It adjusts demand to meet supply as well as adjusting supply.  Distributed biogas powered backup energizes safe loops that can be isolated from larger grid faults and interuptions.

Instead of a 1000 mw nuke, you would have 10 50 mw backup generators coupled with smart grid demand management and storage.  Energy conservation and distributed solar and wind power would be the main replacement power for the original grid.

With GHG related storms, like ice storms, and drought putting nukeas and coal plants out of operation due to water shortage, the so-called 100% dispatchable fossil and nuclear centralized grid is obsolete.  Cascade failures.  

Where a smart grid backs itself up,creating  a cascade of stability, all the way from one home to local to regional to national grid.

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I'm not at all sure this is a solution.

If Florida had invested heavily in distributed solar, wind and ocean thermal generation they possibly could have cut that nuke loose and limped along on the remainder. I think there's also some big ass flow of water that goes from South to North just offshore a ways; too bad you can't tap that.

Now that might have required some fancy technology like demand response but we can't have that because americans would rather curse the darkness if we can't light all the candles at once.

The odd thing is that these power outages are exactly what the Peak Oil doomers said would happen. The very thing that was pooh-poohed the most by cornucopians, blackouts, are becoming commenplace. How could that be?

Put the Carbon Back

Thanks to a reduction in demand due to conservation and smart grid storage. And demand response switching of high demand loads.

The distributed biogas generators can use cogeneration to boost efficiency way beyond normal generators.  The cogeneration heat can be used to heat or cool buildings (with adsorption cooling, like a gas refridgerator uses).

Conservation using geo heat exchange heating and cooling and very efficient appliances can reduce demand dramatically.

The new generation device on the horizon is solid oxide fuel cell/turbine power plants.  70% efficient, they run on biogas and also yield cogeneration heat.  Several breweries are running them on biogas from the brewing  waste water and using the waste heat to generate steam.  

With these systems instead of conventional biogas burning generators, efficiency is much higher and GHG per kwh is much lower.

And processing manure and crop waste in biodigestors eliminates run off that releases huge amounts of methane from wetlands, a potent GHG.

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Here at our local, Northern California regional brewery we recently had a power outage of several days due to storm damage. Unlike most of the town the brewery, (which has also installed about one Mw of solar panels shading employee parking), just tooled right along. Should they have had an unfortunate interruption in their brewing and bottling process there could have been an unfortunate interruption in supplies.

Cogeneration saved the day preserving the sacred supplies of Pale Ale to the left coast.

Put the Carbon Back

Here at our local, Northern California regional brewery we recently had a power outage of several days due to storm damage. Unlike most of the town the brewery, (which has also installed about one Mw of solar panels shading employee parking), just tooled right along. Should they have had an unfortunate interruption in their brewing and bottling process there could have been a tragic dip in supplies.

Cogeneration saved the day preserving the sacred supplies of Pale Ale to the left coast.

Put the Carbon Back

Here are some excerpts from design documents;

"The TG has base load and load following capability.

10.2.1.3.3 Load Maneuvering Capability
The plant is capable of daily load following with control rod drive operation between 100% and
50% of rated power on a 14-1-8-1 hour cycle and with ramp rates up to ±1%/minute (16 Mw / min).

Power maneuvers within the capabilities above do not require isolation or bypass of
condensate/feedwater equipment such as feedwater heaters.

The TBS, in combination with the reactor systems, provides the capability to shed 100% of the
TG rated load without the operation of SRVs and without reactor trip."

http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/idmws/ViewDocByAccession.a ...

Things Everybody Should Know About Energy

Were the local grid powered by these distributed units it could be independent from grid problems caused by the central power plant designed grid.  They can run on biogas from manure and farm waste or landfill gas or sewage treatment plants. And use natural gas for the ultimate backup.

It's an antiquated design.  You build a really big plant, as big as the grid will ever need at the very peak, then wires to supply this peak load.  Since the grid hardly ever needs that peak load, the plant and grid have to be way over built.

That's why the model was to encourage as much power use as possible.

And whenever a powerline goes down, the whole grid does too.  Or when it gets really hot, everyone turns on their air conditioners at once, and zzzap!

It is really too bad Hillary has not become aware of this, it could have turned her campaign around.  Too late now.  Barack doesn't need this stuff.  he's set already with lobbyist plans, like carbon trading, fuel farming, nukers, and clean coal.

That's a shame.  The next few generations are going to have it rough, climate, energy, and economy wise.  maybe it's all for the best though. Spare the climate disaster and endless oil war...and spoil the child.

But people survive in horrible conditions all over the world right now, dying in the millions from bad water and starvation.  I guess americans will get along with climate disaster though.  It will build character!  Hehey.

And all thanks to those who will not bother to pay attention to very simple concepts like the renewable smart grid and conservation.  

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