科研之友
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摘要
America%26apos;s 48 contiguous states (and most of Canada%26apos;s population) receive their bulk electricity from three separate electric grids: the huge Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and the relatively small Texas grid (often called %26quot;ERCOT%26quot;). This threefold structure was never centrally planned but grew incrementally, especially during the period 1960-1990. Increasing interconnection has been justified by hopes for improved efficiency and reliability, but it also has downsides, most obviously the risk of widespread blackouts. For recent years. we compare the three grids on efficiency of delivering electricity from generating plants to end users, and on reliability as estimated by monthly customer-hours of power outage (normalized by number of grid customers). %26lt;br%26gt;Over the period 1990-2010, the Eastern and Western Interconnections had similar efficiencies in transmitting and distributing electricity from generators to end users, both persistently better than the Texas grid (ERCOT). Comparisons of reliability were limited to 2007-2010 when outage reporting to the Department of Energy was apparently more valid than in earlier years. For this recent period, the Western Interconnection was freer of outages than the Eastern or Texas grids. Overall, efficiency and reliability were not linear functions of grid size.
- 出版日期2012-8
