this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
113 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
59446 readers
4651 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think I have only had 1 power cut longer than 5 mins in the last 15 years (SE England), it's not a big problem here. (Bigger issue in Scotland/Wales/Cornwall as they get bigger storms)
The grid already allows some areas to be cut off and others continue when there is a problem or lack of generation (see ZA load shedding for an extreme example).
I think what you are asking for is for the generation to be spread out so that everywhere is almost self sufficient, but can rely on others when they are not?
It's a nice idea, but I don't think it's feasible as the economies of scale make big power plants/big offshore farms more efficient. Generation will almost always be concentrated into a small number of locations. It's also much harder to balance load/demand on a smaller grid - if your street was a grid and had to operate off grid off rooftop solar for example how would it cope when everyone turns on the oven for dinner?
Yeah, that's exactly what I mean is more decentralized generation as you mentioned. Here, our power is not often interrupted, but when it is, it can be for hours at a time or longer depending on how strong the hurricane or whatever that knocked it out was.