Central Spain Power's Maine Smart Grid Program Falling on its Face
A word of advice, when you see a new program come along with a name that contains a word like "Smart" or "Community", put up your guard and hang onto your wallet.
Wind is potentially an electric grid keeper's worst nightmare because the grid keeper must match electrical supply with electrical demand, and erratic wind holds too many surpises. For example, the whole state of Maine could be experiencing strong winds and then rather suddenly, the wind dies down.
When the supply can't be depended upon as it can with a source like natural gas, an alternate way to match up supply and demand is to control the demand. Enter the smart meter.
"A smart grid would allow the integration of variable energy sources like wind and solar. For example, if electricity output dropped suddenly due to a change in wind generation, the grid could dim the lights in big box stores by 20%, a change most people don't perceive, say Don Von Dollen, program manager for the IntelliGrid project at the Electric Power Research Institute".
http://www.mainebiz.biz/news44168.html
The more you learn about the so called smart meter, including its demand-regulating role within "central planning's" grand vision, the more it smarts. You don't really need that air conditioner on just because it's 95 degrees and humid and you are trying to sleep, now do you?
Maine smart meters: How smart and how frugal?
State utility regulators are being asked to assess whether CMP’s new smart meters are delivering promised benefits and saving money.
Written by Tux Turkel, Staff Writer
The PUC will decide Thursday whether to audit the program – a step that would broaden the debate over smart meters beyond their alleged health effects into questions about whether the devices have lived up to their promised potential.
Read the article here:
http://www.pressherald.com/smart-meters-how-smart-and-how-frugal_20...
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Comment by Kathy Sherman on June 12, 2013 at 7:37pm
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Martha thanks,
I hope the other New England states will keep protecting their ratepayers and will resist the regional RFP for long-term contracts for renewables as NECEC and First would like to define them.
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Comment by Martha thacker on June 12, 2013 at 10:43am
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Oh, and Kathy, there was another problem. First Wind had a few laws to change in Mass.before they could implement their grand plan. I thought that by the time they got the law changed, NStar had lost interest. Also rate payers in Mass. were not willing to pay significantly more just for wind power. And on top of all that , there is no way for wind farm power in upper state Maine to even reach Mass. Our transmission grid was only capable to transmit the extra power to go as far as southern ME. NH and Conn. also had to build additional enormous transmission lines. At the time, Conn. refused. Then gov. Max Blumenthal stated he would not allow building the new transmission lines for a few wind farms in upper state ME.NH got a lot of dissent as well. so, it looks like the only reason for building ME wind farms was subsidies/tax havens and write offs...since the turbines only last 20 years. Some are saying they don't even last that long.
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Kathy Sherman
"I should find out more about a third high voltage line that my distribution company, NStar now merged with Northeast, is going through permitting for to cross Cape Cod Canal. it was presented as a reliability issue possibly mandated by DPU, but is it really to handle Cape Wind and who pays?"
Who pays? Rate payers. I have documents which state that First Wind wanted to sell Maine wind power to NStar in Mass. This was 2008. They were even planning to build underwater cables starting in Wiccasset. Maine DEP stated that the cost would be enormous, no benefit to Mainers and difficult to implement. There was talk about all the jobs to build it. You know First Wind / Cape Wind and all the aliases..common sense never got in their way.
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Remember, anything can be done...for a price. To accept a variable, intermittent, unpredictable energy source onto the grid? No problem...just open your wallet...or maybe just give it to [whoever's in charge.] We can all go to Mars for a nice holiday just as soon as they get the space ships ready, provided cost is no objec (or somebody else has been conned into paying for it.) That means, regarding wind, the problems it is being installed to fix are real and important...i.e. worth all the costs of wind. And that is the question. Cost is a primary part of any engineering project. Are the problems wind is being installed to address real? Does wind actually do what it's being installed to do (there is considerable question about this; does it reduce CO2 on its grid?...maybe not.) And, in the end, is the cost worth it compared to other practical options. There are lots of question and few solid, responsible answers about the efficacy of wind. And, it seems, those presenting wind to the public have been doing little but lie about it to get it sold and installed before those paying for it and those having to live with it, have had the time to thoroughly examine it. In it's current presentation, it has all the appearances of a scam. Buyer beware.
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And they aren't going to regionalize that cost?
I should find out more about a third high voltage line that my distribution company, NStar now merged with Northeast, is going through permitting for to cross Cape Cod Canal. it was presented as a reliability issue possibly mandated by DPU, but is it really to handle Cape Wind and who pays? How much does it cost? There has been little attention - I just happened to go to a hearing about it. Of course there has been little attention to opening up local state and federal waters to massive industrialization by wind energy either aside from Cape Wind whicj.most people are bored with after 10 years.
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Comment by Dan McKay on June 12, 2013 at 5:08am
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04-26-2010 $95,858,307 CENTRAL MAINE POWER COMPANY INC Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Recovery Act Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Research, Development and Analysis
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Thanks for the chuckles, although it took me a few clicks to get the headline (expecting more evidence of failure in the country of origin).
I like this website that has publicly available data for all or most of Ontario's wind generation as well as all the other sources. It continually reinforces your point about unpredictability, with sudden shifts from near maximum capacity to near zip within day, often in hours. The last few days have been wind poor, but still Wolfe Island shows the extremes:
http://www.sygration.com/gendata/Generator%20Report%202013-06-11.html
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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