A Balanced Energy Portfolio Is Critical But South Carolina Doesn't Seem to Get It.
Dick Storm responds to a newsletter article from a South Carolina State Senator Tom Davis.
Guest Post from Dick Storm.
Dear Senator Davis,
The excerpt (of your newsletter) below was sent to me via email April 15th. I would like to offer my comments on the importance of coal, gas and nuclear power:
“I have spent the past two years studying how electrical power is generated and transmitted in South Carolina. I believe we must have an all-of-the-above strategy, with nuclear, natural gas, and coal providing baseload capacity, supplemented by renewables. I believe we must be energy dominant.”
My comments:
The advantages of coal power, especially for Santee-Cooper and the low country of South Carolina are many. Here are a few reasons to keep the coal plants in top condition and to consider building the Pee Dee Coal plant near Florence that was improperly cancelled in 2009:
Coal power is dispatchable 24/7.
A coal plant can store energy for several months on site in a coal pile.
Coal power is reasonable in cost.
Coal power is proven and most of the Santee-Cooper Generating assets are in fact, coal power generation at the Cross Generating station.
As I wrote on my blog recently, “Electrifying Everything” is impossible.
The main problem across the USA is the demonizing of conventional generation, including coal, nuclear and gas. I and many others have written on this. Here is an excellent You Tube presentation by a German energy expert:
I posted my recent thoughts on South Carolina Energy Policy on LinkedIn.
Natural gas is currently reasonable in price and clean. However, In my opinion and experience, many utilities, including highly respected Duke Energy have put too much dependence on pipeline supplied primary energy for power generation.
This is a national security risk. If a pipeline is damaged by natural causes or by sabotaging, then the power generation is crippled. A coal plant or nuclear plant can store months of fuel supply on site, and, in the case of nuclear energy, years of primary generation fuel. Gas plants cannot.
A balanced portfolio is best for reliability as well as for minimizing cost volatility when dependent on one fuel history could be repeated. I am old enough to remember the 1973-1974 and 1978 Arab Oil Embargoes. A balanced portfolio of generation is strongly recommended. Keep coal plants in good operational condition.
Coal plants need to have the same fine care and maintenance as has been historically practiced building their great record of reliability. Simply saying keep them undemolished is not adequate. They must be maintained on a regular basis, including periodic replacement of vital components and pressure parts from time to time, including superheaters, reheaters and auxiliary equipment.
Also, it is best if they are run 24/7 and kept in top mechanical condition. The worst thing a coal plant experiences is cold shutdown with exposure to moist air and allowing corrosion to take place inside the pressure parts of the boilers.
Small modular reactors (SMRs)are a great idea. But…
Small means only about 77-300 MW capacity. Santee-Cooper currently has about 3,200 MW between Cross and Winyah plants. It will take dozens of SMR’s to replace this coal power capacity.
Secondly, SMR’s are probably 20 years away from being commercially viable and reliable. The U.S. manufacturing capacity that built the current nuclear fleet is mostly gone. I know, I worked for B&W that designed and built South Carolina’s largest nuclear plant, Oconee. Oconee #1 is about 50 years old now. So is H.B. Robinson (Westinghouse nuclear unit) near Hartsville,SC, also about 50 years old.
Transmission and sharing power with neighbors sounds good. But…
Duke Energy did have rolling blackouts in 2022 and they are likely to have more because they are practicing similar excessive renewables buildout and also shutting down coal plants. South Carolina should keep a strong generation fleet to be energy independent from North Carolina and neighboring states.
Again, for national security, we should keep total power generation capacity as we have had for decades with regional utilities not dependent on power sharing from neighbors. It;s fine to share for economic purposes, but for security, we should have total generation capacity within our state borders. See my blog post on Threats to the Grid: Threats to the Electric Grid, March 15, 2024.
Renewable generation and battery backup is not a viable solution for South Carolina. This was tried by Hawaii Electric using the most technologically advanced battery backup available, and it is insufficient. The Hawaii Electric experience is documented in my blog and others. If South Carolina follows the Biden administration path of net-zero carbon then we in South Carolina could have the same fate as the people of Hawaii.
Also, de-Industrialization, as Germany has experienced, is likely. Renewables (wind and solar) are intermittent generators. They are not dispatchable. Generation is highly subsidized and forced onto the grid when the sun shines and the wind blows….thus backing down generation from reliable coal plants and gas plants and making them less efficieny.
We should learn from other regions in the US and Europe as to the problems of too much intermittent power generation capacity. Here is my blog post on Hawaii’s latest experiences: “Update on Hawaii’s Glimpse of the Future of the Green New Deal” March 20, 2024.
I have written you before and offered to meet with you. Just in case you are interested, so am I.
Yours very truly,
Dick Storm
P.S. By the way, over 50% of the power in South Carolina is provided by old nuclear plants. The HB Robinson and Oconee Nuclear plants started up in the early 1970's and have done an outstanding job of providing reliable, affordable power, Yet, this is not discussed by the Main Stream Media or even by the utilities themselves. In fact, my provider, Palmetto Electric, crows that the upcoming Heritage Golf Tournament will be powered by Green Power.
Consider this 60 Minutes program on vulnerability of the electric grid:
#NetZero #ElectrifyEverything #Electricity #Coal #ClimateChange #NaturalGas #Nuclear
Tom,
You did a nice job on presenting my views of "Conservative" South Carolina energy policy. One more point few people in SC are aware, over 50% of our (SC) electricity is generated by nuclear power. The reasonable rates we enjoy is because of reliable but old nuclear units that have been paid for decades ago. However, replacement will be costly as the folks in Georgia found out with Vogtle 3 & 4.
Hi Thomas, excellent Ss pertaining to energy. Curious to know your professional observations regarding dry steam turbine conversions away from conventional fuels. Including your aforementioned sources in this essay. Considering advancement in deep earth drilling at depths consistent with the required temperature extremely necessary to provide geothermal dry steam powered turbines.
Regards,
ORION