energy sustenability

I am sorry, mironelectro, but your question is far too vague for me to know what you are asking. Please be more specific and detailed.

You're right! I hope getting some clues about the (legal!!) ways the costs of the network losses and those related to the grid connections of new generators, which charge the transmission costs, but are independent of the dispatching policies, could be taken into account when establishing the prices the rulers are imposing to the operator when he's buying energy from the system. I'm interested in the subject because these supplemental costs diminish the investment capabilities necessary to improve the security of the system, and so the economics of the operator are going against the security increase.

miconelectic,

You do not give your location and what you are asking is very much dependent on the local laws, regional laws, and national laws. I live in Texas and Texas is big into both the alternate energy and fossil energy fields. Currently, the best place to look for a feel energy producers vs individual operator is found in the Department of Energy's web site. There are subsidies and tax breaks, both state and federal, to be had for installing solar, wind, fuel cells and tying them into the grid. As for the payback to the individual who can "run his meter backwards" I have no data and for the energy producers, I have no practical experience with how willing the energy companies might be in cooperating with the individual operator. I suggest you look into the rules as established, first of all by DOE (if you are in the USA) and secondly by your local and regional government. It never hurts to ask questions and by doing so, actually shows your high intelligence. Believe it or not, that is what makes for good science.

You did well by supposing I'm not in the States: I'm from, and in, Romania, a so called emerging economy with a sketch of an energy exchange working for less than 30% of the real electricity market. Regarding the local legal regulations, they impose fixed prices for the energy the network operator is buying ( to compensate the grid losses) and fixed fees for the transmited energy, not taking into account the costs of safety mesures he is forced to put in place (including new lines or more sophisticated relays) to ensure the safe electricity supply. It's a good idea to eventually launch a lobby to change the rules following the Texan model, but I'm sure it'll take a long time to materialize. Anyhow, thanks for your time and if you get some new ideas, I'll be a happy receiver.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try to get as much as possible out of it!

Understanding: you are in Romania _ EU.

Being in EU you probably have your subsystem (w/generators) to be connected to national grid (network). At the point(s) of connection to any high power grid (electric power network) to sell then your generated electricity you must assure at least :

a) do not deliver energy to them in the emergency outages/blackouts whatever is the situation when grid voltage MUST be ZERO: this requires very fast protection (acting in low milliseconds) to disconnect your subsystem from the grid.

b) your subsystem must have self-protection to avoid overloads of your generators

c) your transmission lines must have their own protections (single & multiphase). Some are different for cables than for overhead lines.

d) all protections (relays - over and under, shorts ckt) must be coordinated so they will never act "stupid" and create cascade disconnections. USA knows some events of this chain reactions, fatal for system as well as for customers.

e) if computers are put in charge - remember they are also the source of problems as their electronics or programs fail "to follow instructions".

I hope I do not or, do scare you enough. Also it is possible I missed something.

Good subject for Ph D dissertation.

Thanks for the idea of a Ph.D disertation subject. All your benevolent formerly expressed technical ideas are well known and applied in our 9000 km. HV network out of which some 4500 km sustain an optic cable communication network. The problem bothering us is to mitigate the inflexibility of the prices mechanisms in a suposedly free energy market context, which is limiting our (National Grid Operator) economic results and the financial possibilities of safety improvement investments and the gains of our stockholders. By the way, our latest system black-out occured in May 1977. and now our system peak load is 9700 MW.

You only missed one universal piece of advise...do not, under any circumstances, lick the third rail.

Other than that, they need to hire one, possibly 3 good firms to design and develop the infrastructure. While I enjoy and learn constantly from the sheer volume and scope of intelect that inhabit this amazing site, I think this question is beyond any answer, however well informed, just due to the number of variables involved but impossible to eludicate in any one question.

While there are some great beginings that you have been led to, they are, by no means difinitve answers for your problem. Treat them as such. Knowing half the answer can be more damaging or more dangerous than knowing none of the anwser. One Great mind can miss half the answer, but 20 mediocre minds will probably miss only 10%. The rest is called a Development Budget.

I'm not trying to discourage you from asking questions, just trying to shape your expectaions.

Good luck, and enjoy the flow.

OK:

1. Your HV Power + Info network has well known protections. Are they protected from terrorists' attack too?

2. our latest system black-out occurred in May 1977. Congratulations! So that happened in Ceausescu Era? Before Solidarity started collapsing domino effect in the Warsaw Pact Block. Good for you!

3. You have your stock on a Stock Exchange(s) to get investors with their monies to support you system maintenance + development + capital benefits , etc. In Techno-Economy you are an important link of its chain, and this is so valid in any negotiations.

4. Your stockholders expect enormous %% gain. But If there is not a good gain or even happens a loss?

5. I am not sure: are you buying energy and reselling, or also producing? It also seems you deliver not only one service, right? Do you have profit from one and loss from other activity? How do you try to handle them?

6. There are more questions, some probably have answers in your country regulations. Entering price policy (if any) vs. value of your stock we entering Probability and Theory of Games rather than basic Marks' Economy.

7. Watching Wall Street history you may not assume any inflexibility of the prices mechanisms in a supposedly free energy market context.

8. Financial protections of Corporations are achieved by Insurance Companies, of course offered in many limited ways. Number of bankruptcy cases is high in USA so the insurance policies are not 100% secure protections. Can anybody give you a rule of thumb (e.g. the proper number) what percentage of your capital must be put away for insurance?

9. I am not sure that CR4, being , in my opinion, a pearl in blogs/fora could give you a one or more tips in this task of Risk Assessment, because that among other things we have different regulations, factors of economical trends etc.

10. But it is good to exchange thoughts and ideas, right? I got many good friends around the Globe, and we extending our conversations and debates e.g. via Skype.

I took a chance to insert a few of my thoughts, maybe already well known for you.

Generally, I like to see somebody having the same point of view. It makes me feeling not to be alone.