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iso1631yesterday at 8:46 PM4 repliesview on HN

One thing which is needed too is spinning load, the grid depends on having enough inertia to maintain the frequency. Flywheels I assume would do that.


Replies

iSnowyesterday at 9:15 PM

This is being done and it's called synthetic inertia. Just with capacitors and batteries instead of spinning motors.

_whiteCaps_yesterday at 9:18 PM

Caterpillar provides some really neat small scale flywheel UPS - used in places like hospitals where it would be very bad to lose power. They last long enough for the diesel gennies to start up.

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bryanlarsenyesterday at 8:51 PM

Inverters and batteries (or any other DC source) are also very good at doing this.

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defrostyesterday at 9:59 PM

Ignore the clickbait headline here: Australia’s Solar Boom Is Breaking the Grid - Or Is It?

It's a sub 15 minute actual grid engineering for lay public explainer video (I know, I'm not a video fan either)

A better duller title might be: How Australia's Grid is being adapted to Solar Boom

  00:00 Introduction
  01:23 The Problem with Too Much Solar
  03:29 Batteries Change the Economics
  05:40 What the Grid Actually Needs
  07:04 A Cautionary Tale – The 2025 Iberian Blackout
  08:21 Australia’s Secret Weapon – Experience with Weak Grids
  10:08 The Genius Technical Fix – Grid-Forming Inverters
  12:25 The Perfect Partner - Batteries
  12:58 From Mechanical to Software-Defined Stability
  13:42 Conclusion – Fixing the Grid Before It Breaks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qavFbOpt4jA