Electric power is so reliable that we almost take it for granted…until it’s not there. And, society has new expectations of electric power systems. Expectations include integrating renewables and smoothing out their intermittency, and powering electric cars. The link below takes you to an article Dr. Schweitzer wrote for Electric Energy, the magazine of the Rocky Mountain Electric League (RMEL). It helps us get back to first principles, complete with their historical underpinnings.
Our ability to move electric power at the speed of light, over vast distances, adds value to intermittent sources that, on their own, are less dependable. Thus, there is a parallel between combining intermittent sources to make them more dependable and combining diverse loads to serve them with less total generation capacity.
-Dr. Ed Schweitzer