More power for Philippines

[Jollygoodfellow]

Good to see something being done about the power shortage.

 

President Benigno Aquino III led the ceremonial switch-on of the 59-megawatt (MW) San Carlos Sun (SaCaSun) power plant in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental on Tuesday (April 19).

President Aquino said Negros's dependable capacity on power increased by more than 900 MW — they have commissioned 3,262 MW in installed capacity in 70 power plants, 38 of which are renewable.

“For Visayas, specifically, we were able to increase the region’s dependable capacity by more than 900 MW, from around 1,300 MW in 2010 to 2,228 MW at present,” Aquino said.

He said there is another 5,404 MW in the pipeline through 60 incoming committed projects, 42 of which are renewable.

Aquino added that the percentage of renewables in our country’s energy mix has remained relatively high, at 33.9 percent.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada, who was also present at the inauguration, said that Negros Occidental is leading in solar power, with its 300-MW current generation capacity.

First of its kind
Built by San Carlos Sun Power, Inc. — a subsidiary of AboitizPower Corporation— the newly opened solar plant is the first of its kind in San Carlos. It is also AboitizPower's first venture into solar power.

Located on a 75-hectare property inside the San Carlos Ecozone in Barangay Punao, SaCaSun has started delivering energy to the Visayas grid on March 9.

The plant delivers more than 80 gigawatt hours of clean and renewable energy a year to the Visayas grid — enough to power 27,600 homes.

"This should help avoid the emission of more than 44,000 tons of carbon dioxide over 20 years-the equivalent of taking around 10,000 cars off the road,” Lino Bernardo, SaCaSun president, said in a statement.

The P4.9-billion project started in August 2015 and was completed before the March 15, 2016 Feed-in-Tarrif scheme deadline set by the Department of Energy.

http://cnnphilippines.com/regional/2016/04/19/sacasun-solar-power-plant-negros-occidental.html

[Dave Hounddriver]

I can see the benefit of solar power to a household user, but to have huge megawatts of power produced by solar energy means the system will be flooded with power during the day and then short of power during the peak hours of 6 pm to 9 pm. What will they do?  The only solutions that come to mind are HUGE battery packs or another generating station to fill the 6 pm to 9 pm gap.  Both of these seem to defeat the purpose of the solar power farm.

It is already noticeable.  For example, my air conditioner runs fine during the heat of the day but during the peak hours of 6 to 9 pm I get real periods of power fluctuation (everyone else in the subdivision is home from work and wants to use the power too), and the air con suffers REAL brownout (not enough power from the lines for it to run properly).

[robert k]

10 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I can see the benefit of solar power to a household user, but to have huge megawatts of power produced by solar energy means the system will be flooded with power during the day and then short of power during the peak hours of 6 pm to 9 pm. What will they do?  The only solutions that come to mind are HUGE battery packs or another generating station to fill the 6 pm to 9 pm gap.  Both of these seem to defeat the purpose of the solar power farm.

It is already noticeable.  For example, my air conditioner runs fine during the heat of the day but during the peak hours of 6 to 9 pm I get real periods of power fluctuation (everyone else in the subdivision is home from work and wants to use the power too), and the air con suffers REAL brownout (not enough power from the lines for it to run properly).

Dave, you might be thankful that there is enough power during the day? If all of the solar generating "plants" were shut down tomorrow, do you think you would have steady power?

[RBM]

As I understand Dave all generated power goes directly into the national grid.

[Dave Hounddriver]

19 minutes ago, RBM said:

I understand Dave all generated power goes directly into the national grid.

Yes, that is what strikes me as impractical.  The national grid is being forced to handle all the power being generated by individuals and wholesalers who are using solar panels and then at 6 pm (give or take), the power demands increase with the supper hour and the power supply to the grid drops off.  The excess power supplied during the day is not stored anywhere, even in the grid.  Where is the excess going when supply exceeds demand due to solar production and where is the supply coming from when the sun goes down?

Just as a suggestion, it sees that coal fired generators can reduce output during the day and then increase output during the 3 peak hours from 6 to 9 but think about that, if you owned a coal power station and you were only needed from 6 to 9 pm would you build any more?  Where is the power going to come from between 6 and 9 PM?

[Jack Peterson]

 I am confused here now, I thought you used your Solar Power when available then the Excess went to the Grid and you were Credited at some stage. Then at Night you used Grid Power?

[Dave Hounddriver]

10 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

I thought you used your Solar Power when available then the Excess went to the Grid

I don't know how that works and its irrelevant to the point I am trying to make.  Grid does not need additional power during day or at night.  Grid needs loads of power between 6pm and 9pm;  Where will it come from?  Would you build additional power plants if you could only sell the power between 6PM and 9PM?

Conclusion is that solar plants are hugely inefficient, in my humble expat opinion, unless there is a way they can store or supply power up to and including 9pm.

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

unless there is a way they can store or supply power up to and including 9pm.

 Batteries? 

[Dave Hounddriver]

7 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

Batteries? 

That is just one of the innovative ways to supply power during those hours, but again, the cost of the batteries, just to supply power for the 3 peak hours, is going to paid by?????

I can think of a way to balance the power but I am not sure if it is cost effective.  Hydro power.  During the day the solar power could pump the water up to the dam and during the night the resulting hydro-electric power would supply the countries needs.

But can you see my point that supplying huge amounts of power during the day would result in fewer conventional power plants being built and more and more brown outs during the peak hours?

[Jack Peterson]

26 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

But can you see my point that supplying huge amounts of power during the day

 Gonna talk to one of the Engineers on the Solar Section. NII must have some Answers somewhere or What is the Point.