{"id":258556,"date":"2023-05-22T09:31:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T07:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=258556"},"modified":"2023-05-22T09:31:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T07:31:20","slug":"finally-a-solution-to-the-problem-of-intermittent-power-generation-the-virtual-power-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=258556","title":{"rendered":"Finally, A Solution to The Problem of Intermittent Power Generation \u2014 The \u201cVirtual Power Plant\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From MANHATTAN CONTRARIAN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0By Francis Menton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As discussed here many, many times, the big problem with generating electricity from wind and solar sources is that they are intermittent. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don\u2019t. And sometimes they don\u2019t work for days on end. The times when both wind and sun fail at the same time for multiple days tend to be concentrated in the very coldest days of the winter. This poses a huge problem for central planners\u2019 dreams of \u201cnet zero\u201d electricity. Try to solve the problem with grid-scale batteries, and suddenly you\u2019re talking wildly unaffordable costs in the trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to worry. Recently everywhere talk has emerged of a new and seemingly easy solution to the problem of intermittency. Have you heard of it? It\u2019s the \u201cVirtual Power Plant.\u201d I mean, today pretty much everything can be \u201cvirtual\u201d if you want it to be. We have the \u201cvirtual\u201d meeting, the \u201cvirtual\u201d office, and the \u201cvirtual\u201d school \u2014 even \u201cvirtual\u201d reality. So why not a \u201cvirtual\u201d power plant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in the context of generating electricity, what does this business of \u201cvirtual\u201d mean? Don\u2019t you actually need to have something to produce the juice? A Manhattan Contrarian investigation now reveals that the Virtual Power Plant is exactly what you undoubtedly already suspect it to be: another new level of Orwellian doubletalk. \u201cVirtual Power Plant\u201d turns out to be another term for pointless enforced sacrifice in service to the climate cult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have been paying attention, you probably have already noticed that this \u201cVirtual Power Plant\u201d thing is the latest talking point of the central planners. For those who have been paying less attention, let me provide a little sampling: here is the web page from the federal government\u2019s Department of Energy<\/a> (\u201cVirtual power plants, generally considered a connected aggregation of distributed energy resource (DER) technologies, offer deeper integration of renewables and demand flexibility, which in turn offers more Americans cleaner and more affordable power\u201d<\/em>); a recent (2023) Report from the Rocky Mountain Institute<\/a> (\u201cVirtual Power Plants, Real Benefits: How aggregating distributed energy resources can benefit communities, society, and the grid\u201d<\/em>); <\/em><\/strong>a piece from Reuters, January 31, 2023<\/a> (\u201cExplainer: What is a virtual power plant?\u201d<\/em>); <\/em><\/strong>a piece from Elektrek, September 2, 2022<\/a>, informing us that none other than Tesla is in the middle of this new fad (\u201cTesla virtual power plant is rocketing up, reaches 50 MW\u201d).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, then, this VPP thing has something to do with \u201ca connected aggregation of distributed power resources.\u201d What the heck does that mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to get to the bottom of this, I come upon a piece from Utility Dive on May 5<\/a>, and a Report from the Brattle Group with a May 2023 date<\/a>. (You may recognize the Brattle Group as the people who put out the 2021 New York Power Grid Study that I criticized in this post on April 22.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Utility Dive and the Brattle Group start out with excited descriptions of this VPP thing as some magical concoction to defeat the intermittency problem with almost no cost or sweat. From Utility Dive\u2019s summary of the Brattle Group\u2019s conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The net cost for a utility to provide resource adequacy from a virtual power plant is about 40% to 60% less than natural gas peaker plants and utility-scale batteries. Deploying 60 GW of VPPs \u201ccould meet future U.S. resource adequacy needs at $15-$35 billion less than the cost of the alternative options over the ensuing decade,\u201d Brattle\u2019s report said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it gets even more magical. From page 12 of the Brattle Group Report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, a VPP does not even need to generate power.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait a minute \u2014 what is a \u201cpower plant\u201d that doesn\u2019t generate any power? Let us in on the secret! We have to get that by working our way through a model set forth in the Report. In that model, the \u201cVirtual Power Plant\u201d derives its input (if you want to call it that) almost entirely from the following three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart Thermostats. A\/C and electric heating are controlled to reduce usage during peak times. Customer comfort is managed through pre-cooling\/heating. Smart Water Heating. Electric water heaters act as a grid-interactive thermal battery, providing daily load shifting and even real-time grid balancing. Home EV Managed Charging. EV charging is a large, flexible source of load that can be shifted overnight.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s \u201csmart\u201d thermostats, and \u201csmart\u201d water heaters, and \u201cmanaged\u201d EV charging. If I might, let me translate that into layman\u2019s terms. On the coldest days of the winter, when the grid does not have enough power, first we will take the liberty of draining the power out of your EV battery. In the all EV utopia that we envision, you are now stuck at home. Then, we will remotely turn off your heat and hot water. Hey, it\u2019s to save the planet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this vision, the convenience and comfort, let alone the physical safety, of the people are of no importance. No more the American dream, where you can improve your life by hard work. Now it\u2019s to be forced sacrifice to satisfy the jealous gods of the pagan climate cult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one more front in the all-out war against your well-being now being waged by our government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The times when both wind and sun fail at the same time for multiple days tend to be concentrated in the very coldest days of the winter. This poses a huge problem for central planners\u2019 dreams of \u201cnet zero\u201d electricity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":258559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818135,691818154,691818130,691818728],"class_list":{"0":"post-258556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ev","9":"tag-net-zero","10":"tag-renewables","11":"tag-wind-and-solar","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00The-Virtual-Power-Plant.jpeg?fit=833%2C429&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-15gg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":271162,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271162","url_meta":{"origin":258556,"position":0},"title":"\u2018New\u2019 Virtual Power Plants Mean More Draconian Government Demand\u00a0Control","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Democratic civil societies were built on having access to energy as and when their citizens need it. Which tends to suggest that the grand wind and solar transition is as uncivilised and undemocratic as it gets.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate cult\"","block_context":{"text":"climate cult","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-cult"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ORWELL-1984-ANT.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ORWELL-1984-ANT.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ORWELL-1984-ANT.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ORWELL-1984-ANT.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ORWELL-1984-ANT.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":264332,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=264332","url_meta":{"origin":258556,"position":1},"title":"Wind Fails Texas Again","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"One last thing. Beyond the problems of intermittency and unreliability, wind and solar generation is vastly more expensive than natural gas, coal, and nuclear generation. 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And mythical grid-scale electricity storage won\u2019t save them, either. Never to be defeated by facts, reason and logic, wind and solar acolytes are quick to point to a rare occasion when their combined output\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-at-windy-hill.webp?fit=804%2C433&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-at-windy-hill.webp?fit=804%2C433&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-at-windy-hill.webp?fit=804%2C433&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-at-windy-hill.webp?fit=804%2C433&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":274731,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=274731","url_meta":{"origin":258556,"position":4},"title":"Wind Output Plaguing Texas (ERCOT weathers on)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Wind and solar are not reliable enough to maintain grid stability and therefore require dispatchable power sources such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas-powered generation to stabilize the grid. Until sufficient utility-scale battery storage is available, which is unlikely anytime soon due to the cost of current technologies, the ERCOT\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ERCOT\"","block_context":{"text":"ERCOT","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ercot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C631&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C631&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C631&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C631&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C631&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":287576,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=287576","url_meta":{"origin":258556,"position":5},"title":"The Intermittency Problem with Wind Power Generation in Great Britain","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Wind and solar power face what\u00b4s called the intermittency problem. 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