add lack of maintenance..and here you go.
Feel lucky we are not yet in the US or the EU:
Here a radio tower but still:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/08/us/stolen-transmitter-radio-tower-jasper-alabama/index.html

 

[basilio]

 

[Smurf1976]

How long does it take to build a tower?

It seems there's actually 6 towers on the ground in total, at least that's the information available thus far.

I'm not aware of the precise location but the broad area is flat agricultural land so assuming the location of each tower is like that, it's accessible flat land, then there are some temporary structures kept in storage that can be deployed as a reasonably quick fix that should take a week or so. They'll look a bit odd with guy wires holding them up but they'll do the job.

Permanent repairs will take considerably longer.

Agreed with others there's a design issue here. Too many incidents to ignore. Only one I'd give a pass to would the tower in Tasmania that copped it with a landslide. Can't really blame the tower for that one.

 

[mullokintyre]

One can only presume that the building of the green future is still happen if one looks at the charts for the three metals mentioned.
Or it could be that the happening has failed,
Or something in between.
mick

 

[sptrawler]

Substantial load shedding and an emergency situation underway in Victoria at present.

Loy Yang A, the state's largest power station of any type, has completely ceased operation at approximately 14:10 Victorian local time with all four generating units tripping and now at zero. Immediately prior to that, all was normal indeed they were running at full capacity.

Cause unknown at this stage, anything there would be speculation.

Well it will give people a first hand experience of an electrical system, that is running on the ragged edge, I would guess this is just a precursor to what's ahead.

 

[qldfrog]

Well it will give people a first hand experience of an electrical system, that is running on the ragged edge, I would guess this is just a precursor to what's ahead.

We , and this includes many people aware not to say expert, have been forecasting this for a long time with figures ready, it could be worse, Qld is much cooler this week, imagine with a bit more stress here ...

 

[sptrawler]

@Smurf1976 A bit of a disaster, the Callide incident, doing this sort of work online a bit tricky.
But to have it take out the DC control cct's plus the emergency lighting and DC auxiliaries supplies seems a bit weird. Off one common board or dud batteries, certainly a mess and no wonder the Turbine blew up a 50+ton shaft spinning at 3,000rpm with no bearing oil supply isn't good.

'Extraordinary chain of events' led to power station explosion, report finds

An explosion at a central Queensland power station that left almost half a million people without power could not have been anticipated, according to a report into the incident.

www.abc.net.au

The report found that on May 25, 2021, a new DC system with a battery charger had been commissioned and was being connected to the C4 unit.

"Voltage unexpectedly dropped to zero, causing a trip in the AC system," Mr Busine said.

"The loss of the AC system then prevented the recovery of the DC system."

This meant the power station unit could not disconnect from the grid or shut down safely.

"Ultimately the turbine generator went from generating electricity to consuming electricity," Mr Busine said.

"It became an unstoppable sequence of events which led to the emergency evacuation of the site ahead of the destruction of the generator."

The turbine generator spun, and this, alongside the loss of other critical systems like lubrication oil pumps, caused the explosion.

Mr Busine thanked staff for their handling of the incident.

No-one was injured.

"All this happened within seconds — what's important to understand also is that the control room went black," Mr Busine said.

 

[sptrawler]

Things certainly sound bad in Victoria, it must have been a massive storm.

Fears dozens of homes lost in Victorian bushfire, 135,000 still without power — as it happened

Hundreds of thousands of Victorians remain without power in the wake of deadly storms and destructive bushfires which swept the state on Tuesday.

www.abc.net.au

Hundreds of thousands of Victorians remain without power in the wake of deadly storms and destructive bushfires which swept the state on Tuesday.

The energy market operator says it could take days, and possibly weeks, to restore electricity to some of the 220,000 properties still without power.

Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio called it "one of the largest outage events in the state's history".

 

[qldfrog]

Things certainly sound bad in Victoria, it must have been a massive storm.

Fears dozens of homes lost in Victorian bushfire, 135,000 still without power — as it happened

Hundreds of thousands of Victorians remain without power in the wake of deadly storms and destructive bushfires which swept the state on Tuesday.

www.abc.net.au

Hundreds of thousands of Victorians remain without power in the wake of deadly storms and destructive bushfires which swept the state on Tuesday.

The energy market operator says it could take days, and possibly weeks, to restore electricity to some of the 220,000 properties still without power.

Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio called it "one of the largest outage events in the state's history".

A record to break: ready start go...

 

[basilio]

This outage certainly makes one think.

Imagine a far more diverse energy generation and transmission system.
Many thousands of households, businesses and community facilities with solar power, large batteries and plug in EVs
Multiple community battery banks storing and releasing excess power from these industrial warehouses, schools, community building hosting PV arrays.

This wouldn't solve all the issues that have happened with yesterdays storm. However it would certainly give more options for people, businesses and communities. It would also offer an energy resiliency that makes a lot of sense.

And on day to day basis energy costs would also go down.

The power of community batteries: bringing renewables to the masses - Energy Magazine

Community batteries are being trialled extensively around the country as a solution to the expensive costs of solar and battery storage technologies.

www.energymagazine.com.au

Solar banks and neighbourhood batteries a good start for Labor, but design and delivery critical – Community Power Agency

Labor's Powering Australia Plan commits 85 solar banks and 400 neighbourhood batteries which could enable everyday Australians to be active participants in and beneficiaries of the renewable energy transition - but only if they are well designed and adequately supported.

cpagency.org.au

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/energy/renewable/community-batteries

 

[sptrawler]

This outage certainly makes one think.

Imagine a far more diverse energy generation and transmission system.
Many thousands of households, businesses and community facilities with solar power, large batteries and plug in EVs
Multiple community battery banks storing and releasing excess power from these industrial warehouses, schools, community building hosting PV arrays.

It will certainly be interesting, as if they are all interconnected, the major users will be depleting the storage at a much faster rate, than those in a residential environment.

 

[basilio]

It will certainly be interesting, as if they are all interconnected, the major users will be depleting the storage at a much faster rate, than those in a residential environment.

On what basis do you say that SP ? That sounds a bit counter intuitive. Are you thinking of major energy intensive industrial centres mopping up all this power ? I would say such locations would be prime targets for creating and storing their own power.

 

[IFocus]

@Smurf1976 A bit of a disaster, the Callide incident, doing this sort of work online a bit tricky.
But to have it take out the DC control cct's plus the emergency lighting and DC auxiliaries supplies seems a bit weird. Off one common board or dud batteries, certainly a mess and no wonder the Turbine blew up a 50+ton shaft spinning at 3,000rpm with no bearing oil supply isn't good.

'Extraordinary chain of events' led to power station explosion, report finds

An explosion at a central Queensland power station that left almost half a million people without power could not have been anticipated, according to a report into the incident.

www.abc.net.au

The report found that on May 25, 2021, a new DC system with a battery charger had been commissioned and was being connected to the C4 unit.

"Voltage unexpectedly dropped to zero, causing a trip in the AC system," Mr Busine said.

"The loss of the AC system then prevented the recovery of the DC system."

This meant the power station unit could not disconnect from the grid or shut down safely.

"Ultimately the turbine generator went from generating electricity to consuming electricity," Mr Busine said.

"It became an unstoppable sequence of events which led to the emergency evacuation of the site ahead of the destruction of the generator."

The turbine generator spun, and this, alongside the loss of other critical systems like lubrication oil pumps, caused the explosion.

Mr Busine thanked staff for their handling of the incident.

No-one was injured.

"All this happened within seconds — what's important to understand also is that the control room went black," Mr Busine said.

Wow total cluster on so many levels