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The usual candidate for this is aluminium smelters. They are extremely energy intensive: usually operators will only turn them on full when electricity is belo
by daurnimator 11y ago
The usual candidate for this is aluminium smelters.
They are extremely energy intensive: usually operators will only turn them on full when electricity is below e.g. $50 a MW.
The have the added bonus that they can act as a temporary battery: you can smelt extra aluminium to use up the negative energy rates, but then let it convert back again.
- phire 11y agoI thought aluminum smelters couldn't really shutdown production. I remember it was big news in New Zealand when Tiwai Point (which uses 15% of the power nation wide) shut down some of it's production during the 2008-2009 power shortage (caused by a drought in the hydro power lakes. Graph: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Electricity.NZ.TiwaiPoint.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Electric... You can also see the other major drought in 1993.
- NickNameNick 11y agoAn unplanned, no warning shutdown of a smelter would be bad - it ruins the rather large and expensive carbon electrodes used to melt the aluminium. Probably not so good for the crucibles and other equipment that might get frozen up. Planned shutdowns are another matter entirely. In terms of instantaneous interruptible load, wood pulping mills are king. There are some enormous wood chippers in NZ's north island that can be remotely turned on and off by one of the generating companies. some marketing speak here. http://energyforindustry.co.nz/experience/interruptible-load-partnership/ http://energyforindustry.co.nz/experience/interruptible-load...
- phire 11y agoAlso, just about everyone's hot water cylinder in New Zealand is remote controlled by the power company (and has been since the 50's) Allows instant shedding of quite a lot of load in the short term without any visible impact to customers.
- daurnimator 11y agoThey can't just turn the whole plant off; but we were taught they can just be left with a trickle charge to keep them in liquid state. The large energy cost is in driving the reaction forward.