California is farther from the central path of the total solar eclipse (representative)
Washington:
Power grids across the U.S. are anticipating rapid declines in solar power generation during Monday’s total solar eclipse, which will span several states.
NASA estimates that the path of the total solar eclipse will last from 1:30 PM Central Time (1830 GMT) to 2:35 PM when the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon.
Here’s how the solar eclipse will affect grid operators across the country:
Eckert (Texas)
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said the eclipse is expected to pass over Texas between 12:10 pm and 3:10 pm CDT, causing solar power generation to drop to 8% of its peak maximum output. % about.
ERCOT expects solar generation to drop from more than 10,000 megawatts to about 1,300 megawatts over two hours, while demand will hover between 48,899 megawatts and 51,539 megawatts. Solar energy could account for 15% to more than 20% of ERCOT’s total electricity.
ERCOT does not expect to face any grid reliability issues, but said it has analyzed ramping challenges posed by the eclipse, essentially the process of increasing or decreasing generation to meet demand.
An ERCOT spokesperson said that if a reliability issue is indeed detected, a decision may be made to commit additional resources or call in ancillary services in real time.
Ancillary services are additional resources purchased by ERCOT the day before to balance supply and demand for the next day.
MISO (Midwest, South, and parts of the West)
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which operates the grid in all or parts of 15 Western, Midwestern and Southern states, typically sees 5,500 megawatts of solar generation on a sunny day.
It is said that the solar eclipse may reduce 4,000 megawatts within 90 minutes, followed by a rebound of 3,000 megawatts. However, grid operators do not expect to experience reliability issues as a result.
“Solar generation will rapidly decrease and then increase, resulting in the need for ramps and potentially creating congestion management challenges,” MISO said in an operational report.
MISO plans to increase reserve requirements and will schedule additional generation so it can come online quickly if needed, it said.
ISO New England
ISO New England, which spans six New England states, said the path of the total solar eclipse includes northern areas. If the weather is clear, about 6,000 megawatts of solar power generation could be disrupted during the eclipse, the report said.
Assuming clear and sunny weather, “this could mean a loss of 92% of total solar power generation,” the grid operator added.
Solar will be replaced by other energy sources such as batteries, pumped hydro or natural gas that can be brought online quickly to meet demand.
NYISO (New York)
Assuming clear weather on Monday, the New York Independent System Operator expects solar generation to reach 3,500 megawatts when the eclipse begins, drop to 300 megawatts within an hour, and then rise to about 2,000 megawatts after the eclipse ends.
“Even if foreseeable, the loss of nearly 3,000 megawatts of generating capacity is substantial and will require additional resources to be provided to the system to cope with the loss,” NYISO said.
PJM (Northeast, Midwest, and parts of the South)
PJM, which covers all or parts of 13 states in the Midwest, Northeast and South as well as Washington, D.C., expects its solar generation to be temporarily reduced by at least 85% to 100%. The company said Thursday it was preparing to cut 4,800 megawatts of grid-connected solar power that would otherwise be available.
PJM said in a statement that it is preparing for the eclipse by deferring planned maintenance and keeping hydropower resources on standby.
CAISO (California)
California is farther from the central path of the total solar eclipse. Grid-scale solar generation is expected to drop by 6,349 MW to 7,123 MW in the last hour and a half.
The California Independent System Operator plans to address this challenge by ensuring adequate natural gas and hydropower resources are available and potentially limiting routine maintenance.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
