Off the Grid

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https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-digital-roadblock-keeping-green-electricity-u-s-grid

By DAN CHARLES, Science. 

Excerpt: Computer models that forecast overloaded power lines are holding back U.S. solar and wind energy projects. ...Southwest Power Pool (SPP) ...and other U.S. grid operators are facing an unprecedented tsunami of requests from energy firms to connect thousands of proposed wind, solar, and power storage projects to their transmission lines. The projects are essential to meeting the U.S. goal of eliminating all planet-warming carbon emissions from the nation’s electricity supply by 2035, analysts say. Together, they could generate almost 2000 gigawatts of electricity—exceeding the total capacity of the country’s existing power plants. Most of these projects, however, have been stuck in limbo for years, waiting in what energy insiders call the “interconnection queue.” One contributor to the bottleneck: mathematical simulations that SPP and other operators use to predict how electricity from those new power generators will affect the grid’s stability and reliability. ...grid operators require renewable power producers to pay up front for expensive transmission upgrades. But many can’t afford those improvements and must abandon their plans. ...“Interconnection is becoming one of the leading barriers to bringing projects online,” says Joe Rand, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who tracks projects in the interconnection queue. ...Some researchers and renewable power advocates argue that the interconnection logjam is, in part, a product of flawed simulations based on assumptions that are too conservative and sometimes unreasonable....

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