I live near a huge windfarm, but my electric company doesn’t offer wind power.
How is that windfarm plugged into the grid? Is the electricity market just shares and not about the actual electricity produced and I’m technically using the wind power? Or does the windfarm physically “plug in” somewhere very distant to me? Since the wind is pretty continuously producing electricity will I never be picked to be in a rolling blackout? How do you even have those energy saving planned partial grid blackouts when there’s windpower?
I feel like this post really embodies how a five yr old would ask questions. Any response to any piece of my questions is welcomed! Thank you
In: Technology
I’m skipping the actual EE side of this because it doesn’t actually seem to be what you’re asking.
It depends on where you are, but most places there is a market for bulk electricity. A generation company owns the turbines, but of the transmission side is owned by someone else. These large scale transmission companies bid on output from the generators, based on their projections for how much capacity they will need. That determines which part of the transmission infrastructure the power winds up on. They then either deliver the power to end users or, the last mile stuff that serves your neighborhood as opposed to your whole city is owned by a another company. In which case they must access then power from the bulk transmission company.
At the end of all this bidding and transmission it hits your meter and you pay for it.
Some places all of this is owned by one company, which simplifies it, but even those regional monopolies are often buying and selling power, just with neighboring regional power entities.
This is why variable rate plans are a thing where they haven’t been outlawed. The generators can charge more for their power when it’s in high demand and less when demand is low.
So for you, personally, it all comes down to where your service provider is buying your power. You may be getting a mix of that wind farm and other sources or all of that farm may be going to other parts of the grid.
Ad to shut downs: no, there’s no guarantee. that wind farm’s power gets stepped up and will have to go through the bulk high voltage transmission leg and then transmitted back down to the lower voltage neighborhood distribution system. Those pieces could potentially be pretty far from you even of the turbines are close by.
Load shedding prioritizes the grid itself first, so control centers that operate the grid, surge capacity plants that may need input power to start, things like that to make sure they can maintain or increase output. Next priority is general emergency services like hospitals. The rest is after.
So…if you’re on the same grid segment as a hospital or a control center you’re unlikely to ever be cut off. If not, you’re fair game.
Latest Answers