New transmission line put into service just in time
FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:
As bad as the heat was, and as problematic as the Peak Rewards cutoffs were for many on Friday, things could have been worse. As it happened, the PJM Interconnection, the 12-state power grid that serves Maryland, had just (in May) put the new Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL) into service, bringing in added power from Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. PJM says the 500-kilovolt line made an extra 1,000 megawatts available to I-95 cities that was not available last summer.
(PHOTO: Rob Carr, Getty Images)
Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:00 AM | Permalink
| Comments (1)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Heat waves
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Heat waves
Comments
Before we all start cheering, let's review why TRAIL exists. Constellation burns coal for more than half their generated electrical power, and that is not legally possible in MD or NJ so they do it in WV and ship it over- with all the attendant losses of distance.
The real answer is discarded, unused, safe nuclear technologies like Pebble Bed. Unfortunately our most tested, most known nuclear technologies were originally designed to provide toxic Plutonium for our weapons systems, and are not designed safe, only engineered "safe". Ed Teller campaigned for truly safe reactor designs that are still possible today, but current US investment in less safe designs stands in the way.
Posted by: Ken Marsh | July 27, 2011 9:04 AM