Something interesting is that with substantial solar and batteries being deployed in the ERCOT market (in scope grid operator for this piece), solar generation in excess of what the grid can consume with load combined with grid forming inverters (vs traditional grid following) can step in when called upon if a traditionally firmer generator (coal or nuclear) trips out. The potential is already there (photons hitting panels), simply turned down to align with grid demand (curtailment), but if the sun is shining and PV is called upon, curtailment can quickly turn into emergency grid support as long as the sun is shining (I am not familiar how long it takes from ISO signal to inverter command).

It would be cool if individual generators shared this curtailment status/reserve in realtime publicly similar to how ERCOT reports real time generation mix data.

Citations:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40908526

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38848989

I helped write this! The data behind all the graphs in this post is here: https://www.gridstatus.io/dashboards/ercot-nuke-trip-july-20...

If you like grid data, we have a lot more info for the entire country here: https://www.gridstatus.io/live

Where does the 1500MW of heat the reactor is producing go, immediately after the generators are isolated from the grid?

I think the nodal pricing structure in the Texas grid is extremely conductive to an efficient electricity market.

It incentivises the grid-stabilizing deployment of batteries.

Texas is really the market to watch and learn from.

I know Texas wants their independence & politics etc but its a bit silly not to have at least an emergency linkage to the bigger grids around to help catch falls like this. Even a fairly modest 500MW or whatever.

The Texas powergrid is so damn cool.