Welcome to Grid Brief! Here’s what we’re looking at today: an American breakthrough in geothermal, Korea and Poland team up on nuclear, gas’s alarming performance in PJM during Elliott, and more.

US Geothermal Start Up Claims Breakthrough

American geothermal start-up Fervo has made a breakthrough that may unlock this green technology just in time to firm up decarbonization efforts.

“The Houston-based company wrapped up a full-scale, 30-day well test at its Project Red site in northern Nevada, which was able to generate 3.5 megawatts of electricity, according to a company statement. (One megawatt can power roughly 750 homes at once.),” reports Bloomberg. “Project Red will connect to the grid later this year and power Google's data centers and infrastructure throughout Nevada. It’s a part of the corporate agreement between the startup and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to develop enhanced geothermal systems.”

With the Nevada demo wrapped up, Fervo is going to pivot to its currently under construction Utah site. With power output maximized, Fervo’s Utah project is expected to crank out 400 MW by 2028, according to CEO and co-founder Tim Latimer. The company has already begun permitting and appraising six other sites in the American West.

“The significance of what we've done today is show that that technology actually will work a decade-plus ahead of where people thought we were on the tech roadmap,” Latimer said. “It's not a ‘mid-century’ resource; it's a ‘today’ resource.”

Pursuing enhanced geothermal that expands the variety of sites upon which it can be built has been a scientific white whale since the 1970s. Fervo seems to have cracked the code. But beyond the technical challenges, geothermal faces serious obstacles in America’s electricity markets, which tend to run baseload plants out of town.

Korea and Poland Team Up on Nuclear

Korean and Polish construction firms are partnering up to build nuclear power.

“Among the agreements signed during a Polish-Korean business forum on 14 July was a memorandum of understanding between Poland's KGHM Polska Miedź SA and South Korea's Samsung C&T Corporation on the implementation of low and zero-emission technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs),” reports World Nuclear News. “Daewoo Engineering & Construction signed an MoU with Polish construction firm ERBUD to carry out new projects in the country, including the construction of nuclear power plants.”

According to the memorandum of understanding, KGHM, a producer of copper and silver, and Samsung C&T plan to establish a specialized working group. This group will comprise representatives from both companies and will focus on exchanging information and conducting analytical work in specific project areas.

Share Grid Brief

We rely on word of mouth to grow. If you're enjoying this, don't forget to forward Grid Brief to your friends and ask them to subscribe!

Gas Accounted for 70% of Unplanned Elliott Outages

Staggering news from PJM’s recent report on what happened during Christmas storm Elliott last year: nearly a quarter of PJM’s capacity went unexpectedly offline during the storm. Natural gas accounted for 70% of those outages.

“Generators that failed to meet their capacity obligations during Winter Storm Elliott face about $1.8 billion in non-performance charges, representing 45% of the nearly $4 billion in capacity revenue for this capacity year, according to the report,” Utility Dive reports. "For the roughly 750 resources facing the penalties, the non-performance charges represent 83% of the nearly $2.2 billion they earned in capacity payments for the year, PJM said. Power plant owners are challenging the penalties at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.”

Most of the equipment failures were caused by the punishingly cold weather on December 23 and 24. “This level of generation outages was unprecedented and not anticipated,” PJM said.

PJM did not suffer blackouts, but these outages demonstrate challenges common across American power markets. Over reliance on just-in-time natural gas can fragilize the system, especially when paired with an abundance of intermittent resources and over-dependence on neighbors for imports. Meredith Angwin calls this cocktail of issues the “Fatal Trifecta.”

Conversation Starters

• Renewables founder in South Africa—again. “Nearly half of the projects awarded under the re-launch of South Africa's renewable power purchase programme have failed, two government sources told Reuters, undermining plans to use wind and solar to ease the nation's power crisis,” reports Reuters. “Regular breakdowns at state power utility Eskom's ageing coal-fired plants mean the continent's most developed economy faces daily planned power cuts. President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the country needs to fill a 4,000 to 6,000-megawatt (MW) electricity production deficit.”

• China is confident in its grid’s integrity this summer. “China is confident it can get through a hot summer of record temperatures and soaring power demand without experiencing major blackouts, authorities say. Coal reserves at coal-fired power plants were at record-high levels as of the end of June, according to Jin Xiandong, a spokesman for the country’s top planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC),” reports Oilprice.com. “Last year, China experienced power outages as a heatwave depleted hydropower reservoirs and coal prices were at record highs. Power cuts were enacted in some parts of southwestern China. Back then, the outages led to factory shutdowns and declines in manufacturing production in August, which further weighed on the weak economic growth in China last year. The drought and heat waves were so extreme that the major hydroelectricity-generating province of Sichuan ordered all factories to close for days to help ease the pressure on the power supply.”

• Gasoline inventories are improving. “U.S. gasoline inventories have been rising following a low this year of 216 million barrels (8% below the previous five-year average) on May 26. East Coast (PADD 1) gasoline inventories account for most of the national inventory growth despite refinery unit outages that are limiting regional gasoline production,” reports the EIA. “Relatively high gasoline prices on the East Coast and falling freight rates are driving U.S. imports from Europe, which is increasing regional inventories.”

  

Nuclear Barbarians

Crom’s Blessing

Interested in sponsoring Grid Brief?

Email [email protected] for our media kit to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.