How Does the Power Grid Work?
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- The modern world depends on electricity. It’s a crucial resource, especially in urban areas, but electricity can’t be created, stored, and provided at a later time. The instant it’s produced, it’s used no matter how far apart the producer is from the user. And the infrastructure that makes all this possible is one of humanity’s most important and fascinating engineering achievements: the power grid.
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-Website: practical.engineering
Writing/Editing/Production: Grady Hillhouse
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In central europe, our clocks were late for a few seconds last year, because Serbia and Cosovo had a fight over delivering electricity and thus, the frequency sank
LesleyVids, it's scary the way that political tensions can affect the population so immediately and right in their own homes. A few seconds on a clock is not a huge deal, but it illustrates how vulnerable our daily lives are to forces outside of our control, and how easily things could go from bad to worse. I'm glad for you that that's as bad as it got. We all are vulnerable...
European grid is running slow for several years now. at something like 49.997hz or something. Not much of a difference for most thing but it affects clock that relies on it being exactly 50Hz
I remember Tom Scott making a video about this
Almost as bad as the fight for water rights....
More like a few minutes, actually.
Practical Engineering posts a video? worldwide power surge...
The grid has not yet collapsed, so he must have warned the grid operators!
Whilst Grady has done very well to gain a million subscribers, the "Competitive eating" and "Cat videos" channels are seeing an order of magnitude more, which says a lot for society's interest in things technical.
K
Wrong... people who watch this stuff have solar panels on their houses.
Pretty sure most people watching this are doing so on their phone, but maybe that's just me.
Rolling blackouts in Dallas from the winter storms brought me here. Great video!
Grady - - - as a retired power engineer, I found this to be a fascinating introduction to the subject. The critical takeaway for me is that while the power grid might be viewed as staid, old-fashioned technology, it offers a lot of really interesting technical problems and could be the basis for great careers for bright young engineers.
Can confirm. I'm 7 months into my career in grid security. We disconnect parts of the grid in case faults, to make sure that the grid still works when the fault is taken care of. If we succeed, you probably won't notice anything. The worst case is a short-term blackout. If we fail, there's probably a fire or an explosion somewhere. We might have to build a new substation before you have reliable electricity again.
Improbabilities lol what a silly job title. I appreciate the job and those who do it. But grid security as a title is a joke.
@@TheJakeman789 I was trying to summarize my job in a short phrase, not relaying my actual job title. "I'm a commissioning engineer working on power grid substations" is a bit clunky, and rarely gets people to understand what the job entails.
Louie, I can't agree more. I'm a Civil engineer that works in the power industry and I absolutely love it; I hope to hire on full time after I graduate.
@@Improbabilities the jake mean maybe grid protection , because in grid we put relay protection not antivirus , lol
even now it used only intranet not internet , so security maybe not best word in here
German energy-engineering student here, I really wanted to see a video series on this topic. So thank you for making this video! It's interesting, that the American Power Grid uses the better frequency of 60 Hz, but the worse Voltage. If you took the European 400/230V and combined it with the American 60Hz it would reduce the powerloss in both grids (European and American) by a few percentage points.
Really looking forward to the next videos!
why would 60Hz reduce the powerloss? Higher frequencies -> skin effect -> higher losses right? (I know we're talking about 10Hz difference but still...)
Thing is, if I get this right, higher frequency means better power conversion at transformers, which is a very lossy operation to begin with, though not as lossy as low-voltage long distance power transmission.
@@jtauscher Yes, but as WastedWizard said, the losses that you reduce in the transformers for going from 50 to 60 Hz is more than the increased resistance in the cables from the higher frequency. Though skin effect is a problem in small diameters, the cables are huge enough, that it's not really a problem. The Inductance and combined with the higher frequency the higher resistance are just small enough, that the transformers simply have a higher gain from the increased frequency than the increased losses in the cables.
@@JainZar1 I like your comment. I have been wondering the same exact thing. But i have a couple questions, if i may?
Skin effect aside, doesn't 60Hz increase the inductive/radiation losses as well, when compared to 50hz?
But i get what you are saying. I'm just wondering. Thanks. :)
@@JainZar1 Thanks for your reply, you seem to have a point there. But isn't it the case transformation will be done on a base of semi-conductors more and more?
So excited to see a power grid video! The power grid is an amazing combo of all kinds of engineering. Insulator design, lightning surge arrestors, oil-cooled transformers, static VAR compensation, fault protection systems that need to operate in milliseconds, underground/undersea cables, various types of generation and industry loads all with their own power quality trade-offs. So many different engineering disciplines all combined into one big system!
@Henryk Gödel Lots that can go wrong, but also lots of backup systems and preventative engineering in place to keep it running smoothly. The power grid is where it is today due to a century of continuous learning and improvements. Still takes a fair amount of human oversight at the moment as you've mentioned though. The operators mostly only need to be concerned about balancing load with generation. But occasionally things do get stressful for sure.
@Henryk Gödel Whilst minor very short-term demand fluctuations are managed by the system inertia, longer term demand management is very dependent on may external factors. Obviously seasonal demand is one thing, but the Grid operators need to have very accurate (and high-resolution) meteorological information, as well as information on TV scheduling (to plan for the "plugging in of kettles" at the end of popular TV shows!). Colleague's father was a senior CEGB Grid Management Engineer, and the number of factors / variables they need to consider just for "routine" planning is eye-opening. Add in the "padding" necessary during bad weather (especially windy weather, to help mitigate local supply outage effects on demand fluctuation) and you soon understand why their need for serious computing capability is what it is!
Ian Colwell english please?
@@phils4634 wow, I didn't realize how much there was to it!
Although the systems remain the same the technology is progressing in leaps and bounds. At one time small 33kv substation were like miniature substations but now they can be contained in a building due to technology and nitrogen. Most units that need to be cooled or to stop arcing use nitrogen and units I used to install were half the size of their predecessors which were my age at the time. At the time I was the go to guy, in Scotland, to build S&C mod2020 units as I could build more than two in the time it took Siemans to build one. They asked me how I did it, I told them I didn't take the piss.
Power engineer here. Nice, simple overview! You got the main points important to know for the general public and even some more.^^
You even used the right units of energy and power! Something not many reports like this do. :D
..and one small nuclear device, detonated in low orbit over the US, will put is back into the stone age.
Yeah, you gotta love it when people say "a household uses over 10000kW a year!"
@@austin30233 shouldn't it be kWh?
@@suisegs69420 Why, yes. Yes it should.
Considering Grady works as a dam engineer, no wonder he knows about this topic since dams are built to produce electricity after all. Nonetheless, I'm happy to see those of us who use electricity are getting some love on the series =D
Practical Engineering. The reason the Québec power grid is not attach directly to the east grid as to do with frequency. Québec grid is essentially a Hydro grid. Being so, the variation of the frequency is higher than the one of the east, which rely on gas generator turbine. Québec variation of frequency is between 59,95 Hz and 60,05 Hz, while the 2 grids (east and west) have a variation of 59,975 Hz and 60,025 Hz. this is due to the high inertia of the hydro turbine which weigh more than 400 mt each while a gas turbine will weigh a lot less. To attach the grid and mitigate that problem engineer have built a back to back HVDC converter station which tie the two grid thru a DC System (a good video about this system is "Brazil-Argentina HVDC interconnection"). More modern system will use a variable frequency transformer to do a similar job. There is a direct link between James bay hydro-electric dam and Boston using a 450 KV DC line which i found very interesting since it use the other possible way of sending high energy on long distance (1000 mille + in this case) . another fascinating phenomenon is the induction by the earth magnetic field during solar storm in long power line running north to south ..... to much to talk about in energy and the field of transport and distribution!
Hey, if you enjoyed this video but felt like you wanted to go deeper, that’s on purpose, and I’ve got some great news for you. The next several videos are going to cover topics in electrical infrastructure in more detail, but I wanted to provide a high-level overview first. Subscribe to the channel to stay tuned, and consider joining all the people supporting the channel on Patreon who are making these videos possible (www.patreon.com/PracticalEngineering ). Thanks for watching!
Yayyyy thank you! This was much too basic. Didn't really learn much.
Practical Engineering awesome! I love your channel!
Really happy that you are doing a series on this topic.
I want to see a detailed information on the transformers & those brown colored discs attached to the cables in series...
CZcams borked on the hyperlink to the patreon because of the closing parens. Try putting a space after the URL and before the parenthesis.
Thanks for the great video! I look forward to the next ones
I love hiking power line trails! They are a great opportunity to see the contours of the earth over long scales and the blasting exposes the underlying geology too!
B-but.... muh flat earth and s*iet.
Taylor, So you get a buzz out of following power lines? So you get geared up to string along with the cables that transform your effort into live, energizing, powerful experiences?
@@VeganSemihCyprus33 -- You must be fun at parties.
They are a pretty good navigation tool for visual Flight Rules pilots too!
@@dewiz9596 Valid point
As someone that works in the power delivery industry as a consultant, great introductory video and I can't wait to see the next videos you release on the subject. I hope you dive into the SCADA/communications side of things, along with protective relaying concepts, as that's where a lot of the smarts in the smart grid take place. These days utilities want to be able to monitor and control every minute aspect of the grid.
@@VeganSemihCyprus33 Uhh, if you want electrical vehicles be as ubiquitous as ICE vehicles are currently, you will need those around. Yes, even bicycle productions need those.
Unless you want everyone to go back to subsistence farming, which I can assure most people don't, blind "degrowth" is not a good idea.
Hello can chat in person
Something that might go unnoticed that I appreciate about your videos is the clear delineation between content and ad.
The "smooth" segues that many CZcamsrs seem fond of these days come across as really disingenuous, almost deceitful, so I appreciate the breath of fresh air.
*RING RING*
Utility company : Hello?
Guy : Yes Hi...
*CAN I PLUG IN MY LAPTOP?*
Utility company: We are experiencing high demand, could you wait 30 minutes?
Guy : Uhh *No*
*Plugs in laptop*
*Entire grid shuts down*
This is one of the cleanest, most straight-forward explanations of the grid and some of the challenges that come in trying to run it. This piece is so difficult to understand in the energy discussion--thank you for providing this understandable explanation!
I work at an aluminum smelter. We have a clause in our contract for power modulation. The grid operators can pull power off the plant or give us a bit extra to balance out peak and surplus load condition. It's actually pretty cool to see how this works on supplier side.
@6:17 "The light from the screen you are watching now was a drop from the turbine or a breeze from the windmill just micro seconds ago" . Mind blown!
As a Electrical Distribution System Operator.... I couldn't have said it better!! Great job!
Power system controller here! Wonderfully done video, so nice to see it handled properly! well done Grady!
Name checks out.
Why is California paying let's say Nevada to take away their excess power?
I just don't see how a power grid can be overloaded.
It’s based off of demand. California for the most part has a little bit of surplus power makers and needs to use it sometimes so they deliver it elsewhere. You can’t over supply the grid or else you could have serious problems.
Texas is experiencing a very bad grid failure right now 😩
Australian energy engineer here. Thanks for the video. Nowadays, we can generally forecast variations in renewable energy resources with similar precision and accuracy to demand prediction. There are several ways in which variation of renewable energy can also be smoothed; passively using geographic diversity of generators, or actively using demand management and storage.
No need Radio. Wind and solar are too expensive per Kw/H compared to traditional base load generation methods.
@@patrickeh696 Incorrect. New build utility scale wind and solar are now significantly cheaper than new build coal, gas and nuclear on an LCOE basis, even when taking storage into account. This is because after capital expenditure, they have virtually zero fuel and maintenance costs. Capital costs of renewables continue to decline rapidly.
At the present time, the cheapest route on the electricity market roadmap is to keep baseload generators running until the end of their technical lifespan, and then replace them with renewables.
Also the unit is kilowatt-hour, not kilowatt per hour.
@@RadioTrefoil WRONG. That is why you don't see power companies dropping solar and wind for the others. The Market is ALWAYS Right. Go back to school.
@@RadioTrefoil the problem with solar and wind is storage, you cannot store the load of a grid even with huge battery installation on a macro scale. On a windless winter evening your whole electricity production from renewables shuts down at the peak load time meaning you need to keep a huge amount of fossil/nuclear capacity on standby to pick up the demand. That in turn increases the costs of renewable energy.
The capacity factor of renewable energy for solar, at least in the UK is a shocking 11% roughly and wind barely breaks 35%. When you consider coal sits around 40-45% and nuclear is up at 75% you see how inefficient renewables are.
Ironically gas and oil capacity factors are low because those plants tend to just sit there doing nothing until they either have to pick up peaks in demand or your renewable energy isn't producing. That's why you have to factor cover costs into renewable energy pricing as just putting up a solar farm is only a fraction of the overall costs.
Oh and offshore wind costs a BOMB in maintenance costs, I used to work with the UKs largest energy provider a few years ago.
@@patrickeh696 You should absolutely consider running for a seat in the Australian House of Representatives. The LNC could use people like you!
I really liked this video, it is a really good introduction to understand the things we take for granted. Bu I would like to add that until recently there was no such thing as a "smart grid" yet we still had reliable power. Methods like water-pumping stations can be used to instantly react to variations in the load. The variations in frequency of the power network can indicate whether more or less power must be generated.
I'm a power engineer and this is a very good video to explain power systems to people who aren't familiar with them.
I live in Florida and having been through 3 hurricanes I can say I have nothing but admiration and respect for power utility workers. They're the real heros.
I found your videos a few months ago and I have really learned a lot and I appreciate every subject you choose to cover. This channel is a huge blessing to everyone that loves to learn about our world but doesn't know where to start.
Watching this in Texas, to understand how and why so many people had to suffer like this.... Never Again...
It’ll probably happen again
Lol “Never Again” the same slogan used to discuss the Holocaust. Privileged man child.
Electrical Separatists hits different in February 2021.
Mee too
Lil bit on snow shut a whole state down.
Supply regulation and protections infrastructure is a really fascinating area. Brings forth the concepts of reactive power ( VAr), true power vs. apparent power, and the "not that intuitive" problems (with elegantly simple solutions) seen in Grid Protection. You could have an entire sub-series of Practical Engineering just covering the design and manufacture of insulator bushings alone!
Excellent video. I worked in process control for over 20 years and many of my customers were power companies. One of the projects I worked on that is unique to the electrical networks is Sequence Of Events or SOE in industry parlance. The purpose of SOE is to tack changes in the electrical network down to the millisecond level: One purpose of SOE to track events in an outage or incident to analyze cause and effect.
One very interesting and quite challenging analysis I worked on was to model the Arizona electrical grid as a mathematical matrix using Spice (A software package) and the generators were modelled as voltage sources and the users were modelled as loads and I had to determine (1) Which lines and power sources, if lost, would force the grid out of its spec (5% at the time) in either frequency or voltage. We also had to analyze power factor issues.
i’ve just discovered your videos and i have to say… i am smitten with the quality, pace, and timbre of your didactic sessions. amazing. i will be bingeing your videos, and consuming roughly 21W doing so ❤
I'm an Electrical Engineer and I've never been so proud of power grids. Till date, I considered this power grid tech to be mediocre but the way you explained the three important tasks made me realize that I was wrong. Wow! Who knew a lot of complexity is involved in the supply and demand sector of power grids. Thanks again for this wonderful video.
Regards from India.
Great video Grady! My dad looked after IT operations of many power generation, transmission and distribution companies across many countries, and man Power Grid management is a much tougher job that many people believe it is! Power Grid managers don't celebrate new years, as they're working 24x7 at that time ensuring you get uninterrupted power supply when celebrating new year!
You could've added some SCADA diagrams so that people could understand how too large it could get!
Sarvesh Karkhanis, I'd be interested in hearing more about that. It seems to me that there are any number of things that could go wrong that having a human eye on would be critical for? Especially as the corrective response would need to be insanely quick.
While I agree that there are plenty of jobs that require human attention even in a modern grid (e.g. managing the digital infrastructure), I would argue that issues requiring corrective response that is "insanely quick" are exactly those we should and do resolve using computers.
Software is great at managing repetitive, predictable tasks where the desired output from any given input can be derived using a defined algorithm. Where computers fall short is in the realm of creativity and intelligent choice (although computer AI and deep learning have come a long way). Computers/robots are fantastic at augmenting our workflows, but in general, they're not about to replace humans in most environments (unless your job is predicable and repetitive).
Wow sir you covered a LOT. Memories of my many classes in university were brought up as I was watching. Easily the best comprehensive 10 mins material on the power grid. Keep it up!
As a French Canadian, I am so glad to hear Québec pronounce correctly. Even most Canadians cannot get it right, let alone the Americans. You have made my day!
Tres bien, et il ne pas de quoi!
Please do a video on nuclear power. And maybe mention thorium reactors if you can. The more people become familiar with nuclear and understand the misconceptions about it, the better.
If you're passionate about fostering the growth of nuclear fission energy, you have a much bigger task ahead of you than "informing the ignorant public." There's a serious problem in the pro-nuclear community.
I am very active in tracking the progress of renewable energy & nuclear -- & I think that nuclear fission plants can be a really useful part of the solution; one which also includes robust battery technology & extremely cheap renewable energy.
I have absolutely no objection to nuclear power... the trouble is, the community of pro-nuclear people make me fucking _hate_ nuclear power whenever I'm talking to them. Your community has a serious problem with its ability to communicate its message. Y'all tend to come across as condescending & often fanatical; dismissing the promise of any other technology & hyping nuclear beyond all rationality. Nuclear supporters often tend to act as though they assume that anyone who isn't 100% on board with them is ignorant, stupid, or illogical.
If you want more people to support nuclear, you guys need to work on your messaging & likeability. Because as is, there's an awful lot of people running around being aggressive assholes & making your ideas seem less & less appealing.
Bakers Tuts, I agree with you 100 percent. I live near a old but operational nuclear energy facility, and I love it. I don’t like it when people think that nuclear energy emits smoke. In my opinion, it’s an easy and great way to create energy. As long as it’s done correctly.
Dr. Zoidberg renewable energy is no way to build a reliable grid for a large population. Anyone who actually works with grids for the modern world knows this, anyone who makes renewable a significant portion of their grid had better be willing to live in a place where there will be blackouts and expensive power ... that’s a fact.
EmperorJuliusCaesar the uk had blackouts a year ago, Australia also had blackouts. Renewable energy is not reliable for the type of consumption western households expect
@@dr.zoidberg8666 -- that is some really good insight regarding the New Nuke Fanbois. I am a US Grid Level Electrical Engineer and have watched the rise of this weird combination of arrogance and ignorance about a topic most of them have no in-depth knowledge, but yet such weird passion. Following through the FUD around New Nukes and the dis-information about Renewables, I have mostly traced it to some "Star Trek" level nonsense from an Informercial Movie called "Pandora's Promise" and another Nuke Salesman named Michael Shellenberger. These are funded and paid (by Nuke promoters) operators who intentionally go around and lie to the public -- like old time Cigarette Sales -- to promote Nuke Designs that do not even work, and make up and spread lies about Renewables. Has been weird to watch. Here is a backgrounder on FUD >>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt
You have a bright halo around your head in this video... (on energy and light.) Thank you for sharing your practical knowledge 🙏✨
I'm the IT/OT System Admin for a small distribution coop in East Texas. This was a great video to introduce the complexities of grid operations and I hope to see more! Great job Grady!
I'm a retired power system dispatcher ( or Regional Operator in our company's terms). You've put together an excellent series here. It brings a complex system into the realm of understandably of the average non electrical person. Thanks for putting together an excellent series.
Based on the current events ongoing in Texas, could you do a video on how power plants/power grids winterize in preparation for inclimate weather like winter storms?
That would be a easy one ! Because they don’t ! Excuse my cynicism
I NEED to know what happened here. Please ...... 😩🥶
@@tararoy7489 natural gas pipelines where the main energy source, it was burned in power plants to generate electricity, froze. It was not really about the transmission side, these things work in low climates too, more about the generation.
He made a video today about it if y'all are still interested
@@Mikeological thanks I just saw it
great topic and nice video, but I had hoped for it being much more in-depth! maybe you could do a series?
Loved this wonderful introduction. And it's great to hear you're doing a series on this. Here are a few more topics I'd like to see covered:
1. More about how the stability of the grid is actually achieved.
2. The impact of the growth of sustainable energy (like home solar) and it's impact on the management of the grid.
3. Emerging energy storage options (for example, I know South Australia has a massive Tesla battery that's helped their state's grid. What are the positive and negatives of this?
4. Discussion of climate change and how our response to that challenge will change our energy use.
Congrats on 1,000,000 subs! Well deserved, your videos do a great job of making all types of engineering simple to understand and entertaining.
In the UK there are two tv shows that cause hugh demands at particular times, because they are planned the grid copes by turning on redundant power sources 5 minutes before the demand, coping with the sudden load. In Scotland and Wales there are two each, Stored power, hydropowered dams. When they know there is going to be a sudden surge they open the valves and let the water flow. Any wind turbines that are in a high wind area are also turned on to match the capacity of the sudden load, that's why you should have 50% more turbines than are required at normal load times.
In Scotland we are almost 100% green, we will have one green power station, and the rest, wind and water, and we export to england yet still pay for their imported fuel, ironic really.
When you are a power engineer and see one thermoelectric plant from your country - 05:05 CET SUD COLTERM , Timis county Romania !
I spotted that too. Thought it was Bucharest, though. Nice catch.
One of the best power grid videos I've seen! Great job. You could probably do a whole series on just this covering the different things you see out on poles, what they do, etc. I would also love to learn even more about load-matching operations. Mainly how generation is adjusted to match. Great work as always!
The consistency in the quality of your material is admirable. Every single new video is an instant watch for me. Cheers!
2:13 - the dude standing on the solar panel and bending it made me flinch.
love your work keep it up.
i often think of this as a necessary knowledge in case of the worst happening. people that build and run these, are an underappreciated, not talked about type of people. great video btw
I used to work in this business, doing all those complex software calculations, etc. but I still enjoyed the video a lot! Good job.
I was interested in seeing how the various generators, particularly those at different sites, synchronise the phases with each other, but it doesn't get covered.
Yeah, I also want to know how do the generators maintain the constant frequency of the generated voltage. Hope to see a video on it in the future?
I live along the Mexican border, and there's a connection at my town between the Texas and Mexican grids, so that power can be imported/exported between them in emergencies. The trouble is that the grids are both 60 Hz but not in sync. There is a city-block-sized plant full of ABB equipment that somehow does the synching. I'd love to know more.
The synchronization is done when the unit connects to the grid. It matches the system frequency, phase and voltage. This is done with two pieces of equipment. The voltage regulator takes care of the voltage matching. It makes sure the voltage of the system is within a certain tolerance of the voltage of the generator. The governor controls the speed of the turbine and can therefore control the frequency and phasing of the generator's voltage waveform. Once all three quantities are within their tolerances, the logic allows the breaker to close in and connects the unit to the system.
It's very much like a small car pulling up along side a semi truck pulling a huge load. Once it has match the speed and direction of the semi, you could connect a chain and the small car could begin assisting the semi in pulling the load down the road. It's not a 100% perfect analogy but it's close.
@@TechBuild i replied to Tony Rule with a short description of the process.
@@MikeV8652 It's likely a DC inter-tie. In that case it's converting one side into DC which is a common means of connecting asynchronous grids together but allow them to transfer power. There are several DC inter-ties along the border of Texas.
Watching this from Houston, massive power outage
Fortunately, I have a standby generator which was able to operate during the power outage. I'm sort of afraid just what will happen when the natural gas supply is shut off because the compressor stations are shutdown, and my generator engine is starved for fuel.
So appreciate this video as the city where I am just experienced an energy conservation notice. I learned that so many of my neighbors do not understand the why of such events or rolling blackouts to protect the grid. Any videos in this area have been very helpful.
In Czech Republic we have "HDO" where distributing company superimposes higher frequency signal to standard 50Hz and can remotely control some non critical equipment such as boilers and storage heaters. I don't know exact requirements, but then your power consumption is divided into two sections - high tariff and low tariff (sometimes called "night current"), each with different pricing. People usually connect some kind of indicator to low tariff circuit so they know they're running lot tariff and usually turn on dishwashers and washing machines to save some money.
Also you should talk about district heating at some point. Its a cool technology that I think more people should know about.
Who's here after Texas' power grid just pooped itself?
Here from Houston. We're the energy capital of the world & still don't know how I went 36 straight hrs without power & close to 55 hrs total from last M-T afternoon
@@lnss8775 It's simple, there are three national power grids: The Eastern United States, The Western United States, and Texas. Go Texas! Energy capital of the world!
Houston here 🙋🏽♀️ Grady, can you make a video explaining what went wrong here in Texas? Strictly from an engineering point of view. PLEASE!! 🥶
@@lnss8775 I would love for Grady to explain the failure. I feel your pain fellow Houstonian. 🥶
@@tararoy7489 He probably just watched Fox, cnn, MSNBC, abc, cbs or some other national news and bought what he was sold not realizing all media outlets lied to the entire country and tried to minimize what happened here in Houston. I told my family if u weren't here to actually experience it then u literally have no idea how bad it was
I stumbled onto your channel and loved it. Thanks Grady. I am a mechanical engineer (who else would watched and subscribed to your channel lol), already knew some of the stuff that you were talking about but still enjoyed watching you explaining them and demonstrating them in very entertaining ways.
A side benefit to the electrical grid is hydro workers often travel to areas where there are emergencies. In 1998 during an ice storm in Quebec workers from the northeastern US and from across Canada came to help with the rebuild. As well Canadian hydro workers went to the US during an emergency a few years ago.
The "smarter" the grid, the more "hackable" it is. Scary stuff.
@@Buffalo_Soldier "Truth is everything can be hack-proof."
This is probably the single most ridiculous statement I have read in a long time..
How does he keep constantly making such fascinating videos?
He is an Engineer. It's basically two steps away from literally God 🤣
@@Red-Eyed_Black_Cave_Hamster what's that got to do with anything?
@@Sillimant_ gay sex
@@Sillimant_ a lot... please like and subscribe! Don't forget a thumbs up either!
I actually found this particular Video rather dry compared to previous Work. Do not understand what you were so fascinated by.
As a side note, the distance between the large scale dams in northern Québec and the small scale dams down south means that they would be out of phase with each other if they were all plugged into the network directly. There's several substations between the dams up north and the load centers down south which convert the power to DC and then back to AC. This effectively splits the grid into several smaller grids. The Québec grid has a number of interconnections with the north eastern US and there are similar DC-AC-DC converters on those power lines. One of the big advantages is that during the last big blackout in the north east, the cascade of failures was effectively stopped by those converter stations. That is something which probably should be implemented in the US to make the grid more reliable and prevent cascading failures.
As an electrical engineer in a distribution system, I still get to know new things in this video. Thanks for sharing knowledge.
“Step down to a more practical voltage” I think a 40kV toaster would save me a lot of time....
@@Ccs4646 heats up the house? Sign me up.
I was thinking I'd melt it self
@@ethansteffes8193 Assuming you could actually put 40kv through the wiring system in your house (which you can't) it would arc out 3-4 inches from your sockets and switches and toast you! So probably not the best idea lol. In any case a toaster doesn't need high voltage, just high current. You could run a toaster just fine on 10-12v provided you could get enough amps into it :-)
Who else is here in 2021 to tell learn about the grid and tell Centerpoint energy where to shove it??
🙋🏽♀️ Me!!
How do you "tell learn?" Typo?
Congrats on 1 million subs! I knew it will come very quickly for such a quality channel.
Finally something that we all can really enjoy!!! I was expecting and hoping that this video would come up... it is one of the most informative!! Really like the part of the "It is been use as it is generated" it is a commodity and a resource at the same time!! Perfect work thank you very much. Best wishes in the future.
Hey Grady! From my construction management related past, I love your videos! As the owner of a video production company, I can see that you are actively improving your production quality, namely though the new use of stock video clips. If I may suggest another easy way that may significantly add production value would be to start including a VERY quiet background audio track. This is subjective but I generally think tutorials with a barely audible background audio track are a bit more fun to watch and listen to. A good few audio resources you might want to check out is sound stripe, motion array, audio blocks, etc.
Food for thought! Keep up the great work!
Could you do a video explaining what happened in Texas from a technical position?
Happy 1mil! I discovered this channel years ago and just amazing content.
Up here in Northern NH we just had a pretty bad winter storm. No power for about 20 hours now... The power grid is the unsung hero of the modern world.
CONCRETE
Wait wrong video carry on
Pykrete. Wait that's better.
That was a pretty _solid_ comment though
Concrete vs pykrete?
it looks like these comments are in tension.
Potato
5:33 I can't imagine being that close to a death trap like that generator today.
@PracticalEngineeringChannel Hi Grady! I would like to drop a couple of suggestions for things you could teach us about = 1)Mass Transit systems like BART here in the bay area, 2)Traffic Control system - the story behind the stoplights not just the one intersection but a whole city wide system. 3) Telecomunication = Phones/Internet/Wide Area Networks. Thanks for the interesting engineering you have told us about already!
Excellent video especially with explaining how it needs to be balanced. Many people don't realize how solar/wind affect the power grid and how difficult they can be to work with. Its necessary for average people to know this because they are the ones that influence policy.
The UK has a very complex grid as we have lots of renewable power generation already with much more on the way. We've recently gone over 7 days in a row without using coal to generate power and we have the world most expensive nuclear plant being built with more in the pipeline.
Add to that the fact that the UK is also hugely connected to the European and Iceland energy grids and we have a really complex system considering we're a small country.
The US system is bigger but I think the UK system may beat it for sheer flexibility and ability to adapt.
Yeah you didn't use coal I bet you used gas with the renewables to stabilize the output and then you fired up your coal plant lol
news.sky.com/story/uk-sets-new-record-for-days-without-coal-power-11713755 .
The UK does use gas but we're also blessed with a rather large coastline and some of the most consistently windy seas on the planet and we've built the worlds largest offshore wind farms.
The UK also generates quite a bit of power through waste incineration which while not being carbon free is still better than coal or gas.
I don't think a new coal fired power station would get regulatory approval to be built and all our old stations are due to be retired in the next 20 years or so so we're going to be forced into going as carbon free as we can manage anyway so it's not a question of if but when the UK gets all power from carbon neutral sources.
Worth noting that the connections to other parts of Europe are done via High Voltage dc (HVDC). From to time, it’s useful to have a look at the grid’s performance; this site: grid.iamkate.com/ can be useful. It presents a lot of info over time.
Interesting, I expected that thermal power plants and especially coal ones are slowest to shutdown and start up and that power consumption in summer is higher due to A/C, which is almost becoming necessity (perhaps not in UK which is close to ocean). I can't see completely carbon free future with many countries refusing nuclear power plant and fusion is 50 years ahead (just like 50 years ago).
For example, here in Czech Republic, we have November and December with dull, overcast sky, 40-50 hours of sunshine per month, temperature inversion with no wind at all, fogs and air pollution. We have no big rivers with huge height differences like Norway and it's usually not windy here. Biomass energy has extremely low power density per area. What's left are nuclear power plants, but i'm not sure if we have uranium mines operating today and at least population is not against them in general. I think third or half of our electricity is from burning low grade surface mined coal, third is nuclear, some might be from pumped storage power plants, but these are not producing electricity.
Wanted to hear how the localized transformer is where the amps are produced, but nice video nonetheless. Cheers!
Transformers are rated in VA or volt amps. Raise voltage and the available current drops and vice versa.
@@daveslyker4431 that why in Ontario canada you often see a primary voltate 2.4kv Y connected in high density and/or cities.... however we tend to see more and more 16kv Y because you can push it and delta connected it works great as a sub transmission voltage at 27.6kv
Great video and awesome content as always Grady! Keep it up!
This is amazing, you’re such a great educator. Thanks a bunch.
Me patiently waiting for soft piano beat to start after intro
Mexico is part of North America with its own grid system.
This is an important omission
Excellent presentation and no whacko music. Thank you!
I currently work for the Utilities Board in Iowa in the Safety and Engineering Department so i deal a lot with the transmission and distribution side of power generation. Its definitely a complex industry. We deal all the time with companies trying to out up more transmission lines and a lot of homeowners dislike those lines being so close to their livestock or home.
Hello
1st I guess , I like this one especially since I work in a power station with a 132kv switchyard
Ahmed Salam Sounds dangerous.
In which country? America?
@@brandonbenjamin9452 No.. Iraq.. A 1000 MW power plant powered by GE's Frame 9 GasTurbines
@@AhmedSalam Yikes.. Has any incidents happened while you were monitoring it?
@@junuhunuproductions why there should be incidents?
@@junuhunuproductions Nothing major, blackouts is common but recovery is fast coz gas turbines have short startup time..
@Practical Engineering 1:37 - Mexico is part of North America
J Calhoun Texas has relied on buying electricity from Mexico in the past numerous times.
Leadchipmunk that’s Central America...
@@leadchipmunk6756 Those are "Central America". Only 3 countries make up "North America" and that is Mexico, United States, and Canada.
No one cares.
Texas should watch Practical Engineering.
I find your videos illuminating and informative. Keep up the good work!
Oh, early bird.
... midway writing that my phone got a notification of a new video. I am literally faster than modern technology.
In my country voltage should be 220v but some times I hear the AC screaming and check to see that it's 250-270v and some times the opposite happens; everything dims and the voltmeter shows 190v, that doesn't stay for too long, maybe a minute or so but after that everything blackout.
At the time of writing this video there is no electricity and it's abot 4pm and temp is 32 C° in the shade.
Bassam salim where do you live
Which country you are in
Which country? That voltage fluctuation is unacceptable in most places
Maybe the best educational youtuber going around. Keep up the good work mate.
I work in System Operations for a Transmission Company. I gotta say your video was very good and a nice basic intro to how the grid works. I will say that from our perspective Thermal baseload plants are wonderful things (nuclear is the favorite of most power workers), and renewables like wind and solar make balancing the grid very difficult. A couple fun things to mention: The different North American grids are tied together using High Voltage Direct Current HVDC to transfer power back and forth, Frequency is the main grid balancing measurement and using too much power results in a drooping frequency, quick dispatchable sources are used to correct frequency droops (usually Hydro as it responds faster than any other source).
Just a couple of fun facts for those not in the industry.
5:47 Two people in shock (pun not intended), mouth wide open, not able to speak. 5:51 One of them now has a VR headset.
XD
Ha! Another Vegas user.
Great video very well explained!
A video on Grid Scale Energy Storage would be really appreciated. Thank you!
Awesome video Grady, I learned a lot from this video! Very interesting information and very informative!
1:08 what is that song called?
Following
0:33... "(cant be) used at a later time.
Elon Musk: Hold my rocket.
Great quality video! I can see really put effort into these.
Read information and thank you for taking the time to produce excellent audio quality. Well done, sir.
Didn't say a word about drawbacks of alternating current and high direct current grids
Not the scope of the video. The pros and cons of each are enough for an entire PhD dissertation on their own, let alone an entire CZcams video series.
Ttis a video about grids, there are direct current grids not just AC current
There are very few DC grids out there, and they are tiny. DC transmission was mentioned, but it's still not in the scope of an introductory video to discuss drawbacks of one or the other. That's a topic that deserves its own video, if not its own series of videos.
WHAT? They are huge! Google HVDC. That's the only niche they fit in an AC world, when you need to cover huge distance and losses in AC are too much to ignore
DC transmission lines on an otherwise AC grid, or between distinctly separate, non-synchronized AC grids don't really constitute a DC grid. Lots of specialized equipment to rectify the stepped up AC voltage to DC, then lots of specialized equipment to invert it to AC and sync with the local receiving grid, something in and of itself deserves its own video.
Also, covering large distances isn't their only niche in the AC grid system. They also connect otherwise un-synchronized AC grids (e.g. between countries) or to tie un-synchronized sources to the grid. In both cases, these might result in relatively short runs that would be grossly financially infeasible from the loss-mitigation standpoint.
You are right, it merits discussion, but it's a huge, diverse topic. It would be well-serving to cover these, in their own videos.
The power grid works by harvesting electric eels. Duh!
they milk the angry pixies out of them
We use hamsters driving hamster wheel power generators. Now if only we can keep cats, squirls and monkeys from causing power surges every time they get themselves electrocuted on our power lines.
Thanks Grady, very helpful in aiding my understanding
blown away by the easy to follow style