Thought provoking editorial from Silicon Chip magazine

Here in Australia one other problem with the power system is privatization. What was a Utility is now a expensive shambles, here in South Australia it is the worst. The company that runs the infrastructure doesn't have enough line workers, & is getting rid of more. If theres major storm damage as in several weeks ago, a lot of customers were with out power for 2 weeks, & workers had to be imported from another state. Current political answer is get a backup generator. I used to work as a Linesman with the old system ETSA ( Electricity Trust South Australia). Back then there was enough workers to cover maintenance, & storm damage. Just last week during 43Deg heat here there was power shedding due to not enough power being available from interstate & thousands of customers were without power ( Heat wave with no wind at all) We are told theres plenty of Solar & Wind power but it doesn't seem to be working too well. I have had a 1.5Kw Grid tie solar system for 4 years now & last year was the worst output due to a lot of cloud cover particularly in summer. These are the annual total outputs of my system. 2013, 2742 Kw. 2014, 2365 Kw. 2015, 2603 Kw. 2016, 2075 Kw.

spec said:

All this is like electric cars- a complete circus, and it is costing the electricity consumers directly and tax payers indirectly with all the government subsidies.

The wind turbines are also ruining the environment in a big way. A good example is if you drive south into Cornwall, one of the most attractive counties- the whole landscape is covered in various designs of wind turbine, some ugly and some really ugly. And the thing is that more often than not the turbines are not functioning.

Mr angry from WSM

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I am in more or less permanent contact with people working with windmill parks. A comment that surprised me was that birds and insects use to disapear forever. Not sure how serious is that but an expression of how we affect our ecosystem.

Additional not related comment: it seems that the standard expected life of those machines is just 20 years... What a bright expensive future.

atferrari said:

I am in more or less permanent contact with people working with windmill parks. A comment that surprised me was that birds and insects use to disapear forever. Not sure how serious is that but an expression of how we affect our ecosystem.

Additional not related comment: it seems that the standard expected life of those machines is just 20 years... What a bright expensive future.

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I believe that the maintenance costs are high with wind turbines too.

spec

A question for someone that understands the anti-islanding rules better than me. I understand the need for the rules but wonder if the power can be kept locally by disconnecting the house from the grid rather than disconnecting the house from the solar panels. Or, will the inverter try to power the grid and cause overvoltage/ over frequency?

When a powercut occurs, could the house holder isolated their house from the grid and use a battery powered inverter to "reboot" their solar system?

If stand alone systems run away with voltage/frequency, could a variable load be designed to keep it in spec? However, a specially (properly) designed inverter could know when the grid had disconnected (because it disconnected it) and keep itself in spec.

Thanks,

Mike.

Pommie said:

A question for someone that understands the anti-islanding rules better than me. I understand the need for the rules but wonder if the power can be kept locally by disconnecting the house from the grid rather than disconnecting the house from the solar panels. Or, will the inverter try to power the grid and cause overvoltage/ over frequency?

When a powercut occurs, could the house holder isolated their house from the grid and use a battery powered inverter to "reboot" their solar system?

If stand alone systems run away with voltage/frequency, could a variable load be designed to keep it in spec? However, a specially (properly) designed inverter could know when the grid had disconnected (because it disconnected it) and keep itself in spec.

Thanks,

Mike.

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Hi Pommie,

I do not know about the legal position in Australia but, technically speaking, there is no reason why you cannot have storage batteries that power you house locally when the mains supply from the utility company fails. And there is no reason why your solar panels can't charge your batteries.

There would be no excess power problem, because the circuit between your solar cell and the battery would be able to take care of that, not by shedding power but by only allowing a maximum amount of battery charge.

spec

What about without batteries?

Mike.

Pommie said:

What about without batteries?

Mike.

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A back up system could be made to work without batteries, if you could guarantee constant sunshine. If not, the house mains supply would not be constant because there would be times when the power from the solar panels did not meet the power demanded by the house.

To keep the power requirements down, some backup power systems: battery, petrol/diesel electric, only power essential items, mainly lighting, boiler control, fridge and freezer, but not high energy items like electric heaters, immersion heaters, air conditioning, electric cookers, and electric kettles.

spec

By the way, a typical automobile battery, rather than deep charge battery, would probably provide around 1.2KW hours. But an automobile battery would probably fail because they are not designed for deep discharge- as I found out the hard way.

spec

Whats the bet this leo ****** simpson donates to the lnp as that rhetoric in that opinion is bang on the money for what the Fizza (our PM) is saying.


MOD Edit!! C'mon Bryan... You know better that that!!