Heads up - Power flickering

[Funky_Fish14]

Originally Posted by ed holland

right now the plant at wabamum is down(no power till aug 17th boiler when down)
the highvale plant i work at has 2 units down so not so much power but still going and some main line to b.c is down too

Why would they all go down in such synchrony? I mean, I understand power demand is/was a little higher, but I wouldnt see that affecting the actual generation stations, just the power grid for moving electricity.

Chris

[midgetwaiter]

Hmmm California, Ohio (the source of the east coast blackout) and Alberta all having strange power problems and rolling blackouts. Couldn't be related to deregulation could it.....

Remember folks, it's not only about higher prices, there are other benefits to deregulation!

[b_james]

Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

Hmmm California, Ohio (the source of the east coast blackout) and Alberta all having strange power problems and rolling blackouts. Couldn't be related to deregulation could it.....

Remember folks, it's not only about higher prices, there are other benefits to deregulation!

Anyone see ENRON "The Smartest Guys in the Room" documentary? In California it was the Enron traders making calls to the power stations to convince them to go off line or reduce there capacity because they would say the demand was lower (which it wasnt) resulting in the cost of power to increase therefore increasing Enrons profits while creating widespread power outages.

[midgetwaiter]

That is what I was essentially what I was getting at. Enron certainly wasn't the only company involved in shenanigans with the Calfornia market at the time either.

The government announced they are going to investigate the current situation today. There's no evidence that anyone has been messing around trying to run up prices but I certainly wonder how all these companies end up doing maintenance at the same time. I understand that not all of it is planned outages, stuff happens but I'm wondering why these companies can't talk to each other and maybe plan maintenance windows better.

[Funky_Fish14]

Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

The government announced they are going to investigate the current situation today. There's no evidence that anyone has been messing around trying to run up prices but I certainly wonder how all these companies end up doing maintenance at the same time. I understand that not all of it is planned outages, stuff happens but I'm wondering why these companies can't talk to each other and maybe plan maintenance windows better.

Yeah, thats what I didnt/dont get... I mean as I said above, its not the heat wave causing the problems with the power companies... all the draw from the city only messes with the dristribution grid... but when different plants etc.. are having problems that doesnt make sense...

Im still a little lost with some of the international complications you are all talking about though

[Dabbler]

Sheerness Generating Station which supplys about 800 M/W of power got disconected from the grid due to line problems from Anderson to Sheerness. When these power lines went down they had to shut down.

And to answer the question why they plan major matainance during the spring, summer and fall and not in the winter is that they don't have to keep everything from freezing up. Plants like Sundance, Wabamun, and Keephills generaly have 1 unit down for maintance and they have a roving crew that move from plant to plant. Others like Sheerness have an outage about once a year (planed) If it is an unplaned outage like a boiler leak they have to depresurize and vent the boiler, repair the leak then refire the boiler, then warm the uint up and then bring it back online. You can't just flick a switch and you are making 400 meg/watts you have to bring it up slow.
If you want to check out who is making power here is a link

http://ets.powerpool.ab.ca/

[Funky_Fish14]

Cool! Makes sense, thanks!