Quote:
Originally posted by: Drbio
Just to jump in here a second....We have our own electrical generation plant here on campus. In addition, due to the size of campus we use external electrical as well . We have a full time electrical engineer here who monitors the use and relationship between our system and the grid. He used to be a regulator in the field and was a good hire. I asked him specifically these two questions:
1. Is there a national grid?
2. Is Texas connected to any other state?
1. No. He spoke in a very detailed manner but advised that there are several grids that are connected in various ways. And I was admittedly confused about much of what he said.
2. Yes. Texas has several power generation sites (Ex. Reliant's Jewitt plant) that generate and place power on the grid. Supply is based on real time demand. Even we have the ability to sell excess to the grid (although we do not due to power management systems). Texas has the ability to send power to other states via grid connections however. In the case of California, Texas indirectly piggybacked power to California by supplying it to New Mexico who provided it on to Cali. Again...some of it was confusing....interesting, but confusing.
Now back to our regularly scheduled pissin' match.....
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1. I believe that the issue of the "National Power Grid" has hopefully been resolved. See above.
2. Here's a statement off the Austin Power Company website:
"It is important to know that there is no single computer system in Texas that controls the entire system. There are 10 major systems and many smaller systems that effectively operate and control the ERCOT grid. ERCOT has procedures to operate the system if any of these systems were to fail. Systems have failed in the past and the procedures have worked effectively. Most of these computer systems are redundant and fall over to a back-up system if the primary system experiences an error.
It is also important to note that the failure of an electric system outside of Texas (ERCOT) will have no impact on the Texas Grid. There are no free flowing A/C electric connections between the ERCOT grid and the Eastern or Western grid.
That is validation of my previous statements.