Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System

Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2017-10-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309463076

Americans' safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex "cyber-physical" system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system's reliability and resilience can be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.

Electric Grid Reliability and Interface with Nuclear Power Plants

Electric Grid Reliability and Interface with Nuclear Power Plants
Author: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher: IAEA Nuclear Energy
Total Pages: 78
Release: 2012
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9789201261106

This publication describes the characteristics of the electrical grid system that are required for the connection and successful operation of a nuclear power plant, as well as the characteristics of a nuclear power plant that are significant for the design and operation of the electrical grid system. It addresses the issues to be considered when a nuclear power plant is being planned and describes the information exchange necessary between the developer of a nuclear power plant and the organization responsible for the electrical grid. The particular issue of a large nuclear unit connected with a small system is also discussed. A new topic introduced in this publication is the need for cyber security of the grid system near the nuclear power plant. Several case studies of Member States experience in developing new nuclear units and about grid events during operation are included.

Brittle Power

Brittle Power
Author: Amory B. Lovins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 520
Release: 1982
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Flood Impact Mitigation and Resilience Enhancement

Flood Impact Mitigation and Resilience Enhancement
Author: Guangwei Huang
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2020-12-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1839626259

The concept of resilience has been gaining momentum in various fields in recent years and has been used in various ways from a catch phrase to a cornerstone in theoretic development or practical operation. No matter how it is used, it does contribute one way or another to the refinement and application of the concept. This book focuses on the application of the resilience concept to flood disaster management. This book is a collection of research works conducted across the world and across sectors. Therefore, it is a good example of how different perspectives can catalyze our insight into complex flood-related issues. It can be considered valuable reading material for students, researchers, policymakers and practitioners, because it provides both the fundamentals and new development of resilience-based approaches and delivers a message that the goal of resilience-based flood management goes beyond disaster reduction.

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development
Author: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Nuclear agency
ISBN: 9789201070166

Transforming the energy system is at the core of the dedicated sustainable development goal on energy within the new United Nations development agenda. This publication explores the possible contribution of nuclear energy to addressing the issues of sustainable development through a large selection of indicators. It reviews the characteristics of nuclear power in comparison with alternative sources of electricity supply, according to economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainability. The findings summarized in this publication will help the reader to consider, or reconsider, the contribution that can be made by the development and operation of nuclear power plants in contributing to more sustainable energy systems.

A Small Farm Future

A Small Farm Future
Author: Chris Smaje
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2020-10-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1603589031

A modern classic of the new agrarianism "Chris Smaje...shows that the choice is clear. Either we have a small farm future, or we face collapse and extinction."—Vandana Shiva "Every young person should read this book."—Richard Heinberg In a groundbreaking debut, farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organizing society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, sanest and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilisation—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival. Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically. Challenging both conventional wisdom and utopian blueprints, A Small Farm Future offers rigorous original analysis of wicked problems and hidden opportunities in a way that illuminates the path toward functional local economies, effective self-provisioning, agricultural diversity and a shared earth. Perfect for readers of both Wendell Berry and Thomas Piketty, A Small Farm Future is a refreshing, new outlook on a way forward for society—and a vital resource for activists, students, policy makers, and anyone looking to enact change.

Taming the Sun

Taming the Sun
Author: Varun Sivaram
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262537079

How solar could spark a clean-energy transition through transformative innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems. Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What's more, its potential is nearly limitless—every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. But in Taming the Sun, energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar's current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim. Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram explains, drawing on firsthand experience and original research spanning science, business, and government. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from the sunniest deserts to the poorest villages. Technological innovation could replace today's solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world's power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun's unreliable energy. Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio. Although solar can't power the planet by itself, it can be the centerpiece of a global clean energy revolution. A Council on Foreign Relations Book

Power Engineering

Power Engineering
Author: Viorel Badescu
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2018-12-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0429843534

Traditionally, power engineering has been a subfield of energy engineering and electrical engineering which deals with the generation, transmission, distribution and utilization of electric power and the electrical devices connected to such systems including generators, motors and transformers. Implicitly this perception is associated with the generation of power in large hydraulic, thermal and nuclear plants and distributed consumption. Faced with the climate change phenomena, humanity has had to now contend with changes in attitudes in respect of environment protection and depletion of classical energy resources. These have had consequences in the power production sector, already faced with negative public opinions on nuclear energy and favorable perception of renewable energy resources and about distributed power generation. The objective of this edited book is to review all these changes and to present solutions for future power generation. Future energy systems must factor in the changes and developments in technology like improvements of natural gas combined cycles and clean coal technologies, carbon dioxide capture and storage, advancements in nuclear reactors and hydropower, renewable energy engineering, power-to-gas conversion and fuel cells, energy crops, new energy vectors biomass-hydrogen, thermal energy storage, new storage systems diffusion, modern substations, high voltage engineering equipment and compatibility, HVDC transmission with FACTS, advanced optimization in a liberalized market environment, active grids and smart grids, power system resilience, power quality and cost of supply, plug-in electric vehicles, smart metering, control and communication technologies, new key actors as prosumers, smart cities. The emerging research will enhance the security of energy systems, safety in operation, protection of environment, improve energy efficiency, reliability and sustainability. The book reviews current literature in the advances, innovative options and solutions in power engineering. It has been written for researchers, engineers, technicians and graduate and doctorate students interested in power engineering.