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California ISO emergeny.

California ISO emergeny.

California ISO emergeny.

(OP)
The 500kV line between Los Banos (San Lewis pumped storage) and Moss Landing's big NG fired power plant went off line during the MAJOR storm we just had here in Central California (60mph gusts - many inches of horizontal rain).  We were all supposed to conserve.

Anyone know what the problem was/is?

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

RE: California ISO emergeny.

(OP)
Interesting. I never thought wind would break a 500kV line.   It's not like a tree is going to fall on it.

It's also interesting that path 15 is 3 parallel 500kV circuits.  How would damage to 1 of 9 sets of conductors result in 66% reduction in capacity?

Perhaps switch gear limitations.  Though limiting the redundancy of multiple 500kV links due to switch limitations sounds too bad for even bean counter logic.


Thanks jghrist.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

RE: California ISO emergeny.

Loss of one phase is loss of all three phases.  Path ratings are often not based on all lines in service, so that it is possible for one line to trip without immediately overloading other lines in the path.  Not all lines may have the same ratings.  If all three lines don't go from point A to point B, there can be other considerations, lines in a path may be many miles apart - I know of at least one path the is around 100 miles across.

RE: California ISO emergeny.

"I never thought wind would break a 500kV line."

You should have seen what Hurricane Rita did to our 500kV line down here in 2005.  After she left, there was NO transmission at ANY voltage:  500, 230, 138 - NOTHING!

The 500kV structures that went were twisted jumbles of galvanized scrap after it was over.  We started getting limited transmission capabilities back in less than a week.

old field guy

RE: California ISO emergeny.

Good old California.  The problem is that there aren't enough power plants in your own back yard and you can't get the power from the back yards of those whose the power plants are located.  The NIMBY's win again.  There ought to be a law that in a situation like this, their power is curtailed first.

rmw

RE: California ISO emergeny.

<QUOTE=itsmoked> It's also interesting that path 15 is 3 parallel 500kV circuits.  How would damage to 1 of 9 sets of conductors result in 66% reduction in capacity? </QUOTE>

Tesla - Los Banos #1 500kV was out on a clearance the day of the storm.

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