nuclear-news

Nuclear plant trips due to fire, and battery storage steps in to stabilises the grid

What happens when a giant nuclear power station
suddenly goes off line? It’s a question that market operators have to ask
themselves all the time.

The biggest units on the grid are generally
nuclear, in those countries that have them, and a considerable amount of
planning and expense needs to make sure that the back-up is on hand,
despite the insistence by some of the whackier pro-nuclear spruikers in
Australia that no storage or gas is needed.

According to Grid Status, which
monitors grid operations in the US, the frequency excursion was arrested by
a rapid response from the state’s rapidly growing portfolio of big
battery projects. “Immediately, grid frequency declined,” Grid Status
noted in a post on LinkedIn and X. “An excursion below critical levels
required a fast response by ERCOT to ensure stability of the grid. In this
case, ERCOT swiftly deployed ancillary services, including a significant
amount of batteries providing ECRS, to boost the frequency back to
normal.” ERCOT is the Electricity reliability Council of Texas, which
manages the grid. ECRS refers to the contingency reserve service. The big
batteries were back in action a few days later when one of the state’s
coal fired power station units also tripped.

Texas is expected to more than
double its battery storage capacity in 2024, adding around 6.4 GW of
battery capacity (with varying levels of storage), to the 5.5 GW that
existed before.

 Renew Economy 1st Aug 2024

https://reneweconomy.com.au/nuclear-plant-trips-due-to-fire-and-battery-storage-steps-in-to-stabilises-the-grid/

August 4, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety