Anyone have experience with "Peaking" NG Power plants in the neighboorhood?

[keyman512us]

Seems to me there is a Hydro Plant on the Hudson River, it pumps water into a reservoir during low demand times and opens the gates to the turbines during peak times? This some wife's tale? There have to be better alternatives for high NG cost areas. Basically I think the idea is a good one, but could drive the cost up a lot for basic service. If you have moving water I think it's the best source outside of wind for a quick blast of energy. There's a project going on now in New York to use tidal flow for generating electricity, that's creative.

Word gets around about the bear swamp project...lol
I don't know about the hudson river...if they have a pumped-storage hydro facility but we have one here in western Massachusetts. I know some of the history (perhaps Web might know a little more since it's closer to his backyard than mine...lol).
The "Bear Swamp Pumped Storage Project" was first proposed by NEES in the late sixties'...the ball finally got rolling in 1973 to meet the proposed winter demands of 74' & 75'. It's in the same "neck of the woods" as the first commercially operational Nuke Plant in the US (Yankee Rowe-Decom. 1992?). NEES has a 50 year lease with the state, Capacity is 400+ Megawatts. Water is pumped (primarily at night during low demand at reduced $$$ rates) up 1000' and stored until electric demand calls for it to be used.

WHOEVER Dreamed this idea up was a guiness! Someone had the foresight to "counteract" the "eggheads running the show" back in the 1960's... The mentality back (to the 1950's) was that in the future electricity would be so cheap...it should be used for everything. Utilities swore up and down about "cheap electricity" (How many houses of the time were built with electric heat???...Think about it...)

One added benefit to the local economy is "white water rafting"....You wouldn't equate Massachusetts with it..but we got it! lol

 

[littlesmokey]

This might be too simple, but those turbines need to turn. When they turn they generate power, that power has to go somewhere. Makes sense to me to pump some water and use the generator when it has extra and then use the water when the turbines can't keep up with the demand. I'm pretty sure the plant system is successful and really is a positive contributor. Are their other projects like this around? Don't really think all are jokes, but obviously there are some that didn't work.

 

[Gooserider]

I know there are lots of alternatives, not to mention conservation and all the rest, but the immediate concern on my plate is this proposed NG / Diesel plant.

I'd far rather something that ran on a less limited resource, ideally one that people would PAY to burn, such as "trash to energy" - indeed I'd even be inclined to tolerate more pollutants from such a facility than I would be from a fossil fuel plant.

Trash to energy is at least sort of carbon neutral, it doesn't use fossil fuel resources, and it takes a load off the landfills. My understanding is that with modern technology it is also reasonably clean.

Energy storage plants like the one mentioned earlier are useful in "time shifting" power production, but they are also not very energy efficient - my understanding is that they only produce about half as much energy as they consume in pumping the water up to the resevouir. The other BIG limitation on this type of facility is that it requires a very specialized site that is hard to come by, so there aren't many that can be built just because there aren't many PLACES they can be built at. (especially on the east coast, the Rockies do have more potential sites, but still not that many)

However, none of those options seem to be on the table at this point. All we are being offered is the Natural Gas plant.

Gooserider