Darrell Ross

The second scenario in my analysis section looks at power supplied by 140MW of wind (purple), 50MW of solar (yellow), 50MW of ocean–wave (blue), and 64.3MW of biomass (green). This scenario leaves out the fossil fuel (brown) and the transmission (red). A one week run of the model in the summer from Sunday July 1, 2008 through Saturday July 7, 2008 is shown below.

July 1, 2008 through July 7, 2008 power supplied where purple is wind, solar is yellow, ocean-wave is blue, and biomass is green. The black curve at the top is power demand.

December 14, 2008 through December 20, 2008 power supplied. The high winds really help in the winter.

As you can see, without more biomass or another way of compensating for the intermittency of wind, solar, and ocean-wave power, a purely renewable portfolio for Humboldt County would not be adequate.

Please ask me questions if you like. I’d be happy to answer them.

I have split the analysis section of my thesis into three scenarios. The goal of the first scenario is to demonstrate how the current power system meets electricity demand in Humboldt County. 

I ran the model for 7 days (168 hours). The plot above shows power supplied where green was supplied by biomass plants, red by transmission lines (imported power), and brown by fossil fuel powered plants (Humboldt Bay Power Plant).

The maximum output of the biomass plants combined with maximum imported power over the transmission lines cannot meet peak demand. This depicts the way the Humboldt Bay Power Plant, which is natural gas fired, must ramp up and down to meet the peak demand.

The biomass plants were run at 75% capacity with a maximum output of approximately 38MW. The transmission lines were run at 75% capacity with a maximum import of 52.5MW. So biomass + transmission = 90.5MW. 

Percentage of time that each load occurs.

If we look up where 90.5MW falls on the above load duration curve, it looks like the Humboldt Bay Power Plant must be running close to 100% of the time which is good since turning the plant on and off is likely not feasible in a short period of time.

I am elated to see that my model accurately depicts the way I believe the current power system works in Humboldt County. I have left out power supplies that are less than 1MW of which there are several.

Rough draft of my write up of my thesis will be done very soon. Yipee!

I attended the IEEE PES PSCE 2009 (that’s the International Electric and Electronic Engineers Power & Energy Society Power Systems Conference & Exposition 2009 – yikes!) last week in Seattle, WA. I had a great time talking with various engineers and looking for possible job opportunities.

I attended a panel session concerning University & Industry Cooperation where the primary concern seemed to be a lack of Power Engineering graduates in the USA. There was some discussion on the industry side about creating more interest in the field to encourage students to get PE degrees; the University professors responded that there was plenty of interest but many students were intimidated by the calculus classes and changed majors at that point.

I think the Power Engineering Companies are just looking in the wrong place. Why not look for students who have completed applied math degrees? I am finishing up my MS in Math Modeling. Coupled with my BSCE, I can design and then code complex algorithms with ease. A PE graduate will still need months of on-the-job training. I bet I can learn the job nearly as quickly as a PE student. Perhaps not as fast but when the PE student’s learning curve tapers off, mine will keep going. I can surpass the basic level material and quickly progress onward without having to take extra math classes in stochastics, etc.

In addition to math students like myself, there are a whole host of fledgling programs out there in some form of renewable energy. At Humboldt State University, it’s called Environmental Resource Engineering (ERE) and the people that finish their MS degrees in ERE are already building small power systems – solar, micro-hydro, wind, etc. They have to take engineering math courses and many of them are involved in undergraduate research projects on power efficiency, hydrogen fuel cells, and more.

So my message to power companies is to look outside the box. There are plenty of graduates available for you. You’re just missing them because they don’t have the PE label on them. I am one of them but I’m aware of the situation so I’ll be working for one of you soon.