Photovoltaics as a long-term solution to power outages. Case study: The great 1996 WSCC power outage

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:355790

Perez, R; Seals, R ^[1]; Wenger, H; Hoff, T ^[2]; Herig, C ^[3]

---

1. State Univ. of New York, Albany, NY (United States)
2. Pacific Energy Group, Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
3. NREL, Golden, CO (United States)

The Western System Coordinating Council (WSCC) experienced two major power outages during the summer of 1996. Both outages occurred during extreme heat waves and virtually cloud-free conditions. Focusing on the August 10 outage, the authors present evidence that dispersed photovoltaic power generation has the potential to mitigate the effects of massive power outages. The authors have previously shown that PV output is highly correlated with heat-wave-driven loads (A/C driven loads). The following analysis indicates that the circumstances of the August 10 event are no exception. PV availability was at a maximum and the high loads on the system were directly attributed to the heat wave. The paper presents PV deployment strategies that would serve to mitigate the effects of the outage, initially from the perspective of direct consumer relief. However, as dispersed PV generation saturates the electrical system over the long term, the high load demand match relief could prevent the cascading trips of large generating plants, thereby providing system relief.

• Sponsoring Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
• OSTI ID: 355790
• Report Number(s): CONF-970441--; ISBN 0-89553-169-0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
CALIFORNIA
INTERCONNECTED POWER SYSTEMS
MITIGATION
OREGON
OUTAGES
PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SUPPLIES
POWER TRANSMISSION LINES
RECOMMENDATIONS