Re: 1GW (sic) Battery Energy Storage Systems

On Sat, 30 Nov 2024 10:50:07 +0000, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

On 26/11/2024 03:15, john larkin wrote:
>

Having electricity used to be normal.

>
UK power supply is generally way more stable than US.

How many hours per year is your power out?

I'd estimate two total here, on avearge, but a pole on our street
toppled down recently and that took 5 hours to replace

Large-region power failures are very rare here, between major
earthquakes.

There was a forest fire east of Truckee this summer, and they shut off
power around a big trans line nedar Verdi for a few hours as a
precaution of some sort.

Power is impressively reliable here. Water too. Gas is reliable for
years at a time.



However, there is

a huge imbalance between where electricity is generated and it is used.
The North-South 400kV interconnectors are often maxed out at peak times.

The USA is 3.5M square miles. The UK is 93K.

>
The public consultation was yesterday. It really is 1GW injection power
and 4 hours so a 4GWhr battery farm (40x bigger than the largest system
currently in the UK and being built by a startup with no track record!).
>
It will have ~900 container modules of batteries as close together as
they dare (half the US regulation spacing) and in double lines of 50.
>
SO that makes me wonder how big is a 1GW transformer operating at 400kV?
And how much does one cost?

Big utility transformers are made to order, and that can take years.
The hazards there are obvious.

>
I'm guessing the secondary to handle 2500A will have to be (30A = 2mm^2
so 3000A ~ 200mm^2 = 16mm diameter) and at a 40:1 stepdown the low side
will have to be 40x bigger cross section 6x linear size hollow core?).
Are these guesses approximately right? How many turns on each?
>
How much soft iron core does it require (approximately)?

It takes special gear to measure the inductance of a utility-scale
transformer. A handheld meter won't do.

>
The location chosen is very cunning. They will get paid not to produce
electricity by intercepting the payments (to not produce electricity)
currently made to wind farm owners in Scotland and off the NE coast.

Hey, I know how to not produce electricity.

>
We don't have any worthwhile national infrastructure planning to speak
of and so this national level storage facility will be  approved by a
county council planning department (any one of them if built would
immediately be the largest BESS in the world). 3 within 20 miles of me.