| 1. |
Which one of the policies below brings in new stresses on the electricity delivery system?
- Regulations that directly shutdown reliable sources of electricity, such as coal and nuclear power, and
- Subsidies and mandates that force increased amounts of unreliable sources of electricity on the grid, such as wind and solar power, and undermine the normal operation of reliable power plants.
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System a |
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Systems a and b |
| 2. |
Access to reliable electricity is a fundamental part of American life. We may take it for granted, but when the power goes out, everything grinds to a halt. Inside the house, we lose everything from the lights, heat pump, refrigerator, television, and Internet to chargers for phones and computers. Outside, the stoplights and street lights stop working. It’s impossible to get any work done inside offices and in factories. In short, our daily lives depend on a reliable source of electricity |
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True |
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False |
| 3. |
Without electricity you _________ pump your gas in a gas station and go anywhere. |
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Can |
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Cannot even |
| 4. |
The U.S. power grid actually consists of |
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Two regions, the eastern and western interconnection |
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Three regions, the Eastern and Western, and the Texas Interconnection. |
| 5. |
The reasons the 2003 black out spread across the Eastern U.S. were |
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Grid operators were slow to realize that agenerator had failed and transmission lines had tripped offline, causing other transmission lines to overload, which, in turn, caused other generators to trip offline, further losing power and exacerbating the frequency collapse. |
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The computer systems, operating the Grids were hacked for ransomware. |
| 6. |
Grid planners and operators go to great lengths to make sure the grid’s delicate supply/demand balance is stable, not just minute to minute, but also five and ten years into the future. In those long-range plans, having enough reliable supply to meet demand in many different situations is key. |
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True |
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False |
| 7. |
Human attacks on the grid are always a threat. However, history shows that their impacts are fairly limited, and harmful attacks are very infrequent. Doomsday scenarios __________________________, particularly from attacks that require sophisticated or military-grade technology. |
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greatly exaggerate the magnitude of human threats |
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are very much possible |
| 8. |
On their face, the point of these regulations is to limit emissions from power plants. However, the administration under President Barack Obama has been openly hostile to coal-fired power plants from the beginning. In 2008, Presidential candidate Obama threatened to bankrupt coal-fired power plants with his cap-and-trade scheme for carbon dioxide. Congress refused to pass cap-and-trade legislation, but Obama’s EPA is having the same effect bankrupting coal-fired power plants by imposing uneconomic regulations and mandating impossible standards. |
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True |
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False |
| 9. |
Regulating power plants assuming that they will comply by employing CCS puts the grid at risk. The New Source Rule’s ban on coal deprives the country of much-needed energy from an abundant, domestic source. Like the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of1978, which banned the use of natural gas and petroleum in electricity generation from 1978 until 1987, this unwise regulation __________________ . |
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should be enforced |
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should be repealed. |
| 10. |
Not only does the wind PTC jeopardize grid reliability indirectly by harming reliable nuclear power as discussed in the course, it also hurts reliability directly by promoting an inherently unreliable source of energy. One of wind energy’s greatest problems is that it fails to provide power during the times when it is needed most. |
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True |
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False |
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