NGCP

The problem isn't them poles, or any other type of maintenance, the problem is that there's no redundancy in their grid.
The reason you don't see these regular blackouts in most other countries is not that there's no maintenance needed there (although having all non - high voltage grid lines underground obviously diminishes the need for maintenance to a great extent), but rather that there's redundant circuits. If one section of the grid needs to be shut down, then the redundant circuit takes over for all other areas, so almost no customers will be affected.

 

How does one put spaghetti underground?

 

Very carefully.

 

sigh .... 2 12 hour brownouts in 30 days or so is a bit excessive... been here 4+ years and this is the first time this has happened to me.....

 

LOL is this like "son when I went to school it was uphill both ways" seriously glad I was not here then..

 

I was at Polaris today and I saw that they are selling, under Polaris’ brand name, 335 watt solar panels for 7k each. They advertise how the Palwa hotel in Duma has 100 of them installed for what they rate as a 25Kw power source (about double what a comfortable expat house would need). That hotel just connects to the grid selling unused power back to NORECO II and getting free power while the sun is shining.

What I am thinking is, the power infrastructure here is beset with problems, not due to a shortage of energy but a continuously failing distribution system. The Polaris product does not try to sell you a generation system meant to replace the utility but to save money. Maybe they have a financial case, maybe not.

I will say that this is a place where the infrastructure may never be reliable like the countries you mention. It may turn out that people here will eventually bypass the whole infrastructure with self-power generation, probably using solar.

Of course this idea is very old, going back to the 1970’s Arab oil embargoes. But today things are changing; solar panels are now reasonably efficient and reliable (Polaris has a 25 year warranty...though we depend on them existing that long). Inverter tech is more efficient and low cost. And today we have li-ion batteries whose costs are way down now due to electric cars. Polaris does not sell the batteries, just the panels and inverters.

Li-ion batteries are smaller than the old lead acid but still need lot’s of room in a separate structure for storage. That is probably what holds us back from being completely self-generating. The Polaris display still shows us relying on the grid, which by the way surprised me; are we sure that NOTECO II will allow everyone to connect to their utility and agree to buy back our power? At what price?

I understand that Tesla motors has a much better battery tech now. A different tech than li-ion. Elon Musk is a transformative figure and he releases his technology very quickly.

I have to wonder if the newer modern, cheaper solar tech will be the ultimate answer to power distribution problems here, simply bypassing that old grid in the same way that cellular technology bypassed the landline phones, allowing society to move in progress. My gut feeling is that the power grid will never get up to U.K., US, S. Korea, China and Taiwan reliability. Too expensive now because it has been ignored for so long. The people as a whole may simply turn to self-generation and bid the utility good-bye.


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