Re: Grand Apagon - Electricity (not) in Spain

On 4/05/2025 5:17 am, Jeroen Belleman wrote:

On 5/3/25 20:30, john larkin wrote:

On Sat, 3 May 2025 19:23:11 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
<jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
>

On 5/3/25 17:12, john larkin wrote:

On Sat, 3 May 2025 14:24:07 +0200, "Carlos E.R."
<robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>

On 2025-05-02 12:03, Martin Brown wrote:

On 01/05/2025 18:41, Bill Sloman wrote:

On 2/05/2025 2:21 am, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
>

On 30/04/2025 7:59 pm, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:

<snip>

>
Most run at the MPPT point, so have no reserve to save the grid. And a
lot of cloud cover or still wind will precipitate the very crisis that
needs reserve.

 With the contribution of solar and wind being oblivious of demand,
the burden of keeping the grid stable must be taken up by thermal
or hydro power plants.

The contributions of wind and solar don't have to be oblivious of demand - wind turbines can be feathered and photovoltaic cells can be run at higher voltages and lower currents than would give maximum power transfer.
In fact when you have a variable generating capacity, you need short term storage to smooth it out. Pumped hydroelectric storage has been around for decades now, and grid scale batteries are becoming popular. though the South Australian Hornsdale Reserve was the first one installed back in 2017.

When Spain's grid crashed, PV amounted to
well over 50% of the total supply. It makes me wonder why it didn't
crash sooner.

It make me wonder why they didn't have any grid scale scale storage.
Bureaucrats are averse to innovation, but they shouldn't be quite that ignorant. Carlos says that some of the Spanish island communities already have grid scale batteries - so it looks like bureaucratic inertia.
--
Bill Sloman, Sydney