Engineering360: "When Machines Meet Markets, Sparks Can Fly"

This is an important issue. But, after the stated opinions of "no problem here", The topic was changed to, "Well, maybe not so fast. The question of whether, and to what extent, the government should insert itself into power markets is an old one."

But the national security aspect of it was never addressed, either pro or con. Somebody needs to relate this debate to national security. National security is not usually "economically generating asset" in or of itself, to begin with. But, it is a prerequisite to economic success.This article quickly pivoted from national security to economics. National security should not be dismissed so easily. Let's get back on topic.

Valid observation about the article's divergence from the national security topic. I see the importance of a diverse medley of generating sources as opposed to a relatively smaller list of larger base load units. This diversity of sources, of all sizes, makes it less likely that a disruption (whatever the cause) will have a disastrous effect on the market. We are just in our infancy in terms of grid stability and grid reliability. To grow in this area we need much more integration using DC links because these are immune to the lock-step nightmare of maintaining a constant frequency in a large region. We have an instructive history of what can happen with major outages in the USA's north-east!

The topic of on-site fuel storage is one that con't be totally ignored either, but I would like to see actual data on how much on-site fuel is stored at the large coal-fired plants, considering their consumption rates of full train loads per day. Such storage has its own added costs for moving the coal from the unloading area to the long-term storage area and back for firing, plus security, fire protection, etc.

Most beneficial and needed, in my opinion, is a major shift in our expectations and life styles, to ones that "require" the use of only 25% of today's consumption of energy, or less. Going that way and becoming comfortable with interruptability or curtailment of electrical supplies (such as some major users now agree to) or time-of-day metering (or level of use metering akin to Uber's or Lyft's fare models) will also provide security and stability to the energy market.

--John Mueller