Electric power for communities traditionally comes from very large power stations, burning fossil fuels to make steam to spin turbines. Batteries have for some time been at the far end of the process, powering flashlights and starting gasoline autos. Nowadays, grid services inverters and storage batteries have new roles to play, with addition of green solar and wind power.
The Role of Inverters in Grid Services
The term ‘grid services’ refers to networks of synchronized power providers, and consumers. These interconnect via transmission and distribution lines. Grid operators control these to maintain system-wide balance. Very large power stations continue to be primary providers of the alternating current power that energizes our lives.
However, for a variety of reasons we are now adding an increasing number of wind and solar providers to these grids. But they deliver direct current power, which is incompatible without modification. This service comes from grid service inverters, which essentially switch direct current back and forth very rapidly.
The first inverters appeared in the 19th Century. They were mechanical devices that used spinning motors to switch direct current back and forth. However, nowadays engineers construct inverters using semiconductors, transistors, and solid-state devices. But this does not mean ‘the more we change things, the more they remain the same’.
A ‘New World of Batteries’ in Power Generation.
Grid service operation previously involved switching very large power stations on and off line, prior to global warming. Although they also used open-cycle gas turbines to fine-tune the mix to demand. That’s because we lacked the technology to store bulk electric power for subsequent use. But this all changed when renewable energy arrived.
The third component of bulk energy supply became storage batteries, as necessity became ‘the mother of invention’. So nowadays we can hope to move forward to a greener solution, as grid services, inverters and storage batteries become the new normal in our lives.
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