Re: Richard got it right!
Would all you non-technical people (plus the climate change change deniers, AND the green enegy zealots) please stop talking uninformed rubbish and go away... Even though electricity travels at the speed of light
Pot, kettle, black. Electricity does not "travel at the speed of light". Electron flow is very, very slow being of the order of mm per hour. Worse (for you) there is no net flow when the electricity is alternating current as in this case. Net flow is 0 mm per hour.
While electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, they travel through copper at ~0.65c if memory serves. But EM waves are not electricity.
The problem for the SA grid posed by wind power is well known. Wind power is non-dispatchable, while thermal generation is dispatchable. A grid with 30% dispatchables (solar is also non-dispatchable) is on the edge of stability. SA claims to "rely" on 43% non-dispatchable energy. You cannot rely on that much dispatchable energy.
This is not an argument "against" non-dispatchable energy, but an acknowledgement of how much can be tolerated. AEMO have decided to limit wind generated power in to the grid as a risk mitigation strategy. I somehow doubt that they are "climate change change deniers, [or] green enegy [sic] zealots".
The fact remains that the Pelican Point generator could have been fired up in plenty of time to prevent the grid going black. Much of the state would have been spared. Similar situations have occurred elsewhere.
Yes, grid management is a black art, but then SA grid management appears to know next to nothing of risk management, an art they might well consider learning. It is telling that AMEO warned them of the risk quite some time ago.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
