BASIC ENGINEERING
If the Glendye wind farm were built it would tend to reduce the stability of the electrical grid, making blackouts more likely. A local wind farm is not able to supply electricity to local consumers during a blackout on the grid. It would also increase the cost of electricity, whilst standing idle for much of its life. To justify these claims it is necessary to digress a little bit.
The Glendye wind farm would be one of many such wind farms linked directly to the national grid. This is the high voltage transmission network that covers the country, mostly on large pylons. All the major electricity-generating stations are connected to the grid. Every consumer is also connected to this network by a local system of distribution lines at lower voltage.
There is currently an over-capacity of wind power in Scotland. When there is a lot of wind there is more power available than the consumers demand. Electricity must be used at exactly the moment it is generated, unless the energy is stored, which is very expensive. Hence, under conditions of high wind the grid controller shuts down some wind farms. These wind farm operators are then paid around twice the rate per kWh for not generating, as they would be for generating. UK wind farms, nearly all in Scotland, were paid £100m in 2017 for not generating, due to a glut of wind power.
The Scottish Government has ambitious plans to install more wind farms, both onshore and offshore, meaning that yet more wind farms would stand idle for a large part of their life. Glendye would be one of them.
The usual type of turbine used in wind farms means that they cannot generate unless they are connected to a grid supply. Thus during power cuts a local wind farm is not able to supply energy to local consumers “off-grid”.
Due to the variable nature of the wind all wind farms produce a variable output. This does not in general match up with the consumer demand, which itself varies. Grid controllers have to try to match generation to demand almost second by second. The way this is done at present is to have backup generating stations burning fossil fuels (oil, gas and diesel) and hydro stations, which can react quickly. To fill in when the wind is low for a longer period these power sources along with nuclear stations take up the demand. Under these conditions of partial variable loading these stations run very inefficiently, with higher CO2 emissions than they would if they ran at constant load, as they were never designed for this.
This balancing of variable supply with variable demand goes on all over the world, and became very critical when wind and solar sources started to become commonplace and fossil and nuclear stations were progressively closed down. In many counties this led to grid instability and frequent blackouts. This is still a problem. Electricity grids over the world are becoming less stable as more wind and solar are added and fossil and nuclear are removed. All kinds of methods have been tried to maintain grid stability under these conditions, but power grids are very large complex systems, so this is not easy. There has been a history of very large blackouts in the countries that were pioneers in wind power. These same counties have some of the highest electricity prices, and have been unable to reduce their CO2 emissions. Such blackouts are very expensive, can cause damage to generating machines, to consumers’ machinery, and in some cases injury or death to humans.
More wind power in Scotland will serve to make the grid less stable with greater risk of blackouts. Wind turbines will be idle for an increased time. Before more wind farms are built in Scotland, the problems of grid instability, of backing up when the wind is low as fossil and nuclear stations continue to be closed down, and of excessive payments to wind farm operators for not generating, need to be solved. Hence, Glendye wind farm, and others planned for Scotland, should not be built at this time.
More technical details on this topic can be found via the following link:
https://engineeringaspects.weebly.com/
If the Glendye wind farm were built it would tend to reduce the stability of the electrical grid, making blackouts more likely. A local wind farm is not able to supply electricity to local consumers during a blackout on the grid. It would also increase the cost of electricity, whilst standing idle for much of its life. To justify these claims it is necessary to digress a little bit.
The Glendye wind farm would be one of many such wind farms linked directly to the national grid. This is the high voltage transmission network that covers the country, mostly on large pylons. All the major electricity-generating stations are connected to the grid. Every consumer is also connected to this network by a local system of distribution lines at lower voltage.
There is currently an over-capacity of wind power in Scotland. When there is a lot of wind there is more power available than the consumers demand. Electricity must be used at exactly the moment it is generated, unless the energy is stored, which is very expensive. Hence, under conditions of high wind the grid controller shuts down some wind farms. These wind farm operators are then paid around twice the rate per kWh for not generating, as they would be for generating. UK wind farms, nearly all in Scotland, were paid £100m in 2017 for not generating, due to a glut of wind power.
The Scottish Government has ambitious plans to install more wind farms, both onshore and offshore, meaning that yet more wind farms would stand idle for a large part of their life. Glendye would be one of them.
The usual type of turbine used in wind farms means that they cannot generate unless they are connected to a grid supply. Thus during power cuts a local wind farm is not able to supply energy to local consumers “off-grid”.
Due to the variable nature of the wind all wind farms produce a variable output. This does not in general match up with the consumer demand, which itself varies. Grid controllers have to try to match generation to demand almost second by second. The way this is done at present is to have backup generating stations burning fossil fuels (oil, gas and diesel) and hydro stations, which can react quickly. To fill in when the wind is low for a longer period these power sources along with nuclear stations take up the demand. Under these conditions of partial variable loading these stations run very inefficiently, with higher CO2 emissions than they would if they ran at constant load, as they were never designed for this.
This balancing of variable supply with variable demand goes on all over the world, and became very critical when wind and solar sources started to become commonplace and fossil and nuclear stations were progressively closed down. In many counties this led to grid instability and frequent blackouts. This is still a problem. Electricity grids over the world are becoming less stable as more wind and solar are added and fossil and nuclear are removed. All kinds of methods have been tried to maintain grid stability under these conditions, but power grids are very large complex systems, so this is not easy. There has been a history of very large blackouts in the countries that were pioneers in wind power. These same counties have some of the highest electricity prices, and have been unable to reduce their CO2 emissions. Such blackouts are very expensive, can cause damage to generating machines, to consumers’ machinery, and in some cases injury or death to humans.
More wind power in Scotland will serve to make the grid less stable with greater risk of blackouts. Wind turbines will be idle for an increased time. Before more wind farms are built in Scotland, the problems of grid instability, of backing up when the wind is low as fossil and nuclear stations continue to be closed down, and of excessive payments to wind farm operators for not generating, need to be solved. Hence, Glendye wind farm, and others planned for Scotland, should not be built at this time.
More technical details on this topic can be found via the following link:
https://engineeringaspects.weebly.com/