this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2021
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Electrical grids (not generation)
So distributed generation shouldn't happen? As far as I know distributed generation is happening and it is likely to increase as time goes on. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_generation In general non-renewables should be centralized due to economies and efficiencies of scale but renewables almost have to be distributed due to the amount of space they take and localized weather effects.
Yes distributed generation is good. I said not generation in my first line. The wikipedia article you referenced doesn't mention transmission grid infrastructure, I'm curious, who is responsible for that in a distributed grid anyway?
Transmission owners own transmission. Transmission operators operate transmission. Reliability coorfinators have a wide overview and exist to help keep the grid together.
IMO, the reliability coordinators, transmission owners, and transmission operators should be centralized while generation should be decentralized.
This reminds me, the postal system should be centralized. A decentralized postal system would be an absolute mess.
I think they're saying electrical transmission should be centralized, but generation should not be. Problems with double negatives...
But transmission isn't centralized, and can't be centralized. Because its purpose is to transmit power from power generators (both centralized and decentralized) to (located elsewhere) loads.
I assumed the OP meant generation because the other way around doesn't make sense.
I may also be thinking about the physical world with the OP thinking about ownership, but that makes even less sense. Transmission and generation should be paid for by the end users. Preferably in whatever way reduces their costs without making them a burden on other participants.
Maybe the statement is talking about centralized ownership for the purposes of economies of scale. Even that can be broken down to cooperative ownership as much of the less urban areas of the United States already are.
I meant transmission, systems that maintain load balancing, etc. Generation of renewables should be decentralized, but requiring generators to comply with creating transmission lines to rural areas or cities will create a bunch of issues around who is responsible for what, standards mismatch, and extremely high cost for smaller populations. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
Yes you're correct. As per the question asked with the "NOT", imo Electrical Grids should not be decentralized while generation should.
What makes a grid centralized besides generation?
The maintenance of the transmission lines, smart load balancing, maintenance, etc.
Huh? Electrical grids are decentralized in many ways right now.
Yes but the question is what should not be.
...and the are decentralized for very good reasons...
Maybe you could list our a couple of the good reasons? In Canada the provinces that have centralized electrical grids have the cheapest electricity while provinces with decentralized have the higher power costs. Passive aggressive comments are sometimes entertaining but usually they come off flat when there's no empirical evidence to back them up. ๐
Electrical grids across the world have been decentralized since the beginning - hence the name - for various reasons. Resilience: a long distance line can be disconnected due to a fault and the network need to be able to survive the fault without leaving users without power. Maintenance: you need to be able to disconnect the line without cutting power to users. Economics & corporate politics: even if generation or distribution is done by the government in many countries, the companies actually doing the work are often private. You don't want a single company to have huge bargain power. Also: resilience from air strikes and carpet bombing (yes it's a concern).
It's pretty common for datacenters to be connected to multiple power lines possibly from different providers for reliability.
If this sounds similar to how the physical Internet is built it's not unexpected.
Ahh, you're talking about technical operations. I'm referring to governance. Yes, everything can be looked at in a decentralized way depending on the frame of reference. Good job!
As mentioned in other answers, a lot of governance is decentralized (e.g. across different countries) as well.
Just to repeat, what is and what should be are different questions. Gold star for getting the What is part right though!