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For Storing Electricity, Utilities Are Turning to Pumped Hydro
For Storing Electricity, Utilities Are Turning to Pumped Hydro
High-tech batteries may be garnering the headlines. But utilities from Spain to China are increasingly relying on pumped storage hydroelectricity – first used in the 1890s – to overcome the intermittent nature of wind and solar power.
In the past decade, wind energy production has soared in Spain, rising from 6 percent of the country’s electricity generation in 2004 to about 20 percent today. While that is certainly good news for boosters of clean energy, the surge in renewables has come with the challenge of ensuring that electric power is available when customers want it, not just when the wind blows.
To help accommodate the increased supply of wind, Spain’s utilities have turned not to high-tech, 21st-century batteries, but rather to a time-tested 19th-century technology — pumped storage hydroelectricity. Pumped storage facilities are typically equipped with pumps and generators that move water between upper and lower reservoirs. A basic setup uses excess electricity — generated, say, from wind turbines during a blustery night — to pump water from a lower reservoir, such as behind a dam, to a reservoir at a higher elevation. Then, when the wind ceases to blow or electricity demand spikes, the water from on high is released to spin hydroelectric turbines.
That’s precisely what the giant Spanish utility Iberdrola has done with the expansion to its $1.3 billion Cortes-La Muela hydroelectric scheme, completed in 2013. The company uses surplus electricity to pump water from the Júcar River to a large reservoir on a bluff 1,700 feet above the river. When demand rises, the water is released to generate electricity. The 1,762-megawatt pumped storage generating capacity is Europe’s largest and is part of a hydroelectric complex capable of powering about 500,000 homes a year.
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GridExIII Drill Coincides with American Terror Threat: “ISIS Cells Could Attack Our Power Grid”
GridExIII Drill Coincides with American Terror Threat: “ISIS Cells Could Attack Our Power Grid”
The threat of an ISIS attack on U.S. soil has become a tangible possibility and a perhaps an inevitable one, with the Paris attacks demonstrating how easily terrorists can infiltrate Western nations and target public areas.
The political chaos that is enveloping the globe with the demise of the dollar and the eruption of war in Syria and other locales makes this nation ripe for another catastrophic event – perhaps to manufacture support for military strikes or more venues of war in the Middle East.
With that in mind, the United States and North American Energy Reliance Corporation has launched two days of high level national security exercises for today, November 18, and November 19. Known as GridEx III, simulations will engage top energy executives and senior government officials, including those in Homeland Security, in scenarios for an attack on the power grid.
According to the GridEx III fact sheet, the multi-level exercise is:
“An opportunity for utilities to demonstrate how they would respond to simulated coordinated cyber and physical security threats and incidents” (source)
“NERC’s grid security exercise (GridEx III) is designed for electric utilities to exercise their response to simulated coordinated cyber and physical security threats and incidents… GridEx III will help participants strengthen their capability to respond to and recover from severe events affecting the reliable operation of North America’s bulk power system…”
“NERC is also coordinating a separate tabletop discussion for industry executives and senior government officials.”
GridEx III provides an opportunity for utilities to exercise their physical security and cybersecurity procedures in a learning environment… The exercise is focused on security and operational response.” (source)
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