The dirty little secrets of grid tie solar.

There is so MUCH lip on Solar .
I have 6 grids , two Grid tied till I flip switches ,, DO NOT POST ON THINGS YOU DON'T HAVE OR KNOW .
Don't become the problem !!
SLOTH

 

Yeah it's nuts. Australia is the banana republic of nations with large power grids.

 

I set my house up with a critical circuits panel and a main breaker panel. The critical panel is fed with a self consumption solar system, it never back peddles the meter but will use the grid to make up what the solar can't generate. Between the grid feed and the critical panel is a generator transfer switch. My array provides enough power for the critical loads, furnace, wood stove, fridge, well pump and a couple lights. Rarely pulls from the grid on the solar side so if the SHTF, we would have the bare necessities to survive power wise. The grid fed main panel is for luxury items, electric dryer, air conditioning, barn tools, etc. I couldn't justify building a system large enough with enough storage to run every thing off grid, the pay back would be in another lifetime. Cloudy winter days are a struggle but it works and we have some peace of mind to not totally rely on the power company.

 

This makes absolutely NO sense. If the power company shuts down, so does your non-battery backup solar system.

 

You are totally right. They have to keep the generators turning even if you are supplying solar power to your house and they are not supplying you and you are supplying them with power. There is enough slack in the system to handle a few % of the power to be supplied by alternative energy without having extra generators on line that are not supplying power but can pick up the load if a cloud goes by or the wind dies. But at some point with more dependency on solar, etc , the load will be more than the running system can supply the solar homes if they drop off line. Additional generating capacity will be needed to pick up the load. At that point there are two possible outcomes, a brownout or complete shutdown until they can add the needed capacity by starting up additional units. A short time to ramp up diesel or gas turbine but hours for a coal fed steam plant. The second choice is running additional units that operate even if not needed but are available in fractions of a second With no battery backup, you are dependent on the power company or government decision on which choice is made. The cold hard fact is that some one has to pay for stand by equipment, the distribution system, tree trimming and line repair, etc. Thus you have to sell power wholesale, the generating cost and buy retail, cost plus the total cost of operating the system and backups. There is no free lunch at the bar, you have to buy the beer as well.

 

Yep solar and wind need a pilot signal.
Australia seems to think a bunch of passive generation sources will keep the power grid going.