Hold that Megawatt! (selling grid frequency regulation services)

[phantom power]

the North American electric grid is supposed to run at 60 cycles, meaning that the electrons change direction 60 times each second. In practice, if electricity supply and demand are not perfectly matched at every instant, the system runs just a little bit too fast or too slow.

If the pace strays too far from 60 cycles per second, equipment like pumps and motors run too fast or too slow and a variety of equipment will shut down to avoid getting damaged. A sharp decline in frequency was one reason that the blackout of August 2003 spread as far as it did.

...

on New Year’s Eve, AES Energy Storage, the subsidiary of a company based near Washington that operates power plants around the world, opened a plant in Johnson City, N.Y., near Binghamton, that sells frequency regulation. It absorbs or delivers energy at intervals of five seconds, as ordered by a computer at the New York Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s grid.

It does so with thousands of lithium-ion batteries, which AES selected for the same reason that electric vehicle manufacturers like them: they have the ability to absorb or deliver large amounts of current promptly and can change direction easily. The batteries were built by A123, which also builds batteries for automobile use.

...

Meanwhile, in Stephentown, N.Y., near Albany, Beacon Power is working on a plant that will do the same work but while using flywheels.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/hold-that-megawatt/

[joshcryer]

1. This could be a case study for V2G.