XYLENE POWER LTD.

Due to future constraints on use of fossil fuels, electricity must become the primary means of efficient medium distance transmission of energy.

Clean electricity is electricity that is generated without use of a fossil carbon fuel.

Sustainable electricity is electricity generated by use of fuels which have sufficent abundance that on the time scale of modern human existence the fuels will never be exhausted. Examples of such fuels are deuterium and lithium which might potentially fuel fusion reactions on Earth, and U-238 and Th-232 which can fuel breeding type fission reactions in nuclear reactors. Hydroelectric generation, wind generation and solar generation are all means of capturing energy from solar fusion reactions.

Fossil fuel generated electricity is not sustainable because this electricity source is energy limited both by existing fossil fuel geologic reserves and by accumulation of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere.

Grid supplied electricity can be divided into two portions, firm power which is dependably available and interruptible power which is only intermittently available.

Firm power is generally supplied by multiple synchronous electricity generators that do not have common mode failure mechanisms. A firm power source has at least a 99.7% probability of meeting the total consumer controlled electricity load at every instant in time.

The main sources of firm power are large: hydroelectric generators, nuclear thermal electric generators and fossil fuel thermal electric generators. Generally, the total available firm power generation capacity should be at least 15% greater than the peak consumer controlled electricity load in order to meet the required electricity supply reliability criteria.

Energy derived from the sun via hydropower, wind power or solar power is referred to as renewable energy. Wind power and solar power are intermittent and hence are unsuitable for supply of firm power. Usually wind and solar electricity generators use asynchronous power inverters that rely on other synchronous machines for frequency control and frequency stability. Smaller hydroelectric sites usually exhibit seasonal intermittency whereas very large hydroelectric storage dams can usually provide firm power.

Interruptible power is electricity which is centrally dispatched to the extent necessary to usefully use the instantaneous clean electricity generation capacity which is surplus to the electricity grid's instantaneous firm power load. The interruptible load should be automatically enabled/disabled in real time by a consumer specific control signal from the LDC (Local Distribution Company) or IESO (independent Electricity System Operator). The interruptible load enable/disable signals should be computer generated to fairly allocate the available interruptible power among the interruptible power customers.

The main uses of interruptible electricity are displacement of fossil fuels in hybrid heating systems, vehicle battery charging, irrigation water pumping and electrolytic production of heavy water, hydrogen, aluminum, lithium, magnesium, and sodium.

In the event of an unplanned generation failure the interruptible load enable/disable signals preferentially provide the available generation capacity to the firm electricity consumers.

The main sources of interruptible electricity are unused clean firm electricity generation. intermittent wind electricity generation and intermittent solar electricity generation.

Firm electricity provides the dependable power required by most existing electricity applications, but bears a premium price per monthly peak demand kW measured at times when interruptible power is not available to the consumer.

Interruptible electricity intermittently provides clean energy at the same low price per marginal kWh consumed as firm electricity but bears no peak demand charge.

Interruptible electricity provides consumers clean energy that would otherwse be exported at a low price or curtailed (discarded). The benefits of proper use of interruptible electricity include:
a) Reduced overall energy system costs;
b) Reduced fossil fuel consumption;
c) Reduced overall CO2 emissions;
d) Better alignment between electricity rates and electricity system costs.

Energy storage of interruptible electricity provides dispatchable power that is conditional on prior charging of the energy storage. Bulk energy storage needs dedicated transmission and may need synchronous capacitors. Bulk energy storage is primarily used in power systems that have favorable geography for major hydraulic storage dams.

Short term (4 hour) energy storage can be achieved with batteries, but that energy storage is insufficent for managing seasonal load variations. In many circumstances it is less expensive to provide dispatchable nuclear power than to provide sufficient renewable generation and energy storage to meet worst case seasonal load variations.

The main benefit of consumer owned energy storage is to minimize or prevent load short cycling.

In order to efficiently distribute interruptible power it is necessary to divide the electricity loads at each interruptible consumer premises into two categories, loads which require firm electricity and loads for which interruptible power is sufficient. Appliances that use interruptible power, such as hybrid heating systems, often need an alternate energy source such as a stored liquid fuel in order to operate during periods when interruptible power is not available to a particular consumer.

The apparatus that measures the consumer's monthly dependable power peak demand in kW actually senses total power but ignores the power measurements made during periods when the control signal from the LDC or IESO indicates that the consumer is permitted to draw interruptible power without financial penalty.