I was asking my MIL (visiting from Seattle) if WA is as screwed for power as CA. She replied that they may have problems this summer since WA had a very dry winter, thereby reducing hydroelectric generation capacity, which, she stated, is a MAJOR source of power in WA.
How does power generation break down (in percentages) in WA? (ie. %coal, %oil, %gas, %hydro, %nuke)
[sub]Hmmmm, wonder if Anthracite will be here soon?[/sub]
DOE’s electricity profile for Washington (or Google’s cached copy), see table 4.
As of 1998:
Coal utilities: 5.3%
Petroleum utilities: 0.2%
Gas utilities: 0.9%
Dual-fired utilities: 2.3%
Nuclear utilities: 4.3%
Hydroelectric utilities: 83.1%
Renewable utilities: 0.3%
Non-utility generation: 3.6%
FWIW, A large portion of the city of Seattle’s power comes from Boundary Dam, which is in the extreme northEAST corner of the state. Seattle City Light owns the dam. So local (i.e. west of the Cascades) weather isn’t the weather Seattle worries about powerwise. (But IIRC Eastern Washington had a dry winter too.)
My Question(s): I don’t know how this works. I doubt they actually transmit the power all the way from Metaline Falls to Seattle. I assume they just insert it into the power grid and withdraw that amount at Seattle, and that it’s mostly an accounting problem. Is that right? How do you “insert” power into the grid? Is there a huge pile of old car batteries somewhere near Moses Lake being used for storing excess generation?
There are no batteries. The power must be used as it is generated. Think of it as a water fountain that is always on. You can drink the water or let it go away. You can store the water in a cup, much like you can store electricity in your rechargable batteries; but the water (power) isn’t stored for you. Use it or lose it. Like a water fountain that has a spigot, power generation is reduced when demand is lower and increased when demand is higher. The power companies try to generate about 115% of the power that is needed at any given time. Sure, this wastes some power, but the over-generation ensures that there is power available if there is a sudden demand. I’m pretty sure that the rolling blackouts in California were not caused by generation falling to below 100% of demand. I think they were initiated to ensure that demand did not exceed the 105% that was available at the time.
Terribly sorry. Anthracite was in Greece having wild, incredibly hot, 8th Wonder of the World lesbian sex with Fierra. And no, I am not joking. :eek:
Mr2001 answered the OP, but I can answer the followup question.
The distance from the Falls to Seattle is not that great that they have to worry so much about transmission losses. But for longer distances, especially where power goes from one utility to another, there is a simple system in place. It is a system where power is supplied by utilities, Co-ops, IPP’s, and merchant plants to hold up the grid, and the plants bring units on and off line and ramp their power up and down as needed to follow the load. Sometimes, they lead the load by bringing the plants online earlier than expected, ending up with 120% or more capacity for a while. Also, there is a very large amount of communication between the utilities. If Utility A knows they are going to be needing additional power in an hour due to one of their power plants going offline, they call around quickly to the neighboring utilities to try and “wheel” power to their area when needed.
This power passes through special parts of the grids called interties, which measure the exact current flow and time very very accurately. Then, each month the utilities settle accounts between themselves.
There is a big market for electricity transaction billing and accounting software, as it is a very complicated process. Essentially every second of the day one could have a different power price, at different rates depending on the level of power flow - but typically it is on a minute basis. For example, today from 9:05 am to 9:10 am KCP&L might be charging Western Resources here in Kansas 20 mills per kWhr, and from 9:10 to 9:13 they may charge 22 mills per kWhr, and later on Western may be selling power back to KCP&L at 17.34336458902 mills per kW*hr…you get the picture.
It also doesn’t help that BPA has agreements to sell power to the idiots in California, at the expense of the Northwest. They’re also closing down aluminum smelters, so that the power can be used in other places (the aluminum company buys the power at an incredible discount, since they use so much. when they close the plants they sell BACK the power. Allegedly they can make a better profit doing this than by actually producing aluminum. Sounds like farm subsidies - pay me to NOT produce my product).
Yes, we had a dry winter this year - but GOD it was a nice winter, for your average Joe-on-the-street.
Just so you know… I mean the idiots at the POWER COMPANIES - NOT Californians in general 
Thanks for once again sharing your expertise with us, Anthracite. (I hope we didn’t interrupt anything! <snicker>) You answered my question very well, but I wanted to point out that Boundary Dam is roughly 300 miles from Seattle. (Metaline Falls is the name of a little-bitty town near the dam.) So I think it falls into the “one utility to another” category.
Yes, but it’s my understanding that Washington sells power to California during the winter, and buys power back from them in the summer. Isn’t that more or less a fair arrangement? Or do I have it wrong?
You have it exactly right. BPA sends electricity south in the summer and it gets it back in the winter. For electricity flow just think of the entire west as a big loop, LA to San Fran to Seattle to Butte to Denver, SaltLake, Phoenix (ok it isn’t exactly a loop)…The power tends to flow clockwise in the winter and counter-clockwise in the summer. This is a fairly broad desription of course.
By the way, BPA is federally owned is not beholden to any state or region.