Wide area synchronous grid - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A wide area synchronous grid, also called an "interconnection" in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, is a power grid

Grid (electricity)

An electrical grid is a vast, interconnected network for delivering electricity from suppliers to consumers. It consists of three main components: 1) generating plants that produce electricity from combustible fuels or non-combustible fuels ; 2) transmission lines that carry electricity from power...

at a regional scale or greater that operates at a synchronized frequency and is electrically tied together during normal system conditions. These are also known as synchronous zones, the largest of which is the synchronous grid of Continental Europe (ENTSO-E) with 603 gigawatts (GW) of generation, and the widest region served being that of the IPS/UPS

IPS/UPS

The IPS/UPS is a wide area synchronous transmission grid of some CIS countries with a common mode of operation and centralized supervisory control. It has an installed generation capacity of 300 gigawatts, and produces 1,200 terawatt-hours per year for its 280 million customers...

system serving countries of the former Soviet Union. Synchronous grids with ample capacity facilitate electricity market

Electricity market

In economic terms, electricity is a commodity capable of being bought, sold and traded. An electricity market is a system for effecting purchases, through bids to buy; sales, through offers to sell; and short-term trades, generally in the form of financial or obligation swaps. Bids and offers use...

trading across wide areas. In the ENTSO-E in 2008, over 350,000 megawatt hours were sold per day on the European Energy Exchange

European Energy eXchange

European Energy Exchange AG, Germany's energy exchange, is the leading energy exchange in Central Europe.-Overview:The European Energy Exchange is located in Leipzig. Preceding companies were LPX Leipzig Power Exchange, located in Leipzig and European Energy Exchange, located in Frankfurt...

(EEX). As discovered in the California electricity crisis

California electricity crisis

The California electricity crisis, also known as the Western U.S. Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001 was a situation in which California had a shortage of electricity caused by market manipulations and illegal shutdowns of pipelines by Texas energy consortiums...

, there are strong incentives among some market traders to deliberately create congestion and poor management of generation capacity on an interconnection network to artificially inflate prices. Increasing transmission capacity and expanding the market by uniting with neighboring synchronous networks will make such manipulations more difficult.

All of the interconnects in North America are synchronized at 60Hz, while those of Europe run at 50Hz. Interconnections can be tied to each other via high-voltage direct current

High-voltage direct current

A high-voltage, direct current electric power transmission system uses direct current for the bulk transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses...

power transmission lines (DC ties), or with variable frequency transformer

Variable frequency transformer

A variable frequency transformer is used to transmit electricity between two alternating current domains. The VFT is a relatively recent development...

s (VFTs), which permit a controlled flow of energy while also functionally isolating the independent AC frequencies of each side.

The benefits of synchronous zones include pooling of generation, resulting in lower generation costs; pooling of load, resulting in significant equalizing effects; common provisioning of reserves, resulting in cheaper primary and secondary reserve power costs; opening of the market, resulting in possibility of long term contracts and short term power exchanges; and mutual assistance in the event of disturbances..

The Tres Amigas SuperStation aims to enable energy transfers and trading between the Eastern Interconnection

Eastern Interconnection

The Eastern Interconnection is one of the two major alternating current power grids in North America. The other major interconnection is the Western Interconnection...

and Western Interconnection

Western Interconnection

The Western Interconnection is one of the two major alternating current power grids in North America. The other major wide area synchronous grid is the Eastern Interconnection...

using 30GW HVDC connections.

Major existing networks

Eastern Interconnection
Eastern Interconnection
The Eastern Interconnection is one of the two major alternating current power grids in North America. The other major interconnection is the Western Interconnection...

— serving eastern US and Canada; 610 GW of generation.
Western Interconnection
Western Interconnection
The Western Interconnection is one of the two major alternating current power grids in North America. The other major wide area synchronous grid is the Eastern Interconnection...

— serving western US, Canada, and north western Mexico; 160 GW of generation.
National Electricity Market
National Electricity Market
The National Electricity Market is the name of the Australian wholesale electricity market and the associated synchronous electricity transmission grid....

— one of the world’s longest interconnected power grids, serving all Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

's State's and Territories
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...

except Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

and the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

.
NORDEL — Nordic countries synchronous zone (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Eastern Denmark), 93 GW generation capacity, 390 TWh per year, serving 25 million people.
UCTE — synchronous zone serving 23 European countries, 603 GW generation, 2530 TWh per year, serving 450 million
ATSOI / UKTSOA — Ireland and Great Britain's synchronous zone, 400 TWh per year, 85GW generation, serving 65 million.
IPS/UPS
IPS/UPS
The IPS/UPS is a wide area synchronous transmission grid of some CIS countries with a common mode of operation and centralized supervisory control. It has an installed generation capacity of 300 gigawatts, and produces 1,200 terawatt-hours per year for its 280 million customers...

— 12 countries of former Soviet Union: 337 GW generation, 1285 TWh annually, serving 280 million
SEMB — South Eastern Mediterranean Block serves Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
SWMB — South Western Mediterranean Block serves Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Planned interconnections

SIEPAC
SIEPAC
SIEPAC is a planned interconnection of the power grids of six Central American nations...

serving 37 million customers of 6 countries of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

.
China plans to complete by 2020 its ultra high voltage AC synchronous grid linking the current North, Central, and Eastern grids. When complete, its generation capacity will dwarf that of the UCTE Interconnection.

Proposed mega grids

Union of the UCTE and IPS/UPS grid unifying 36 countries across 13 time zones.
Unified Smart Grid
Unified Smart Grid
Unified National Smart Grid is a proposal for a United States wide area grid that is a national interconnected network relying on a high capacity backbone of electric power transmission lines linking all the nation's local electrical networks that have been upgraded to smart grids...

unification of the US interconnections into a single grid with smart grid features.
SuperSmart Grid
SuperSmart Grid
The SuperSmart Grid is a hypothetical wide area electricity network connecting Europe with northern Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and the IPS/UPS system of CIS countries. The system would unify super grid and smart grid capabilities into a comprehensive network...

a similar mega grid proposal linking UCTE, IPSUPS, North Africa and Turkish networks.

External links

http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~anil/ A Wide Area Synchronized Frequency Measurement System

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Major existing networks

Planned interconnections

Proposed mega grids

See also

External links